Ralph Fiennes (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton Wykeham Fiennes (born 22 December 1962), better known as Ralph Fiennes (), is an English theatre and film actor. A noted Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage in the Royal National Theatre.

Fiennes' portrayal of Nazi war criminal Amon Goeth in Schindler's List (1993), earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His performance as Count Almásy in The English Patient (1996), garnered him a second Academy Award nomination, for Best Actor, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.

Since then, Fiennes has starred or appeared in The Prince of Egypt (1998), The End of the Affair (1999), Red Dragon (2002), The Constant Gardener (2005), the Harry Potter film series (2005-2011), in which he played Lord Voldemort, The Reader (2008), and Clash of the Titans (2010). In 2012, Fiennes played Gareth Mallory in the James Bond film Skyfall, and Magwitch in Great Expectations.

In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus, in which he also played the titular character. Fiennes won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway.

Early life and family

Fiennes was born in Ipswich on 22 December 1962, the eldest child of Mark Fiennes (1933-2004), a farmer and photographer whose father was industrialist Sir Maurice Fiennes (1907-1994), and Jennifer Lash (1938-1993), a writer of English and Irish descent. His surname is of Norman origin.

Fiennes is an eighth cousin of the Prince of Wales, and a third cousin of adventurer Ranulph Fiennes and author William Fiennes. He is the eldest of six children, his siblings being actor Joseph Fiennes; Martha Fiennes, a director (in her film Onegin, he played the title role); Magnus Fiennes, a composer; Sophie Fiennes, a filmmaker; and Jacob Fiennes, a conservationist. His foster brother, Michael Emery, is an archaeologist. His nephew Hero Fiennes-Tiffin played Tom Riddle, young Lord Voldemort, in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

The Fiennes family moved to Ireland in 1973, living in West Cork and County Kilkenny for some years. Fiennes was educated at St Kieran's College for one year, followed by Newtown School, a Quaker independent school in County Waterford. They moved to Salisbury in England, where Fiennes finished his schooling at Bishop Wordsworth's School. He went on to pursue painting at Chelsea College of Art before deciding that acting was his true passion.

Career

Fiennes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art between 1983 and 85. He began his career at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park and also at the National Theatre before achieving prominence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Fiennes first worked on screen in 1990 and then made his film debut in 1992 as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights opposite Juliette Binoche.

1993 was his "breakout year". He had a major role in the controversial Peter Greenaway film The Baby of Mâcon with Julia Ormond, which was poorly received. Later that year he became known internationally for portraying the amoral Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. For this he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He did not win the Oscar, but did win the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for the role. His portrayal as Göth also earned him a spot on the American Film Institute's list of Top 50 Movie Villains. To look suitable to represent Amon Göth, Fiennes gained weight, but he managed to shed it afterwards.

Fiennes later claimed that playing the role had a profoundly disturbing effect on him. In a subsequent interview, Fiennes recalled,

"Evil is cumulative. It happens. People believe that they"ve got to do a job, they"ve got to take on an ideology, that they"ve got a life to lead; they"ve got to survive, a job to do, it"s every day inch by inch, little compromises, little ways of telling yourself this is how you should lead your life and suddenly then these things can happen. I mean, I could make a judgment myself privately, this is a terrible, evil, horrific man. But the job was to portray the man, the human being. There"s a sort of banality, that everydayness, that I think was important. And it was in the screenplay. In fact, one of the first scenes with Oskar Schindler, with Liam Neeson, was a scene where I'm saying, You don"t understand how hard it is, I have to order so many-so many meters of barbed wire and so many fencing posts and I have to get so many people from A to B. And, you know, he"s sort of letting off steam about the difficulties of the job."

In 1994, he portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show. In 1996 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the World War II epic romance The English Patient in which he starred with Kristin Scott-Thomas. Fiennes' film work has ranged from thrillers (Spider) to animated Biblical epic (The Prince of Egypt) to campy nostalgia (The Avengers) to romantic comedy (Maid in Manhattan) to historical drama (Sunshine).

In 1999, Fiennes starred in the legendary role of Eugene Onegin in Onegin, a movie which he also helped produce. His sister Martha Fiennes directed and brother Magnus composed the score.

The Constant Gardener was released in 2005 with Fiennes in the central role. The film is set in Kenya, dealing in part with real people in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani. The situation affected the cast and crew to the extent that they set up the Constant Gardener Trust to provide basic education for children of these villages. Fiennes is a patron of the charity.

He is also a patron of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.

Fiennes portrayed Lord Voldemort in the 2005 fantasy film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He kept the role for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 and Part 2.

