Stephen Ure is an Australian actor who played two significant Orc characters across Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth films, portraying Grishnákh in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Gorbag in The Return of the King, both villains whose schemes to capture and torment hobbits ultimately end in their own deaths at the hands of other characters.
He returned to Middle-earth for The Hobbit trilogy, playing the Orc-hunter Fimbul in An Unexpected Journey and the Goblin Grinnah in The Desolation of Smaug, both realised through motion-capture performance, extending his connection to Jackson’s saga across both trilogies.
Ure has noted with dry humour that both of his major Lord of the Rings characters shared a similarly grim fate, struck down from behind while pursuing hobbits, a recurring pattern he has reflected on in interviews about his time in Middle-earth. His sustained presence across four films spanning both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies has made him one of the more prolific and recognisable Orc performers within the franchise, and a popular figure among collectors interested in the trilogy’s extensive roster of villainous creature performances.
