Actor Ray Stevenson, of ‘Rome’ and ‘Thor’ movies, dies at 58

Ray Stevenson, the Irish actor who played the villain in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior in the ‘Thor’ films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,” has died. He was 58.

Representatives for Stevenson told The Associated Press that he died Sunday but had no other details to share on Monday.

Stevenson was born in Lisburn in 1964. After attending the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and years of working in British television, he made his film debut in Paul Greengrass’s 1998 film “The Theory of Flight.” In 2004, he appeared in Antoine Fuqua’s “King Arthur” as a knight of the round table and several years later played the lead in the Marvel adaptation “Punisher: War Zone.”

Aside from the first three “Thor” films, in which he played Volstagg, his other prominent film roles included the “Divergent” trilogy, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “The Transporter: Refueled.”

On the small screen, he was Titus Pullo in “Rome,” the role that really got his career going in the United States and got him a SAG card, at the age of 44. He was also Blackbeard in the Starz series “Black Sails” and Commander Jack Swinburne in the German television series “Das Boot.”

Stevenson did voice work in “Star Wars Rebels” and “The Clone Wars,” as Gar Saxon, and had a role in the upcoming Star Wars live-action series “Ahsoka.”

In an interview with Backstage in 2020, Stevenson said his acting idols were “the likes of Lee Marvin (and) Gene Hackman.”

“Never a bad performance, and brave and fearless within that caliber,” Stevenson said. “It was never the young, hot leading man; it was men who I could identify with.”