Fiennes' 2006 performance in the play Faith Healer gained him a nomination for a 2007 Tony Award. In 2008, Fiennes worked with frequent collaborator director Jonathan Kent to play the title role in Sophocles's Oedipus the King at the National Theatre in London. In 2008, he played the Duke of Devonshire in the film The Duchess, and played the protagonist in The Reader.

In February 2009, Fiennes was the special guest of the Belgrade's Film Festival FEST. He filmed his version of Shakespeare's Coriolanus in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.

Fiennes reunited with Kathryn Bigelow for her Iraq War opus, The Hurt Locker, released in 2009, appearing as an English mercenary. In April 2010, he played Hades, reuniting with his former co-star from Schindler's List, Liam Neeson, who played Zeus in Clash of the Titans, a remake of the 1981 film of the same name. In 2012, he starred in the twenty-third James Bond film, Skyfall, directed by Sam Mendes. He will replace Dame Judi Dench as M in future Bond films.

Personal life

Fiennes is a UNICEF UK ambassador and has done work in India, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda and Romania.

Fiennes met English actress Alex Kingston while they were both students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After dating for ten years, they married in 1993. They divorced in 1997.

In 1995, Fiennes began an affair with Francesca Annis, whom he met when she played his mother Gertrude in the play Hamlet. After 11 years together, the couple separated in February 2006.

Work

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	'	T. E. Lawrence	Television film
1991	Prime Suspect	Michael (a victim's boyfriend)	Television series
1992	Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights	Heathcliff
1993	'
	Schindler's List	Amon Göth
1997	Oscar and Lucinda	Oscar Hopkins
1998	'	John Steed	}}
	'	Rameses II
1999	Sunshine	Ignatz Sonnenschein Adam Sors Ivan Sors
	Onegin	Evgeny Onegin	Also executive producer
	'	Maurice Bendrix
2000	'	Jesus Christ
2002	Spider	Dennis "Spider" Cleg
2002	'	Tony Angel	Uncredited
	Red Dragon	Francis Dolarhyde	Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Maid in Manhattan	Christopher Marshall	Nominated - Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock
2005	'	Mayor Michael Ebbs
	Chromophobia	Stephen Tulloch
	'	Justin Quayle
	Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit	Lord Victor Quartermaine	Nominated - Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
	'	Todd Jackson
	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Lord Voldemort	Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best Villain Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2006	Land of the Blind	Joe
2007	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Lord Voldemort	Scream Award for Best Villain
2008	Bernard and Doris	Bernard Lafferty	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film|Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film|Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie}}
	In Bruges	Harry Waters	Nominated - British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
	'	William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire
	'	Older Michael Berg
2009	'	Contractor Team Leader
2010	Cemetery Junction	Mr. Kendrick
	Clash of the Titans	Hades
	Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang	Lord Gray
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1	Lord Voldemort
	'	George Mallory
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2	Lord Voldemort	People's Choice Award for Favorite Ensemble Movie Cast San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Scream Award for Best Villain Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - Scream Award for Best Ensemble Nominated - IGN Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast
	Page Eight	Alec Beasley
	Rev.	Bishop of London	Television series
	Coriolanus	Coriolanus	Also director and producer Nominated - Golden Berlin Bear for Best Director Nominated - BAFTA Film Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer Nominated - British Independent Film Award for Best Debut Director
2012	Wrath of the Titans	Hades
	Skyfall	Gareth Mallory/M
	Great Expectations	Magwitch
2013	The Invisible Woman	Charles Dickens	Post-Production

