James Dominic Frain (born 14 March 1968) is an English stage and screen actor. He is possibly best known for his role in the Showtime series The Tudors in which he appeared as Thomas Cromwell from 2007 to 2009.

Background and CareerFrain was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and raised in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, the eldest of eight children.^[1] He was educated at Newport Free Grammar School, studied English, Film and Drama at the University of East Anglia and trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. While in his final year there he made his film debut in Shadowlands (1993) as a result of being spotted by Richard Attenborough and has had a successful film career on both sides of the Atlantic ever since.

Skilled at accents and capable of playing a large variety of roles, he was nominated for Best Actor at the 1995 Venice Film Festival for his performance as a Northern Irish terrorist in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's controversial Nothing Personal (1995) and for Best Supporting Actor at the Genies in Toronto for his performance in István Szabó's Sunshine (1999).

He has been a regular on the stage in the UK, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Court Theatre, as well as on the West End. He has also appeared on Broadway and was a recipient of the 2008 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performances along with the rest of the cast of The Homecoming (2007).

He has appeared in a number of television series, such as Armadillo (2001), 24 (2005), Invasion (2006) and The Closer (2006). His more recent roles include Thomas Cromwell in Showtime's The Tudors, the villainous billionaire "Chess" in the upcoming NBC superhero/crime drama series The Cape, heroic templar Sir Gregory in the SyFy original movie Dark Relic (2010) and vampire Franklin Mott in the HBO series, True Blood.

[edit] Filmography

• Shadowlands (1993) - Peter Whistler
  
• Prime Suspect (series 3) (1993) (mini) - Jason Baldwin
  
• The Buccaneers (1995) (mini) TV Series – Julius Folyat, The Duke of Trevenick
  
• Nothing Personal (1995) – Kenny
  
• Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996) – Prince Felix Yusupov
  
• Loch Ness (1996) – Adrian Foote
  
• Robinson Crusoe (film) (1997)- unaccredited
  
• Elizabeth (1998) – Spanish Ambassador Alvaro de la Quadra
  
• Hilary and Jackie (1998) – Daniel Barenboim
  
• What Rats Won't Do (1998) – Jack Sullivan
  
• Titus (1999) – Bassianus
  
• Arabian Nights (2000) – Schahzenan / Harun al-Rashid
  
• Where the Heart Is (2000) – Forney Hull
  
• Reindeer Games (2000) – Nick
  
• Armadillo (2001) – Lorimer Black
  
• The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) – J. F. Villefort
  
• Leonardo (2003) (TV) – Cesare Borgia
  
• Spartacus (TV film) (2004) - David
  
• Empire (2005) – Marcus Junius Brutus
  
• 24 (2005) – Paul Raines
  
• Into the Blue (2005) – Reyes
  
• Invasion (2006) – Eli Szura
  
• The Closer (TV Series) (2006) - Paul Andrews
  
• The Tudors (2007-2009) – Thomas Cromwell
  
• Law and Order: Criminal Intent "Vanishing Act" (2008) – Dean Holiday
  
• Fringe "Safe" (2008) - Salmon Kohl
  
• In Plain Sight "Once a Ponzi Time" (2009) - Philip Ashmore/Roy Murray
  
• Grey's Anatomy (tv series) "I Always Feel Like Someone Is Watchin' Me" (2009) - Tom
  
• Lie to Me (TV series) "Grievous Bodily Harm" (2009) - Lance McClellan
  
• Law & Order: SVU (TV series) "Users" (2009) - Martin Gold
  
• Everybody's Fine (2009) - Tom
  
• Californication (TV series) "Mia Culpa" (2009) - Paul
  
• Tron: Legacy (film) (aka "TR2N", "Tron 2.0") (2010) - Jarvis
  
• True Blood (TV series) (2010) - Franklin Mott^[2]
  
• The Cape (In production; 2010) - Peter Fleming/Chess
  

Plays the brillantly CRAZY & DERANGED Vampire Franklin Mott on True blood

He is a sexy beast!

he was so crazy in True Blood but I still wanted to tear his clothes off in have my way with him.

Yummy.

I KNOW, something about a BAD boy, that makes a girl light headed, IM SOOOOOOOOOOOOO VACLIMPED right now, talk amugest yourselves, i'll leave you a TOPIC, JAMES FRAIN

hah well my lust for him goes back to Where The Heart is with Natalie Portman

I was like: WTF! Where are the tall sexy Librarians in my Libraries?!!!