5 Famous Actors You Forgot Were In Peaky Blinders

Like time itself, popular TV shows can sometimes play tricks on you. It's easy to look back at modern smash-hits like "Breaking Bad" or "Game of Thrones" and assume that they were popular right from the start, but the numbers oftentimes tell a very different story. The former didn't truly take off until Netflix swooped in prior to its final season and reignited interest in the AMC drama. The latter took until season 4 to officially become HBO's biggest ratings hit ever — likely buoyed by all the hubbub surrounding the infamous Red Wedding the year prior. "Peaky Blinders" was no different, starting off as a niche crime thriller aimed at UK viewers and only really expanding globally in 2014 — which creator Steven Knight credits to (guess who) Netflix for doing all the heavy-lifting.

But, despite its breakthrough success, even this gangster series about the Shelby crime family still has a surprise or two up its sleeve. While the fandom anxiously awaits the release of the spin-off movie "Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man," there's never been a better time to revisit the original show and view it all through a fresh lens. That lens, however, might uncover certain aspects lost to time and memory. No, it's hardly a shocker that seasons 1 and 2 featured the great Sam Neill doing his best to attempt an Irish accent as the story's first major villain. But what came next was an increasingly deep bench of supporting stars and famous faces, many of whom weren't quite so well-known back then.

So, for those currently re-watching "Peaky Blinders" or simply interested in a trip down memory lane, here are five famous and talented actors you forgot ever walked down the smog-ridden streets of Small Heath, Birmingham.

It's the "Knives Out" crossover you never knew you needed until now. Yes, years before stealing all our hearts as the kindhearted priest (with a nifty neck tattoo) in "Wake Up Dead Man," "Challengers" breakout performer Josh O'Connor once appeared very early on in "Peaky Blinders." Let's set the scene. In season 2, Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) finds himself stuck in a turf-war quagmire between rival gangs, IRA dissidents, and other unsavory characters — all obstacles in the way of expanding the horserace-betting services of the Shelby Company Limited. So, in order to maintain his front as a simple businessman, Tommy begins laundering money by buying up real estate and foisting entire extravagant houses on family members like his sister, Ada (Sophie Rundle).

Increasingly disaffected by Tommy's ambitious criminal dealings, Ada withdraws from the family and opens up her home to lodgers at no charge, one of whom is O'Connor's James. A humble artist with no money, he quickly becomes a target for the Shelby patriarch to size up and file away for future reference. By the end of the season, this pays off when Tommy recruits James for one particularly dangerous gambit. While visiting powerful gang leader Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) in the hopes of striking an allegiance, he brings James to stand outside and threaten to detonate the explosive that Tommy secretly plants in his illegal gin-making factory.

This bluff pays off handsomely and everyone walks away richer and unscathed — an early instance of "Peaky Blinders" finding creative solutions to tense predicaments. 

Few actors are more recognizable by their voice than their face, but Ralph Ineson certainly resides in a league of his own. The sheer gravitas he provides in projects ranging from "The Witch" to the "Harry Potter" films to "Game of Thrones" helps explain why the creative team behind "Peaky Blinders" would want their turn to make use of his enormous screen presence as well ... even as yet another working man under the heel of the Shelby gang. Indeed, Ineson pops up unexpectedly during a pair of episodes in the third season, playing the embattled factory manager Connor Nutley. Unfortunately for him, the work he oversees involves something of strategic value to the Shelby's criminal business: a warehouse holding armored vehicles that the IRA blackmails Tommy into smuggling for their own nefarious purposes.

Who better to convey steely-eyed composure and an utter lack of fear in the face of Tommy Shelby's threats than Ralph Ineson? Connor reluctantly complies under pressure from Tommy and his gun-slinging brothers, the muscle behind this razor-wielding organization, but not before stealing multiple scenes. No matter how many times they barge into his office and force him to do what they want, even Tommy gets the distinct impression that this isn't a man to be trifled with for long. Despite an absolute minimum of screen time, Ineson proves himself to be a savvy bit of casting. In another universe, his very minor character might've given Tommy himself a run for his money.

