After training at the Drama Centre London, he has worked extensively at the Royal National Theatre playing in many productions including The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Oedipus, In His Own Write, Hamlet, Tamburlaine, No Man's Land, The Passion, Despatches, Half Life, The World Turned Upside Down, Julius Caesar, The Madras House, The Man With the Flower in His Mouth, Tales from the Vienna Woods, The Crucible, Piano, Troilus and Cressida, Money, Summerfolk, The Villain's Opera, Life x 3.
At the Royal Court Theatre, he has appeared in The Local Stigmatic, The Duchess of Malfi, Man is Man, The Enoch Show, Erronenous Zones, The Tutor by Brecht, Lear and Bingo by Edward Bond and Piano/Forte by Terry Johnson.
He was a founder member of Joint Stock appearing in their inaugural production The Speakers by Heathcote Williams. At The Royal Shakespeare Company he has played in The Marrying of Ann Leete, Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III, The Plain Dealer, Some Americans Abroad by Richard Nelson, Brand by Ibsen.
His West End appearances include The Homecoming by Harold Pinter, Children of a Lesser God by Mark Medoff, Benefactors by Michael Frayn (in whose Liberty Hall he also appeared in at the Greenwich Theatre), An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde, Life x 3 by Yasmina Reza, and Brand by Ibsen. He has also played the title role in King Lear at the Southwark Playhouse and Malvolio in Shakespeare's Globe's all-male production of Twelfth Night.
His many TV appearances have included The Borgias (Cesare Borgia), David Copperfield, The Year of the French, The Play on One, Redemption, Poirot, The Camomile Lawn, Westbeach, Zorro, Sharpe's Battle, Rhodes, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Innocents, Judge John Deed, Inspector Lynley, Waking the Dead, M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team, Beastly Games, Sensitive Skin, Midsomer Murders, Hotel Babylon.
His films include Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, The Day Christ Died, Firefox, Oliver Twist, The Sicilian, Eleni, Hiding Out, Christopher Columbus, Son of the Pink Panther, The Innocent Sleep, Phoenix Blue, The Opium War, Beowulf, Baby Blue, The Dancer Upstairs, Shanghai Knights, The Bone Collector, Raindogs, Colour Me Kubrick. 올리버 코튼(1944년생, London, England, UK) 는 배우로, 대표작으로 전사 베오울프, Eleni, 댄서 업스테어즈가 있으며, 그 외에도 미드소머 머더스, 뉴 트릭스, 다크 나이트 라이즈, BBC Play of the Month, Waking the Dead, 리퍼 스트리트, Heartbeat, 킬링 이브, Thirty-Minute Theatre, Dalziel and Pascoe, Bergerac, Space: 1999 등 다양한 작품에 출연했다. 특히 2026년에는 Tales of the Underworld에도 참여해서 활동중이다. (오뜨랑에서 실시간으로 번역된 한글 프로필도 확인할 수 있어요) 2026년 Tales of the Underworld에서 Flowers 역을 맡았다. 2021년 라스트 듀얼: 최후의 결투에서 Jean de Carrouges III 역을 맡았다. 2020년 원더 우먼 1984에서 Simon Stagg 역을 맡았다.