Walter Charles Dance, OBE (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor, screenwriter, and film director.
Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. Some of his most high-profile roles are Tywin Lannister in HBO's Game of Thrones, Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Sardo Numspa in The Golden Child (1986), Jonathan Clemens in Alien 3 (1992), Benedict in Last Action Hero (1993), the Master Vampire in Dracula Untold (2014), Lord Havelock Vetinari in Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (2010) Alastair Denniston in The Imitation Game (2014) and Emhyr Var Emreis in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
Charles Dance was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, the son of Eleanor Marion (née Perks), a cook, and Walter Dance (1874–1949), an engineer who had previously served during the Boer War in South Africa. Growing up in Plymouth, he attended Widey Technical School for Boys (it closed when known as Widey High School in 1988) in Crownhill. Dance later attended The Leicester College of Arts (now known as De Montfort University), where he studied Graphic Design and Photography.