Ray Stevenson, Star Wars: Ahsoka and Marvel Movie Actor, Dead at 58
Ray Stevenson is dead at the age of 58. The actor was known for so many character actor roles in big and/or memorable genre works, including HBO's Rome, Marvel's Thor movies and Punisher: War Zone, major voice work in Star Wars animated series, and even an upcoming live-action role in Star Wars: Ahsoka.
The Wrap has confirmed Stevenson's death, with more information yet to come as the situation develops...
UPDATE: Variety has reported that it has confirmed with Stevenson's publicist that the actor had indeed passed.
No information and what the cause of death was has been made available. Stevenson was in Italy, filming his latest movie project, the Italian film Cassino in Ischia.
Remembering Ray Stevenson
George Raymon Stevenson was born in 1964, in Lisburn, Northern Ireland on a British army base – the son of a Royal Air Force pilot and an Irish woman. He moved to England at age eight, living in the Lemington area of Newcastle upon Tyne, then Seaton Delaval, and eventually attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England. He married actress Ruth Gemmell in 1997 and divorced in 2005 after eight years of marriage.
Stevenson's onscreen debut came with The Theory of Flight in 1998, a film from Bourne Trilogy's Paul Greengrass starring Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh; Stevenson played a high-priced gigolo. He found something of a niche for himself playing one of King Arthur's Knights (Dagonet) in the infamous 2004 King Arthur film by Antoine Fuqua – which again saw Stevenson holding his own in a supporting role alongside names that are so famous now (Clive Owen, Kiera Knightley, Stellan Skarsgård, Ray Winstone, Mads Mikkelsen, Hugh Dancy).
King Arthur (2004) propelled Stevenson into the 'swords and sandals' genre with HBO's Rome (2005-2007), which had Stevenson co-starring in the lead role of a Roman Legionnaire with a troubled mind. Rome got Stevenson more central film roles in projects like Outpost, and his starring role as Marvel's Frank Castle in Punisher: War Zone (2008).
Even though Punisher didn't pan out at the box office, Ray Stevenson went on to continue being a featured actor in so many big genre projects on TV and film – including Starz's pirate drama Black Sails, Showtime's Dexter, Vikins, Star Wars Rebels, the Thor Trilogy, The Book of Eli, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the Divergent films, and even some starring film roles like the 2011 crime biopic Kill the Irishman.
As stated, Ray Stevenson's career was in no way slowing down, as he just had a role in the international hit film RRR, starred in a TV series remake of Das Boot in 2022, and was finally getting a live-action Star Wars role as the powerful Force user Baylon in Ahsoka on Disney+ later this year.
We extend our condolences to Ray Stevenson's family and friends in their time of grieving