Julian Glover

Julian Glover (born 27 March 1935) is an English actor. He began acting on the stage in the 1950s and began appearing on television regularly in the 1960s. He has appeared twice in Doctor Who, playing King Richard the Lionheart in the 1965 story The Crusade and the alien Scaroth in the 1979 story City of Death. He also chalked up genre appearances in shows such as The Avengers and Blake's 7 as well as continuing his stage career.

In the 1980s he played three memorable movie roles: as Darth Vader's trusted subordinate, General Veers in The Empire Strikes Back; as Aris Kristatos in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only; and as Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. More recently he appeared as King Triopas in Troy and as the Duke of Wellington in Young Victoria. He also had a voiceover role in the Harry Potter films.

In Game of Thrones Glover plays Grand Maester Pycelle. Roy Dotrice had been previously cast in the role but had to drop out shortly before filming began due to health problems. Glover stepped in at short notice to pick up the role and was announced on 28 July 2010. He initially appeared as a guest star in the first season and returned in this role for the second season.

After three episodes in the role of Pycelle, Glover noted to the writers that he is quite spry for his age and they could incorporate this to make the character more interesting. The writers agreed and wrote a new scene in the final episode of the first season showing Pycelle faking his infirmity so others would not consider him as a threat.