Frost/Nixon Character Card #4 Toby Jones as Irving Lazar

The film opens in selected cities 12/5 and 12/12 with a nationwide release on Christmas Day. For more information visit, http://www.frostnixon.net/

Lazar was the legendary agent who represented Nixon in extracting a record fee for his interviews with Frost.  While he handled the biggest movie stars-including Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant and Gregory Peck-he also represented some of the greatest names in that era's literature-including Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Vladimir Nabokov, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan and Tennessee Williams-and music icons from Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin to Madonna. 

Toby Jones found the role quite interesting. "Playing a character like Irving Lazar...I've met lots of people who knew him, so it was slightly intimidating," he says.  "There's very little information about him available other than one ghosted autobiography.  My impression is of a man very driven.  He started off in a poor Russian-Jewish family in Brooklyn and basically fought his way up to become the top literary agent in the business."

Toby Jones (Swity Lazar) won the London Film Critics' Circle Award for his role as Truman Capote in the critically praised biopic of the author, Infamous. He is currently starring with Bull Murray and Tim Robbins in the fantasy-adventure City of Ember. He recently co-starred in the British comedy St. Trinian's with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, as well as the thrilled The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont.

Jones' other recent film credits include Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching Michael Apted's biography of abolitionist William Wailberforce, Amazing Frace, and the widely praised dramatization of W. Somerset Maugham's 'The Painted Veil,' starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.

The son of actor FrEddie Jones won the 2001 Laurence Olivier Award as Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the West End comedy The Play What I Wrote, directed by Kenneth Brranagh. He has performed regularly on the British stage, including a recent production of Measure for Measure on the West End.

After making his film debut in the 1992 film adaption of Orlando starring Tilda Swinton, Jones has alternated between stage and screen over the last 15 years. Among his other film credits are Ladies in Lavender with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith; the 2004 Oscar nomianted Finding Neverland; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the voice of Dobby the House Elf; Luc Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, the romantic comedy Ever After, and the film version of 'Les Miserables,' directed by Billie August.

Jones has also appeared on British television, including a 2004 role as Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury, in the HBO/Channel 4 production Elizabeth I.

Jones has recently signed on to two more films; Jon Amiel's Creation based on Charles Darwin's great-great-grandson Randal Keynes' biography of his famed progenitor, and Steven Spielberg's motion-capture film Tintin, based on the classic series of comic strips by Belgian artist Herge.

The film opens in selected cities 12/5 and 12/12 with a nationwide release on Christmas Day.

For more information visit, http://www.frostnixon.net/    

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