Michael Byrne, “Indiana Jones” and “Harry Potter” villain, dies at 82

Key points

• English actor Michael Byrne died on June 20 at age 82.

• The actor portrayed Nazi villain Ernst Vogel in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

• He also played Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and appeared in movies like Braveheart and The Omen.

Michael Byrne, the English actor who portrayed key villains in the Indiana Jones and Harry Potter movies, has died.

The Guardian reported that the veteran actor died June 20, at 82. A cause of death was not immediately available. Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Byrne for more information.

Byrne is perhaps best known for playing Ernst Vogel, the Nazi officer who assists the villainous Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) in his quest for the Holy Grail, in Steven Spielberg’s 1989 sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Byrne later played a small but crucial role in 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1: Gellert Grindelwald, the dark wizard with a strong connection to Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) who helps lead Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) to the powerful Elder Wand. Grindelwald was later portrayed by Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp, and Mads Mikkelsen in the Fantastic Beasts prequel series.

Born in London in 1943, Byrne studied at the city’s Central School of Speech and Drama. He made his screen debut in a 1962 TV adaptation of August Strindberg’s play The Ghost Sonata. The following year, he acted in an episode of the British TV series No Hiding Place. His career in the 1960s was primarily dominated by theater, including productions with the touring Arena theater company — where he met Carole Nimmons, whom he married in 1965 — and Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at London’s Old Vic Theatre, where he acted opposite Olivier and Maggie Smith.

Byrne played numerous military officials in films like Conduct Unbecoming, The Eagle Has Landed, Telefon, The Medusa Touch, Force 10 From Navarone, and the star-studded Richard Attenborough World War II drama A Bridge Too Far. He also portrayed a monk in Richard Donner’s 1976 horror hit The Omen.

In 1995’s Braveheart, Byrne portrayed Smythe, a vicious solider who attempts to rape Murron (Catherine McCormack), the wife of William Wallace (Mel Gibson). Two years later, he appeared as yet another military official in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies opposite Pierce Brosnan’s 007, and in 1998, he played a Holocaust survivor in Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil.

Byrne appeared in several notable American films in the early 2000s, including Martin Scorsese’s period crime epic Gangs of New York, the Jack Ryan thriller The Sum of All Fears, the Russell Crowe-Meg Ryan thriller Proof of Life, and the notorious John Travolta bomb Battlefield Earth.

The actor’s stage career also thrived in tandem with his screen appearances, as he performed in buzzy productions of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Death and the Maiden, The Seagull, Mary Stuart, and Uncle Vanya. His TV credits included shows like Crown Court, The Devil’s Crown, Headmaster, No Bananas, and Yes, Prime Minister.

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After appearing on TV shows like Casualty, Midsomer Murders, The Living and the Dead, and Wallander throughout the 2010s, Byrne’s final screen performance to hit the airwaves came in a 2023 episode of The Phoebus Files. He’s also set to star in the horror-comedy movie Bjorn of the Dead, which has yet to be released.

Byrne is survived by his wife, Carole; his daughters, Tara and Bryony; and three grandchildren, Tom, Chloe, and Jasmine.

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