Who is Tom Burke, his famous, mum, dad and godparents and is he really missing a leg?
British actor Tom Burke is on our TV screens in Strike but who is he, exactly? (Picture: Max Mumby/I..
Tom Burke is a 36-year-old rising star of stage and screen currently starring in a TV adaptation of a JK Rowling novel series, Strike.
His family members and godparents may be familiar to you as well.
The actor was born in London in June 1981 to actor parents David Burke and Anna Calder-Marshall.
His godparents are also actors – Bridget Turner and the late Alan Rickman.
Tom was born with a cleft lip and was diagnosed with dyslexia during childhood.
His academic struggles led him to leave school before his A-levels and pursue acting, something he’d always wanted to do.
He attended dance school and was then accepted into RADA when he was 18.
In 2000 Tom landed his first screen role in Dragonheart: A New Beginning, before he landed parts in movies The Libertine, I Want Candy, Donkey Punch, Only God Forgives and The Hooligan Factory.
In the same years he was appearing in more and more TV shows, including Casanova, All About George and Agatha Christie’s Poirot.
More recently he started to get noticed through parts in shows like Utopia, Heading Out, War And Peace and The Musketeers.
He is currently starring as Cormoran Strike in the BBC’s adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s crime novel series Strike, his first major lead role on telly.
Tom’s character Strike is a war veteran turned private detective who investigates brutal murders in London.
Strike lost one of his legs in combat, which has led some viewers of the show to wonder whether Tom himself has one leg, but this is not the case.
On the scenes in which we see Strike with a missing leg, series director Michael Keillor told the Radio Times: ‘I don’t want to give away all the tricks, in case the other directors do it differently as the books go on!
‘But yeah, we basically digitally removed it then replaced the stump.’
His co-star is Holliday Grainger, who plays Strike’s colleague Robin.
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