He and Michael Sheard played Imperial officers in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Both went on to play villains nine years later in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): Glover as Walter Donovan and Sheard as Adolf Hitler. In both films, Harrison Ford played one of the lead protagonists.
He is the only actor to appear in the Star Wars, James Bond and Indiana Jones film series (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)). In all three cases he played the villain.
He was considered for the role of James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973). The role instead went to the older and more famous Roger Moore. He later played the main villain Kristatos opposite Moore in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981).
According to John Glen's memoirs, Julian Glover was the first person to suggest Pierce Brosnan as a potential Bond during the filming of For Your Eyes Only (1981) in 1980.
In the DVD commentary for The Wheel of Fortune (1965), he admitted to Gary Russell that playing the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) was an unrealised ambition.
He played General Maximillian Veers in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The character later appeared in several Star Wars-related video games played by his son, Jamie Glover.
He appeared in two films with Harrison Ford. In the first, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Glover plays General Maximillian Veers, a role his son Jamie Glover would later play in Star Wars: Battlefront II (2005). In the second, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Ford plays Indiana Jones, except in the opening scene, in which the character is played by River Phoenix, who had played Ford's son in Mosquito Coast (1986).
He attended Bristol Grammar School in Bristol, England, where he was in the same class as the actor Timothy West. The "Darth Vader" actor David Prowse was also there in the same year.
He is the half-brother of the musician Robert Wyatt (they share the same mother).
He was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to drama.
He appeared in three films focusing on apartheid in South Africa: Albie Sachs' Prison Diary (1981), Mandela (1987) and Cry Freedom (1987).
He was the narrator of "The London Experience", a multimedia event presented by Bernard Delfont in Piccadilly in the 1970s and 80s.
With the death of Michael Lonsdale on 21 September 2020, Glover became the oldest living actor to have played the main villain in the James Bond series.
He played King Richard the Lionheart in both Doctor Who (1963) and Ivanhoe (1982). Both were directed by the same director, Douglas Camfield.
He and his son Jamie Glover both have a connection to Doctor Who. Julian appeared in the original series as King Richard I, as well as in the role of Ian Chesterton, one of the companions of both the original Doctor William Hartnell and William Russell. Jamie later played Russell in An Adventure in Space and Time (2013).
He is the father of Jamie Glover.
He appeared in a romantic story with his real-life (second) wife Isla Blair in the Dixon of Dock Green (1955) episode A Slight Case of Love (1975).
He is of English, Scottish and Gallic descent.
He made his professional debut in pantomime in Bromley in 1953.
He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and became an Associate Member.
With the death of Yaphet Kotto on 15 March 2021, Glover became the oldest surviving actor to have played Bond's main villain.
After the death of the actor Richard Harris, he was considered for the role of 'Albus Dumbledore' in 'Harry Potter', but the role was later given to Michael Gambon.
He was on the shortlist for Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Bukovsky in the horror film Lifeforce (1985); the roles went to Patrick Stewart and Michael Gothard.
He appeared in Doctor Who (1963) in two guest roles: King Richard the Lionheart in "The Crusade" and Count Scarlioni in "City of Death". He was also considered for the recurring role of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and for other guest roles: Ranulf in "The King's Demons", Sharaz Jek, Morgus and General Challak in "The Caves of Androzani", the Governor in "Vengeance on Varos" and Orcini in "Revelation of the Daleks".
His leading performance in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2" at the Barbican Centre in London won him the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in 1993.
He appeared in both the Eon James Bond series and the Doctor Who series (twice).
He began acting at the National Youth Theatre.
He has two grandchildren: Evie Glover and Ava Glover.
He was initially cast in The Knack. and How to Get It (1965) but was replaced by Ray Brooks.
The death of David Warner in 2022 made him the only surviving (credited) cast member of the Oscar-winning Tom Jones (1963), his film debut in 1963.
He is the last surviving actor to have played an Imperial officer in the original Star Wars trilogy.