Ronan Vibert, an actor known for the fact-based roles of P.L. Travers’ publisher Diarmuid Russell in Saving Mr. Banks, Giovanni Sforza on Showtime’s The Borgias and Perry Cline on History’s Hatfields & McCoys, has died. He was 58.
Vibert died Thursday at a Florida hospital after a brief illness, his manager Sharon Vitro told The Hollywood Reporter. The exact nature of the illness was not specified.
He also recurred in television series including Carnival Row, Penny Dreadful, Rome and Waking the Dead, in addition to a number of stage and film credits.
Born in Cambridgeshire, England, on Feb. 23, 1964, Vibert lived in Penarth, South Wales, until attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Prominent early roles included three episodes on 1989’s acclaimed British miniseries Traffik, which served as the basis for Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning 2000 film Traffic.
Vibert scored a number of roles in the 1990s on British television programs, including episodes of Birds of a Feather, Lovejoy and Gimme Gimme Gimme. He then went on to appear in such films as Shadow of the Vampire (2000) opposite John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, the Kirsten Dunst-starring The Cat’s Meow (2001) from director Peter Bogdanovich, Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning The Pianist (2002), the Angelina Jolie-led sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) and the James Franco vehicle Tristan + Isolde (2006).
In John Lee Hancock’s Oscar-nominated Disney Studios drama Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Vibert played the publisher to Emma Thompson’s Mary Poppins author Travers as part of a cast that also included Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti and Bradley Whitford.
His most recent feature film roles came with two 2017 titles: the Michael Fassbender-led thriller The Snowman and the historical action flick 6 Days with Jamie Bell and Mark Strong. Other TV credits included The Alienist, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, NCIS: Los Angeles, Poirot, The Bill and The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Survivors include his wife, Jess Grand Vibert.
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