Stage

• Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (1985) - Role: Curio - Directed by Richard Digby Day - New Shakespeare Company - Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London
• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (1985) - Role: Cobweb - Directed by Toby Robertson - New Shakespeare Company - Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London
• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (1986) - Role: Lysander - Directed by David Conville and Emma Freud - New Shakespeare Company - Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London and New Shakespeare Company's European Tour
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1986) - Role: Romeo - Directed by Declan Donnellan - New Shakespeare Company - Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, London
• Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (1987) - Role: Son - Directed by Michael Rudman - National Theatre's Olivier Theatre, London
• Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev (1987) - Role: Arkady Nikolayevich Kirsanov - Directed by Michael Rudman - National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre, London
• Ting Tang Mine by Nick Darke (1987) - Role: Lisha Ball - Directed by Michael Rudman - National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre, London
• Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (1988) - Role: Claudio - Directed by Di Trevis - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
• The Plantagenets: Henry VI, The Rise of Edward IV, Richard III His Death by William Shakespeare (1988-1989) - Role: Henry VI, ghost of Henry VI - Directed by Adrian Noble - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Barbican Theatre, London
• King John (1989) by William Shakespeare - Role: Dauphin - Directed by Deborah Warner - The Other Place Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and The Pit Theatre, London
• The Man Who Came to Dinner by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman (1989) - Role: Bert Jefferson - Directed by Ron Gene Saks - The Royal Shakespeare Company - Barbican Theatre, London
• Playing with Trains by Stephen Poliakoff (1989) - Role: Gant - Directed by Ron Daniels - The Royal Shakespeare Company - The Pit Theatre, London
• Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare (1990) - Role: Troilus - Directed by Sam Mendes - The Royal Shakespeare Company - Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
• King Lear by William Shakespeare (1990) - Role: Edmund - Directed by Nicholas Hytner - The Royal Shakespeare Company - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
• Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare (1991) - Role: Berowne - Directed by Terry Hands - The Royal Shakespeare Company - Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Barbican Theatre, London
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1995) - Role: Hamlet, with Francesca Annis as Gertrude - Directed by Jonathan Kent - The Almeida Theatre Company - Hackney Empire, London and Belasco Theatre on Broadway, NY
• Ivanov by Anton Chekhov translated by David Hare (February-April 1997) - Role: Ivanov - Directed by Jonathan Kent - The Almeida Theatre Company - Almeida Theatre, London
• Coriolanus by William Shakespeare (2000) - Role: Coriolanus - Directed by Jonathan Kent - The Almeida Theatre Company - Gainsborough Film Studios in Shoreditch, London and BAM Harvey Theatre in Brooklyn, New York City
• Richard II by William Shakespeare (2000) - Role: Richard II - Directed by Jonathan Kent - The Almeida Theatre Company - Gainsborough Film Studios in Shoreditch, London and BAM Harvey Theatre in Brooklyn, New York City
• The Play What I Wrote by Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben (2001) - Role: Sir Ralph Fiennes - Directed by Kenneth Branagh - The Duo The Right Size - Wyndham's Theatre, West End
• The Talking Cure by Christopher Hampton (2003) - Role: Carl Jung - Directed by Howard Davies - National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre, London
• Brand by Henrik Ibsen (2003) - Role: Brand - Directed by Adrian Noble - The Royal Shakespeare Company - Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon and Theatre Royal Haymarket, West End
• Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (2005) - Role: Mark Anthony - Directed by Deborah Warner - Barbican Centre, London & tour
• Faith Healer by Brian Friel (2006) - Role: Frank Hardy - Directed by Jonathan Kent - Gate Theatre, Dublin and Booth Theatre on Broadway, New York City
• First Love by Samuel Beckett - Sydney Festival 2007
• God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (2008) - Role: Alain Reille - Gielgud Theatre, West End
• Oedipus the King by Sophocles (2008) - Role: Oedipus - National Theatre, London
• The Tempest by William Shakespeare (2011) - Role: Prospero - Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

Selected television credits

• Prime Suspect (1991)

Selected other projects, contributions

• When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics) - "Sonnet 129" ("Th'expense of spirit in a waste of shame")

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1993 - New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor - Schindler's List
• 1994 - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Schindler's List
• 1994 - NSFC Award, DFWFCA Award, and CFCA Award for Best Supporting Actor - Schindler's List
• 1995 - ALFS Award for British Actor of the Year - Schindler's List
• 1995 - Tony Award for Best Actor - Hamlet
• 1999 - European Film Award for Best Actor - Sunshine
• 2005 - Krzysztof Kie?lowski Award for his body of work as a thespian
• 2006 - Honorary Fellowship of UCD Dramatic Society for services to theatre
• 2007 - Spike TV's 2007 Scream Awards for Most Vile Villain - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• 2007 - The James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society.

Nominations

• 1994 - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - Schindler's List
• 1994 - Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Schindler's List
• 1994 - MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance - Schindler's List
• 1996 - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast - The English Patient
• 1997 - Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role - The English Patient
• 1997 - BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - The English Patient
• 1997 - Golden Globe and Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - The English Patient
• 1999 - Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production - The Prince of Egypt
• 2000 - BAFTA Film Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - The End of the Affair
• 2000 - Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Sunshine
• 2001 - ALFS Award for British Actor of the Year - The End of the Affair
• 2003 - Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor - Red Dragon
• 2003 - Teen Choice Award - Choice Movie Liplock (shared with Jennifer Lopez) - Maid in Manhattan
• 2006 - BAFTA Award - Best Actor - The Constant Gardener
• 2006 - Annie Awards - Best Voice/Animation - Wallace & Gromit - Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• 2006 - MTV Movie Awards - Best Villain - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• 2008 - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - The Duchess

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