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David Hargreaves (born 2 February 1940) is an English actor, active on stage and screen, as well as radio drama, he is best known for his television drama roles in the 1970s and 1980s set in the north of England, and as a presenter on BBC children's television of the same period.

Hargreaves was born inNew Mills,Derbyshire, and attended Glossop Grammar School (becameGlossopdale School in 1965).^[1] He trained as a science teacher, atCity of Leeds Training College, and at theCentral School of Speech and Drama.

Hargreaves worked as a supply teacher at Rising Hill Comprehensive School in Islington, before joining theRoyal Shakespeare Company to play in the firstThe Wars of the Roses Cycle of plays in 1963/65. He played Hotspur inHenry IV part 1 and Leontes inA Winters Tale for the North East Shakespeare Festival run by Joseph O'Connor in 1965, before joining Olivier's National Theatre, appearing inMuch Ado about Nothing,Mother Courage,The Crucible,Royal Hunt of the Sun,Love for Love,Othello,The Storm,A Flea in Her Ear andRosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. After an extensive career in repertory theatre, television and radio, he returned to the RSC in 2004 to play Capulet inRomeo and Juliet in Peter Gill's production, and as Gloucester in Bill Alexander's production ofKing Lear to Corin Redgrave's Lear.

Returned to the RSC in 2008/09 to play Baptista Minola inThe Taming of the Shrew, directed, by Conal Morrison, and as Man inThe Cordelia Dream, written byMarina Carr, directed bySelina Cartmell, for the RSC at Wilton's Music Hall. In 2005 he returned to the National Theatre in a co-production with the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, to play Charlie inOn the Shore of the Wide World. In 2011 he played God in Tony Harrison's,The Mysteries, directed by Deborah Bruce, and in 2012 played the King of France/Nym/Erpingham, in Dominic Dromgoole's production ofHenry V, both at Shakespeare's Globe. 2015 he played Giles Corey in The Crucible, and in 2016, Gloucester in King Lear, both directed by Tom Morris at the Bristol Old Vic. In 2022 he appeared in Moira Buffini's playManor, at the National Theatre, Lyttleton, directed by Fiona Buffini.

He married in 1966 inBuckinghamshire, to actressChloe Ashcroft, whom he met at the National Theatre. They live inWhiteshill and Ruscombe inGloucestershire and have a son (born 1968) and daughter (born April 1971).

• David Hargreaves atIMDb
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• 1940 births
• Alumni of Leeds Beckett University
• Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
• English male stage actors
• English male television actors
• Living people
• Male actors from Derbyshire
• People from New Mills
• Schoolteachers from Derbyshire
• Actors from High Peak, Derbyshire

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