Ronan Vibert, actor in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ and ‘The Borgias,’ died at the age of 58

He also had roles on ‘Carnival Row,’ ‘Penny Dreadful’ and ‘Rome,’ and appeared in acclaimed films Shadow of the Vampire and ‘The Pianist.’

Ronan Vibert played P.L. Travers’ publisher Diarmuid Russell in Saving Mr. Banks, Giovanni Sforza in Showtime’s The Borgias, and Perry Cline in History’s Hatfields & McCoys, has died. He was 58.

Vibert died Thursday in a Florida hospital following a brief illness, according to his manager Sharon Vitro. The precise nature of the sickness was not disclosed.

Ronan Vibert
Ronan Vibert 

In addition to various theatre and cinema roles, he appeared in television programs such as Carnival Row, Penny Dreadful, Rome, and Waking the Dead.

Vibert was born on February 23, 1964, in Cambridgeshire, England, and raised in Penarth, South Wales, before entering the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Early credits include three episodes of the acclaimed British miniseries Traffik, which served as the inspiration for Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning picture Traffic in 2000.

Vibert appeared in episodes of Birds of a Feather, Lovejoy, The Buccaneers, and Gimme Gimme Gimme on British television in the 1990s. He then went on to appear in films such as Shadow of the Vampire (2000), in which he co-starred with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, The Cat’s Meow (2001), in which he co-starred with Kirsten Dunst, Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning The Pianist (2002), Angelina Jolie’s sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), and the James Franco vehicle Tristan + Isolde (2006).

In John Lee Hancock’s Oscar-nominated Disney Studios drama Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Vibert played the publisher to Emma Thompson’s Mary Poppins author Travers as part of a cast that also included Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, and Bradley Whitford.

His most recent feature film roles were in the 2017 thriller The Snowman, starring Michael Fassbender, and the historical action drama 6 Days, starring Jamie Bell and Mark Strong. The Alienist, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, NCIS: Los Angeles, Poirot, The Bill, and The Scarlet Pimpernel are among her other television credits.

His wife, Jess Grand Vibert, is one of his survivors.