Ralph Fiennes: biography, filmography, personal life (photo)

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

An actor with an unusual name and courageous appearance is known to many cinema fans. Films with Ralph Fiennes, charming and talented, can impress even an extremely critical viewer - the actor has many dramatic roles in his track record. How did he get the idea to choose this career and what does he do in his spare time?

Childhood of the actor

The real name of the British star is Rafe Nathaniel Twhistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. He was born in Ipswich, located in the English county of Suffolk, UK. The actor's parents were creative people, but they had nothing to do with the world of cinema: father Mark Fiennes is a famous photographer, and Rafe's mother, Jennifer Lash, is a writer and artist. There were many children in the family - seven. Fiennes has three younger brothers named Joseph, Magnus and Jacob, and two younger sisters, Martha and Sophie. In addition, there is a brother, Michael, whom Fiennes' parents adopted at the age of eleven. The family is related to the British royal family. However, the glorious and ancient family of English aristocrats did not have a special chance to become famous. Everything changed only with the birth of Rafe, after which the family was born andother extremely talented children. So the Fiennes family became famous all over the world.

Road to an acting career

The father of the family was not limited to photography and was engaged in the repair of houses, because of which the family constantly moved. Rafe did not manage to make friends, many classmates simply seemed boring to him. When Ralph Fiennes graduated from high school, the family moved to London. There he entered college, where he devoted himself to the study of art and design. But the vocation could not fail to make itself felt - he soon entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. This institution is the most prestigious place for studying the acting profession in the UK. In 1986, he graduated and began working at the Royal National Theatre.

First roles

Immediately after graduation, Ralph Fiennes started getting good roles. In the troupe of the Royal National Theater he was lucky to play in productions under the names "Henry the Sixth", "Love's Labour's Vain" and "King Lear". And already in 1990, the actor first appeared in the cinema. His first role was participation in the mini-series Prime Suspect, the creators of which received Emmy and BAFTA awards for their work. The start of a career was successfully laid. In 1992, Rafe starred in the film Wuthering Heights, based on the novel of the same name by Emily Bronte, and in 1993, he got a role in the film Macon's Child. Each of the works was successful, but they did not bring wide fame to the actor. The situation changed somewhat when Ralph Fiennes took part in the film Dangerous Man: Lawrence afterArabia", where he played the main character, Thomas Edward Lawrence. For this work, the actor received the first award - "Emmy".

Dramatic look

1993 brought more than just an award. In the same year, the aspiring actor Ralph Fiennes was spotted by Steven Spielberg. The director offered the Briton a role in his large-scale project called Schindler's List. Rafe had to reincarnate as a cruel Nazi, commandant of the concentration camp Amon Göth. The difficult role justified every minute of effort - Ralph Fiennes became a world famous actor. In addition, he was highly appreciated in various film academies. He received an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor, the MTV Movie Awards for Breakthrough of the Year, and awards from the film critics' communities in Boston, Fort Worth, Chicago and London. Many newspapers and magazines wrote about Rife, and even those who have not seen other films with the actor's participation remember his name after Schindler's List, which has become a cult over the years.

Ups and downs

Spielberg's successful role changed everything. Ralph Fiennes, whose roles were very worthy before, became a real star. In 1994, he took part in a historical tape called "TV show". In 1995, James Cameron's film Strange Days was released, in which the actor played Lenny Nero. For this image, he received the Saturn Award in the nomination of the best film actor. The next year was especially successful - Rafe played in the melodrama The English Patient, based on the novel of the same name. Workturned out so impressive that the actor received three awards for it at once - Golden Globe, Oscar and an award from BAFTA. In the same year, he also managed to star in a BBC mini-series about the First World War. 1997 pleased the audience with the Oscar and Lucinda film, where the actor got the main role. But there were also failures. In 1998, Ralph Fiennes, whose filmography included extremely successful tapes, starred in a comedy action movie called The Avengers. This work turned out to be a failure - the acting duet with Uma Thurman was considered one of the worst, for which the tape was nominated for the Golden Raspberry.

