Apparently he based his appearance on the Holbein portrait of Henry VIII, painted in 1537. Henry would have been around 46 at the time, so no spritely youth.

I have seen this version with Charles Laughton, he looks like the real Henry VIII for the most part of this movie.

Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII" (1933). Long while since I've seen it, but it starts with the execution of Anne Boleyn, so it's after Henry suffered his injury. And let's be honest: Charles Laughton, even at his peak, was never fit and studly.

I'm glad someone else raised the issue of Henry's accent; the King as a cockney geezer just didn't work. Otherwise, his physicality and manner were fine.
108 193 23 8114 246* 47.73 22 42

Ray Winstone resembled Henry VIII physically, but I didn't like that Cockney accent. I found it extremely irritating and was unable to watch more than 15 minutes of the series because of it.
Joanna Eatwell, the costumer, did a brilliant job of designing corpulent clothes for Damian Lewis so you wouldn't notice how trim he really is.
I enjoyed Damien Lewis as Henry, too. His costumes may become more corpulent in the next season, since Henry VIII gained more weight later on.

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On a more serious note, however, I wonder if, given that the internet is awash with websites that derive their information from a vague recollection of out of print books, which were based earlier books, which were based on general knowledge, which was an elaboration of rumour, which derived from nothing at all, it may be that there can't be such a thing as" too pedantic".
Call me Ishmael

Hahaha.
You are too much!

hope we aren't getting too pedantic
I think that should be "overly pedantic".
Call me Ishmael

Goodness mehope we aren't getting too pedantic here!

Joanna Eatwell, the costumer, did a brilliant job of designing corpulent clothes for Damian Lewis so you wouldn't notice how trim he really is.
I wish I could agree.
In high-ranking Tudor clothes, good tailoring counted for a lot - as numerous contemporary paintings (and extant clothes) show. But for me, good tailoring was not at all evident in this production. Most womens' dresses were too large (with the exception of Anne Boleyn's bodices, which were too tight and Damian Lewis looked like he was wearing his older and fatter brother's cast-offs.
Call me Ishmael

Joanna Eatwell, the costumer, did a brilliant job of designing corpulent clothes for Damian Lewis so you wouldn't notice how trim he really is. Also, Damian's body language was great expansive with lots of man spread. He really conveyed the spirit of a large King without having to wear a fat suit, even after the jousting accident which caused him to pile on the pounds.

Ray was pretty great as Henry VIII. AND HBC as Anne Boleyn! Loved it!
There's little point in rehashing another actor's performance. I enjoy seeing historic figures played a bit differently now and then.
"You weren't born pretty and it isn't fair"

"Henry VIII" (2003) has Ray Winstone in the the title role. I don't know if you could say he is fat, but he is certainly husky, and resembles Henry VIII in his later years better than any other actor I've seen, and yes, even more than Keith Mitchell of 'Six Wives' fame.
I could be a morning person if morning happened at noon.

Invite him to America and he will fatten up.

Only if his younger days are skipped. You can pad a slim actor to make him look fat, but there's no way to make a fat actor look slim.
Still more chance of that than Jonathan Rhys-Meyer being convincing as Henry.

These measurements wouldn't have been the actual measurements of Henry. Aren't they of the various suits of armor themselves?
I may well be wrong, but even allowing for their being worn snugly, in clothes (made of cloth and innately having more give than metal), you have to have at least a 2" allowance in circumference. That's not counting for sitting on a horse, where one's waist is naturally somewhat larger in a sitting position versus standing, and it being important to be able to move well in order to be very physically active, whether jousting or in battle.

I do believe I saw the Genouilhac Armour in the Metropolitan a couple of years ago. I have not been aware of the controversy around it. That is a fascinating article which I will read in more detail when I get the time.

Of course, having made the case, I should add one slight caveat, and that is that there seems to be a bit of doubt as to whether the so-called Genouilhac Armour in the Metropolitan really
was
made for Henry VIII. It now seems to be a toss up between Henry VIII himself and the French ambassador, Francois II de la Tour d'Auvergne, who visited England in 1527. In the tournament of that year, Henry wore "a newe harnes all gilte, of a strange fashion that had not bene sene", and in that same year, the king ordered "a suit of armor made for Turenne like his own." So the Metropolitan armour could be either of these two sets (
https://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/journals/1/pdf/1512628.pdf.bannered.pdf
). However, for our purposes it's probably academic: at the masque in May 1527 "the Kyng gaue to the viscont of Torayn, the maskying apparel that the kyng hym self ware" so Henry couldn't have been smaller than Tourenne otherwise his costume wouldn't have fit him. Whichever one of the two it was made for, the armour therefre indicates that Henry had put on a fair bit of weight by that year.
Call me Ishmael

Thanks for that. I was, erroneously, under the impression that he put on masses of weight after his accident. But this clearly wasn't the case! Very interesting.

Precisely how fat is fat? The notion that Henry VIII was as thin as a whistle until his jousting accident of January 1536, after which he suddenly and quickly ballooned to prodigious girth, is not quite accurate. Here are the dimensions of some of his armour - which was worn quite snugly and therefore gives a good indication of his girth:
1515 - Silver engraved armour (aged 24) 34.7" waist; 41.7" chest
1520 - Armour for Field of Cloth of Gold (aged 29) 36" waist; 41.8" chest
1520 - Foot combat armour (aged 29) 37.9" waist; chest 44" chest;
1527 - Genouilhac Armour, NY (aged 36) 41.75" waist;
1540 - May Day armour, now in Leeds (aged 48) 51-52" wasit; 45.5 chest;
Note that in 1527, Henry already had a waist over 40 inches, so it is likely that, a full nine years later in 1536, he was bulkier still - even before he had his jousting accident. During the period that this series was set (1533-1536) he was no longer as svelte as people here suggest.
Call me Ishmael

According to some history I read, the king put on substantial amounts of weight after Jane Seymour died, after childbirth. Perhaps he really did love her. She was supposed to be a nice woman.

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He was fat much later on. His fat phase is not covered in Wolf Hall.