Played by Hugo Weaving
Sophisticated, elegant, brilliant, a thwarted doctor and gifted musician, Patrick's father David is also a temperamental, vengeful, sadistic beast, full of secret self-loathing. The abuse that Patrick suffers at his father's hands haunts him throughout his life. Yet David is also a perversely magnetic character, capable of great charm and wit, as well as a vicious tongue that renders David's contemporaries unable to stand up to him.
Sophisticated, elegant, brilliant, a thwarted doctor and gifted musician, Patrick's father David is also a temperamental, vengeful, sadistic beast, full of secret self-loathing. The abuse that Patrick suffers at his father's hands haunts him throughout his life. Yet David is also a perversely magnetic character, capable of great charm and wit, as well as a vicious tongue that renders David's contemporaries unable to stand up to him.
Hugo Weaving has enjoyed an enormously varied and successful career in film, theatre and television. He has won numerous awards, including three Australian Film Institute Awards: the Hoyts Group Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Jocelyn Moorhouse’s PROOF and THE INTERVIEW, for which he also won Best Actor at The Montreal World Film Festival and the Film Finance Corporation AFI Award for Best Lead Actor for LITTLE FISH. In 2011, he was an inaugural Australian Academy Cinematic Television Arts (AACTA) Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ORANGES AND SUNSHINE. He also won three succeeding AACTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his work in THE DRESSMAKER, HACKSAW RIDGE and JASPER JONES.
Weaving is notably known for his roles in THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, as Agent Smith in THE MATRIX trilogy, as Elrond in THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT trilogies, and as V in V FOR VENDETTA. Other films include LAST RIDE, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, CLOUD ATLAS, MYSTERY ROAD, THE MULE and STRANGERLAND. Most recently, he starred in the Australian series SEVEN TYPES OF AMBIGUITY and completed filming on PATRICK MELROSE.
His many theatre appearances include Sydney Theatre Company productions of HEDDA GABLER and UNCLE VANYA, both enjoying successful U.S. tours in 2006 and 2011 respectively, the latter earning him a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Performer, Non-Resident Production; MACBETH, ENDGAME and WAITING FOR GODOT with a London season in 2015. He has also voiced characters in several esteemed films, including BABE, HAPPY FEET and TRANSFORMERS.
In 2013, he was President of the Sydney Film Festival Jury.