Ten years on screen

Ralph Fiennes, whose filmography began in the early nineties, managed to star in many different films over the decade. After the failure with The Avengers, he quickly rehabilitated his image as a talented actor, starring in the film adaptation of Pushkin's novel Eugene Onegin. The director on the set was his sister Marta. In addition, in the same year, Fiennes first took part in voice acting, having worked on the animated film The Prince of Egypt. In 1999, Taste of Sunshine was released, in which an actor who started his career as a Nazi played a Hungarian Jew during the Holocaust. In the same year, the tape "The End of the Affair" was released, and in 2000, Fiennes delighted fans with appearances in the television films "The Miracle Worker" and "How Proust Can Change Your Life."

New Millennium

Ralph Fiennes did not think to stop at one dozen years of work. Therefore, 2002 pleased the audience with four tapes at once with their belovedactor. In "Spider" based on the novel by Patrick McGrath, Rafe played a mentally unbalanced person, and in "Red Dragon" he had to completely reincarnate as a murderous maniac. In "Mistress of the Maid" and "The Good Thief" the actor's characters were much more calm and familiar. In 2004, he worked on the set of the film Hollywood and the Holocaust, and 2005 turned out to be busy again - six tapes came out at once. At the beginning of the year, Charmsrubbers and Chromophobia appeared on the screens, and then The Constant Gardener attracted the attention of film critics. For the role of Justin Quayle, Fiennes received a BAFTA award, and the film itself was nominated several times by the Academy for Oscars. For Wallace and Gromit, Rafe tried his hand at voice acting again. After the premiere of The White Countess, a new part of the world-famous wizard boy franchise has been released.

Magic on set

In the film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" the actor played the sinister magician Voldemort. For this image, Ralph Fiennes, whose filmography previously did not include such films, received an award from the MTV Movie Awards in the nomination "Best Movie Villain". For filming, complex multi-layered makeup was used, but even in such conditions, the actor managed to show his artistry. It is not surprising that all subsequent parts of the franchise enjoyed continued success. In 2007, the fifth, titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was released, and three years later, the final of the two films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I and II, appeared on the screens. Together with the actor, such stars as Helena Bonham Carter andAlan Rickman, and young Radcliffe, Grint and Watson, the franchise gave a path to the world of cinema.

Roles of recent years

Ralph Fiennes, whose photos now and then appear on posters, does not lose popularity. In 2010, he starred in the theatrical film Coriolanus, where he also tried himself as a director and producer, and Tom Hiddleston, the star of the Thor franchise, joined him on the set. 2012 pleased the audience not only with Wrath of the Titans and Great Expectations, but also with the new part of Bondiana with the participation of Fiennes. In addition, in the film The Invisible Woman, the actor played Charles Dickens himself. In 2014, the film "The Grand Budapest Hotel" was released, which immediately turned out to be extremely successful. On TV, the premieres of the tapes "Turks and Caicos" and "S alty Battlefield" took place. The release of the film "Two Women" is planned for the same year, "Bond 24" is scheduled for 2015, and in another year, fans should expect "Flying Horse", in which Ralph Fiennes also plays the main role.

Actor's personal life

In 1993, the Briton married an actress named Alex Kingston. The relationship between them started while still in college. But the actor could not play the role of an exemplary family man for a long time - he soon began a relationship with Francesca Annis, an actress who is seventeen years older than Fiennes. The wife could not put up with this situation for a long time, and the marriage ended in divorce after four years of marriage, in 1997. After that, Ralph Fiennes and his women did not attract the attention of the public - the actor's new relationshipremained in the shadows, the actor did not intend to marry a second time. In 1995 he was named one of the 100 sexiest men in cinema by Empire magazine, and in 1997 he was named one of the 100 best movie stars of all time. Perhaps his heart is free, loving fans guess, but Fiennes himself does not give any information on this matter. The actor's relatives are busy in the world of cinema, so Rafe now and then runs into brothers or sisters on the set. The younger brother Joseph played Shakespeare himself in the melodrama Shakespeare in Love. Sister Marta became a film director, and even filmed her older brother in one of her films. Sophie works as a producer, and Magnus became a composer. Only Jacob decided to stay away from creative professions and chose to become a forester. With Martha, the actor is closest. It is she who shares his ideas about cinema. However, unlike Rafe, her sister manages to combine life in art with family life - Martha has a beloved husband and children. In his spare time from filming, the actor participates in various UNICEF programs, of which he is a goodwill ambassador.