as Tywin Lannister
Character Overview: Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannisport and Warden of the West, Tywin is a calculating, ruthless, and controlling man. He was happily married to Joanna Lannister, a cousin, but she died in childbirth while delivering his son Tyrion, and he took no other wife. He loves his children Jaime and Cersei, but despises Tyrion for being deformed and causing his beloved Joanna’s death, as well as shaming the family name with his frequent whoring. – Wikipedia
Recent Events: Tywin spends the first half of the War of the Five Kings waging a series of battles against Robb Stark, the separatist and so-called “King in the North”. He sends Tyrion to King’s Landing to serve as Hand of the King in his stead after Ned Stark’s beheading while Tywin himself organizes his forces from the haunted keep of Harrenhal. (During this time, he inadvertently employs Arya Stark as his cupbearer.) Tywin arrives at King’s Landing at the last second to save his family from Stannis Baratheon’s assault on Blackwater Bay. He reassumes his position as Hand of the King and forces Tyrion to marry Sansa Stark in order to solidify the Lannister crown’s hold on the North. He also attempts to force Cersei to marry Loras Tyrell to further cement political alliances with the powerful Highgarden family, but Cersei resists (in part because she is in love with her twin brother Jaime). Instead, following from marrying Tyrion to Sansa, Tywin arranges for King Joffrey to marry Margaery Tyrell, who was previously betrothed to Renly.
Simultaneously, Tywin arranges an alliance with the Boltons and the Freys to assassinate Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn at a political wedding between Catelyn’s brother Edmure Tully and a Frey daughter. This event garners the name “the Red Wedding” and is widely regarded as the end of the War of the Five Kings, with the Boltons breaking Theon Greyjoy’s hold on Winterfell (thus disrupting Balon Greyjoy’s plundering of the North) and Renly having been assassinated by one of Melisandre’s mysterious shadow agents at Storm’s End. Things go awry almost immediately afterward for Tywin. First, Jaime returns from his Stark captivity along with Brienne of Tarth, and is resilient to his father’s desires both to see him return to the Kingsguard and to return to Casterly Rock to rule in Tywin’s stead. Then, Joffrey is poisoned at his wedding; his last act is to point to Tyrion, who is considered the primary suspect in the murder. Tywin allows a full trial for Tyrion, who eventually calls for trial by combat, which goes poorly due to the hubris of his champion, Oberyn Martell.
Jaime eventually helps Tyrion escape from his execution; during his escape, Tyrion sneaks into his father’s bedchamber and murders both Shae (whom he finds in Tywin’s bed, a final act of betrayal in his eyes after a contentious week for both of them) and then Tywin, whom he finds on the chamber pot. Tyrion shoots him down with several crossbow arrows before making his escape from King’s Landing.
Actor Bio: Tall, sandy-haired British actor Charles Dance trained for a career in graphic design at Plymouth College of Art and Leicester College of Art. Dance developed a taste for the theatre by listening to the reminiscences of two elderly actors who ran a pub in his Dover neighborhood. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at the age of 29, and made his first film, the James Bond picture For Your Eyes Only, six years later. Dance’s widest professional exposure came in 1984 when he appeared in The Jewel in the Crown, a 14-part British TV production seen in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theatre. Charles Dance’s best-remembered performances have been as D.W. Griffith in Good Morning Babylon (1987); the role of Meryl Streep’s husband in Plenty (1985); the title part in the 1990 TV adaptation of Phantom of the Opera; and the displaced “imaginary” villain in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Last Action Hero (1993). – Starpulse
Dance remains prolific both during and after his appearances on Game of Thrones; recent films include Dracula Untold (2014) and The Imitation Game (2014), as well as appearing in the television series Strike Back. He will give voice to a character in the upcoming video game Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and will also be appearing in the upcoming film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies alongside fellow Thrones cast member Lena Headey. –IMDb
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