1990s

When he began acting, Bonneville chose Richard Bonneville, a variation of his middle names, as his stage name, because there was a well-known playwright named Hugh Williams. After appearing as Richard Bonneville for ten years, he changed Richard to Hugh.^[1]

Bonneville's first professional stage appearance was at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In 1987, he joined the National Theatre where he appeared in several plays, then the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991, where he played Laertes to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1992–1993). He played Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Bergetto in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Kastril and later Surly in The Alchemist.^[8]

In 1994, Bonneville made his television debut, billed as Richard Bonneville in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes episode "The Dying Detective". His debut film was 1994's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with Robert De Niro and Kenneth Branagh. In the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, he had a small role playing a naval sailor onboard "HMS Bedford". His early roles were usually good-natured bumbling characters like Bernie in Notting Hill (1999) and Mr Rushworth in Mansfield Park (1999).

2000s

In the BBC television series, Take a Girl Like You (2000) and Armadillo (2001), he played more villainous characters, leading up to the domineering Henleigh Grandcourt in Daniel Deronda (2002) and the psychopathic killer James Lampton in The Commander (2003) series. In Love Again, he played the poet Philip Larkin.

In Iris (2001), he played the young John Bayley opposite Kate Winslet, with his performance lauded by critics and receiving a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2004, Bonneville played Sir Christopher Wren in the docudrama Wren – The Man Who Built Britain. Bonneville also works extensively in radio. He played the role of Jerry Westerby in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the John le Carré novel The Honourable Schoolboy, first broadcast in January 2010.^[9] Earlier, he appeared in the surreal parallel universe comedy Married.

2010s

From 2010 until 2015, he appeared in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey, as Robert, Earl of Grantham, a role he repeated in the 2019 film. Bonneville again reprised the role of Robert Crawley in the 2022 film Downton Abbey: A New Era.

In early 2010, he appeared in the comedy film Burke and Hare.^[10] In 2011 and 2012, he starred as Ian Fletcher in the award-winning BBC comedy series Twenty Twelve, and reprised the role in the 2014 BBC comedy series W1A. In December 2012, he appeared on BBC Two with co-star Jessica Hynes in World's Most Dangerous Roads, travelling through Georgia. He also appeared in the much-delayed film Hippie Hippie Shake with Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller.

From 2011 until 2014, Bonneville was the narrator of the Channel 4 show The Hotel. On 18 November 2012, Bonneville appeared on stage at St Martin's Theatre in the West End for a 60th anniversary performance of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play.^[11]

Bonneville's Paddington Bear designed statue—"The Journey of Marmalade"—in Hyde Park, London, auctioned to raise funds for the NSPCC

Bonneville played Mr. Brown in the 2014 film Paddington and its 2017 sequel Paddington 2. He has appeared in the singing comedic role of Peter the Pillager, the Pirate King, in the ABC fairy tale-themed musical comedy extravaganza series Galavant during its 2015 and 2016 seasons. He also narrated the ITV series The Cruise.

In 2017, Bonneville portrayed Lord Mountbatten in director Gurinder Chadha's film Viceroy's House, which depicted the tumult and violence surrounding the Partition of India during the final days of British rule. Also in 2017, he portrayed the voice of Merlin in the movie based on the children's TV series Thomas & Friends, Journey Beyond Sodor. Also that year, he narrated the documentary A Return to Grace: Luther's Life and Legacy and it was announced that Bonneville would play Roald Dahl in an upcoming biopic about the author.^[12]

In 2018, Bonneville succeeded Julie Andrews as host and narrator of the annual "From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration" episode of Great Performances, broadcast on New Year's Day on PBS in the United States.^[13] Also in 2018, he returned to voice Merlin in one of the episodes of the twenty-second series of Thomas & Friends.

In 2019, Bonneville portrayed C. S. Lewis at the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Shadowlands,^[14] along with actors Liz White and Andrew Havill.

2020s

On 8 March 2023, Bonneville appeared on ITV’s DNA Journey with comedian, John Bishop.^[15]

On 7 May 2023, Bonneville appeared as the host of the Coronation Concert of King Charles III.^[16] In June, 2023, it was announced that Bonneville will return to the third instalment of Paddington.^[17]

Film

Television

Audiobooks

Commonwealth honours

Commonwealth honours

Country	Date	Appointment	Post-nominal letters
United Kingdom	8 October 2019 – Present	Deputy Lieutenant of West Sussex[37][38]	DL

Scholastic

University degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree
England		Corpus Christi College, Cambridge	Lower Second Class Honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Theology
England		Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree	Gave Commencement Address
England	October 2019	University of Winchester	Doctor of Arts (D.Arts)[39][40]