Look, the Peaky Blinders may not have a ton of moral scruples, but they certainly know where to draw the line. Others, unfortunately, don't have the same outlook on life. One such character is Kate Dickie's Mother Superior, a nun who serves as the head of an orphanage that the Shelby Company Limited runs as a charity organization. The topic is certainly near and dear to Tommy's heart as a father in his own right, but woe to anyone who treats this responsibility with callousness and abuse. That's precisely what happens with the unsavory Mother Superior, though, who soon learns just how serious Tommy and his Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) are about causes like this.

In season 5, the third episode's cold open begins with Tommy and Polly paying a not-so-friendly visit to this orphanage and its main caretakers. Dickie, herself a veteran of productions like "Prometheus" and "Game of Thrones" and "Star Wars" (along with "The Witch" and "The Green Knight," two movies that Ralph Ineson also starred in, coincidentally enough), only has one scene to make her presence felt — and, boy, does she. With the Shelbys alleging that she and her nuns have been beating and abusing the children in their care, they decide to teach her a lesson that involves smashing her glasses, sticking a razor in her face, and withdrawing their funds completely. Dickie's look of misplaced arrogance mixed with terror makes the scene sing, as does watching heavyweights like her and McCrory circle each other like sharks in the water.

It's a classic example of a "Peaky Blinders" sequence that doesn't have much to do with the main plot, but one that adds all sorts of layers to our main heroes ... and the occasional small-time villain, too.

Obviously, not every character in "Peaky Blinders" gets a happy ending. Most end up as fodder in the overarching war that Tommy Shelby wages against, well, pretty much everybody who stands in his way. As his family finds out to their chagrin, there are very few lengths that he won't resort to in order to see his aims achieved as efficiently as possible. But one such case in season 5 puts this in stark relief. As it turns out, even his old war buddies from the traumatic battles of World War I aren't immune to his win-at-all-costs mentality.

Poor, poor Barney Thompson. Played by "Shōgun" and "Warfare" actor Cosmo Jarvis, this former crack shot sniper represents one of the last remaining veterans from the Great War that scarred Tommy and the rest of his comrades so profoundly. Barney ends up committed to a mental asylum, suffering from an even more acute case of the same PTSD that afflicted Danny Whizz-Bang (Samuel Edward-Cook) back in season 1. But, with Tommy finally meeting his match with the villainous fascist leader Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin), he has little choice but to reach back to his war days, break out Barney from confinement, and use him as his gunman to assassinate Mosley once and for all.

Too bad none of it goes according to plan. Despite his convincing performance as a soldier utterly devoted to his superior officer Tommy, Jarvis' role is cut tragically short when the IRA receives word of this scheme, kills Barney (along with Aidan Gillan's Aberama Gold), and leaves Tommy in tatters. Rest in peace Barney, yet another victim of Tommy's grand plans.

We finally find a character who not only survives the events of "Peaky Blinders" but is also due to return in the upcoming "Immortal Man" feature film. Stephen Graham has become a famous face over the last several years, notably for his starring role as Al Capone in "Boardwalk Empire" and lately due to productions like the "Venom" films, the Netflix series "Adolescence," and both seasons of the underappreciated Hulu show "A Thousand Blows." One of his easy-to-miss performances, however, came in the final season of "Peaky Blinders." There, he played Hayden Stagg, a dockworker and union man who ends up on the Shelbys' radar for pilfering their stolen goods.

Graham bursts onto the scene rather memorably. First, Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) is tasked with traveling to the Liverpool docks in order to put him in his place. But rather than suffering the brutal beating he's owed, Stagg instead dresses down the drug-addicted Arthur and urges him to change his ways — partly out of self-preservation, of course, but mainly as someone who admits he's been where Arthur is now. This earns him a return visit by Tommy himself, who ultimately recruits him on a more integral basis as he plans on expanding his empire even further.

Graham is set to reprise his role in "Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man," which makes plenty of sense given the actor's prominence and his ties to creator Steven Knight. By the end of that spin-off movie, we have a feeling that Graham will make his presence felt all over again. "The Immortal Man" hits select theaters on March 6, 2026, before streaming exclusively on Netflix beginning March 20, 2026.