The British actor of Irish origin Ray Stevenson has died at 58years of age in the city of Lacco Ameno (Naples, Italy), for causes that have not yet transcended, according to Variety magazine. Although he began his career in the 90s, it was not until 2004 when he began to shine as a result of one of the most prominent roles of the HBO series Rome, the legionnaire Tito Pullo, based on the real character Titus Pulon, a centurion of the IX Roman Legion who is mentioned by Julius Caesar in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars as an ardent combatant. Stevenson, who had a residence on the island of Ibiza, would have turned 59 on May 25.
The actor was working in Italy as part of the cast of the film Cassino in Ischia, directed by Frank Niota, a "neorealist" action drama film that starred in the character of Nic Cassino, who is a star of action films in low hours who tries to revitalize his career. According to Italian media, the actor began to find himself unwell during one of the first days of recording. He was taken to Rizzolla Hospital, where he died days later.
Actor Ray Stevenson as Legionnaire Tito Pullo in the HBO series 'Roma'. HBO
George Raymond Stevenson was born in the city of Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in 1964. Although his acting vocation came from childhood, he began working as a designer for an architectural firm until he could study acting at the famous Bristol Old Vic theater school. During the 90s he would star in European series and telefilms. His best known roles were that of Tito Pullo in the aforementioned series Roma, Captain Blackbeard in the pirate series Black Sails or the Ukrainian mobster Isaak Sirko in the seventh season of Dexter. Other notable roles were in films such as Thor: Ragnarok (in the role of Volstagg), King Arthur (as Dagonet) or The Punisher: War Zone (as the protagonist Frank Castle).
Much of his career was focused on this type of adventure and action characters. "I guess I'm an old warrior at heart. I love humanizing these characters and fleshing them out. I don't interpret them as historical figures. I interpret them as contemporaries in their own time. I delight in bringing that into existence," he explained in an interview with The Action Elite website. Among his references were tough guys like Lee Marvin or Gene Hackman.
He has recorded his intervention in Ahsoka, the new product of the Star Warsuniverse for Disney +. In April he had participated in the Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 meeting, where he advanced some details of his character. He had inherited the role of Kevin Spacey in 1242: Gateway to the West, directed by Péter Soós, a historical drama about Genghis Khan, who will now have to seek an incarnation for the character for the third time. But his great character, as he acknowledged to the Backstage website, was the Roman centurion Tito Pulo: "There was where my life changed completely."