Andrew Lincoln

Andrew Lincoln is an English actor who portrays Rick Grimes in AMC's The Walking Dead, Fear The Walking Dead and the Film Series.

Biography
Andrew Clutterbuck was born in London, the son of an English civil engineer and a South African nurse. His family moved to Hull when he was 18 months old, and then to Bath, Somerset when he was eight or nine.

He attended Beechen Cliff School, where at age 14 he had his first acting role as the Artful Dodger in a school production of Oliver!. He spent a summer at the National Youth Theatre in London and became interested in acting as a career.

After leaving school, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) drama school and began to use "Andrew Lincoln" as his stage name.

Involvement in The Walking Dead
After the success of Channel 4's Teachers, Lincoln had a solid reputation - in British acting circles at least - and a handful of movies followed, including the smash hit romantic comedy Love Actually. Though the 40-year-old was in work, he'd hardly set the screen alight.

"There was no plan," he told Men's Health during an interview. Lincoln was approaching the dangerous acting period of the mid-30s and having welcomed his first child, the actor decided it was time to "man up" and began looking at bigger roles.

When his agent suggested he audition for a new AMC zombie show titled The Walking Dead, Lincoln began doing his research. Having never heard of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore's graphic novel, the actor visited a comic-book store and saw an entire wall dedicated to the series.

He set to work and made a tape of himself speaking in a Southern accent. The long nights caring for his new born child had made his traditional good looks take on a haggard form - something that worked perfectly.

"When I auditioned, I looked like a zombie as my baby son had just been born and I hadn't slept for four days. Maybe that helped," he told the Sun at the time.

Lincoln beat 100 rivals for the part of the Georgian Sheriff's deputy.

"It was a big surprise to me." Lincoln told MTV News of landing the role. MTV's interview "I'm from London, I grew up in the West Country... But I think there was something that Darabont responded to when I put myself on tape."

After getting the good news, the actor moved out to America almost immediately to begin prepping for the part. "I've played a New York lawyer before, so I knew the East Coast, and I also knew the West Coast, but I'd never been to the South, the southern states," he explained. "So I got out early, I got a sense of place, I spoke to people, [and] I worked with a very, very good dialect coach."

Perfecting the accent was clearly important to Lincoln, though executive producer Gale Anne Hurd hinted that the casting panel weren't familiar with the actor and didn't necessarily know he was British before watching the tape. When asked about the influx of Brits and non-Americans playing Southerners on U.S. television, she told Hypable.com, "When we do the casting, all of the auditions are posted on the website, and we don't know necessarily where they're from. So it's completely equal opportunity. It just so happened that Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan and David Morrissey all are based in the U.K."

He also stated that he read The Road for his preparation on the role of Rick Grimes, he said ''“I just thought that is a modern parable. I mean that’s what it is: It’s a kind of classic parable and that’s the closest thing I can equate it to. I think there’s a simplicity, a directness, and a poetry in that book. Certainly the script had it and I hope we’ve managed to capture that in episode 10 ("Them").”''.

Other Works

 * Love Actually
 * Heartbreaker
 * Gangster No. 1
 * This Life
 * Teachers
 * Afterlife
 * The Woman in White
 * This Life +10
 * Made in Dagenham
 * Moonshot

Awards

 * Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 2004 as Outstanding Actor - Drama Series on Afterlive (TV Series).
 * IGN Summer Movie Awards in 2010 as Best TV Hero on The Walking Dead (TV Series).
 * Satellite Awards in 2012 for Best Cast on The Walking Dead (TV Series) 
 * People's Choice Awards in 2014 for Favorite TV Anti-Hero on The Walking Dead (TV Series).

Trivia

 * He admitted that despite acting as the lead character of The Walking Dead, he does not watch the show, because he claims he wants his acting to seem real.
 * He has stated his favorite poster from The Walking Dead is the 'Don't Look Back' one from Season 4B.
 * In September 2018, he revealed that he plans on returning to the series as a director for Season 10..
 * In July 2019, it was confirmed that due to scheduling conflicts he couldn't make his directional debut.
 * He appeared in the 2009 TV miniseries "Wuthering Heights", alongside Tom Payne, his future Walking Dead co-star.