Dance has played class-act Brits in starring turns in several action pictures: "Alien 3" (1992), as the love interest of Sigourney Weaver, and "The Last Action Hero" (1993), as a villain with an explosive glass eye in that notorious flop. Dance next had a bit of a stretch, personifying a high-toned Southern wife batterer in the somewhat muddy noir, "China Moon" (1994). He won critical praise, however, for his performance as an upper-crust seducer in Philip Haas' anachronistic "The Blood Oranges" (1997). After returning to the stage in a 1999 revival of "Good", for which he earned widespread page, Dance returned to the small screen as co-star of the British telefilm "Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes" (2000) and was seen in the ensemble of "Gosford Park" (2001).