Pryce was born John Price in Holywell, Flintshire, Wales, the son of Margaret Ellen (née Williams), a retail cashier and shopkeeper, and Isaac Price, a coal miner who also ran a small general grocery shop. Pryce has two older sisters. He was educated at Holywell Grammar School (today Holywell High School), and, at the age of 16, he went to art college and then started training to be a teacher Read more...

In 1980, his performance in the title role of Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre won him an Olivier Award, and was acclaimed by some critics as the definitive Hamlet of his generation. That year he also appeared in the film Breaking Glass, a film that is remarkable in that it featured in the cast (sometimes in small roles) many actors who would eventually become stars of film and television, such Read more...

After some minor roles in the big screen, such as in the independent film Glengarry Glen Ross and in Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, Pryce discovered he wanted to do musicals after seeing his friend Patti LuPone on the original London production of Les Misérables. He would successfully return to the stage originating the role of The Engineer, an Eurasian pimp in the award winning West End musical Read more...