Harry Sinclair is a New Zealand director, actor, and musician best known for playing Isildur, the Gondorian king who cuts the One Ring from Sauron’s hand but fails to destroy it, in the prologue of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and for his return to the role in The Return of the King. A close friend of Jackson’s, Sinclair was reportedly cast in part because Jackson considered him “the most corrupt-looking person” he knew, a fitting quality for a character whose fatal moment of weakness sets the entire story of the One Ring in motion.
In an unusual behind-the-scenes detail, Sinclair’s single line of dialogue as Isildur was ultimately re-recorded by Hugo Weaving, who felt his own delivery better suited the character’s menace. The son of historian Keith Sinclair and brother of writer Stephen Sinclair, Harry Sinclair has built a career beyond acting as a writer and director of several New Zealand short films, a television series, and three feature films.
His pivotal, if brief, appearance as Isildur remains one of the most significant character moments in Lord of the Rings’ opening mythology, and he continues to be a notable figure among devoted franchise collectors.
