Ian Hart

Ian Davies (born 8 October 1964), better known by his stage name Ian Hart, is an English actor. His most notable roles are Rabbit in the Channel Four drama miniseries One Summer (1983), Joe O'Reilly in the biopic Michael Collins (1996), Professor Quirrell in the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), Ludwig van Beethoven in the film Eroica (2003), Kester Gill in the E4 series My Mad Fat Diary (2013–2015), and Father Beocca in the BBC/Netflix series The Last Kingdom (2015–2020). Hart was born Ian Davies[citation needed] in the Knotty Ash district of Liverpool on 8 October 1964. He has two siblings and was brought up in a Catholic family. He attended Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in Liverpool's West Derby suburb and was a member of the city's Everyman Youth Theatre in his earlier years, before studying drama at the now-defunct Mabel Fletcher College of Music and Drama in Liverpool's Wavertree district. From 1988 to 1991, he studied video production at South Mersey College (now part of Liverpool Community College). Hart was active in theatre through the 1980s, most notably in Pinocchio Boys by Jim Morris, a Paines Plough/Liverpool Playhouse touring production in 1986, and Willy Russell's Stags and Hens at the York Theatre Royal in 1985. He portrayed a POUM militia volunteer in Ken Loach's Spanish Civil War film Land and Freedom (1995) and an unemployed Liverpool shipyard worker in Liam (2000). His best-known role, however, is perhaps that of Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). He also provided the voice of the CGI-generated face of Lord Voldemort.