He is also well known for his portrayals of infamous villains, such as Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Schindler's List, serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon, and Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film series. Most recently, he appeared in The Reader (2008), In Bruges (2008) The Hurt Locker (2009) and as Hades in Clash of the Titans (2010).
He won a Tony Award and has been nominated twice for Academy Awards. He is also a UNICEF UK ambassador.
Early life and family
Ralph Fiennes was born in Ipswich, the eldest child of Jennifer Lash (1938–1993), a writer of English and Irish descent, and Mark Fiennes (1933–2004), a farmer and photographer whose father was industrialist Sir Maurice Fiennes (1907–1994). His surname is of Norman origin.
Fiennes is an eighth cousin of the Prince of Wales, and a third cousin of the adventurer Ranulph Fiennes and author William Fiennes. The eldest of six children, his siblings are actor Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, Luther, FlashForward); 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 before attending Chelsea College of Art.
Career
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| Ralph Fiennes with Eddie and Gloria Minghella at the 2011 Minghella Film Festival |
Fiennes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He began his career at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park and, also during the late 1980s, the National Theatre before becoming a star in 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, for which he received substantial acclaim and praise throughout Europe.
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.
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."
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| Ralph Fiennes at the Berlin Film Festival 2011 |
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' work has ranged from thrillers (Red Dragon) to animated Biblical epic (The Prince of Egypt) to campy nostalgia (The Avengers) to romantic comedy (Maid in Manhattan) to offbeat dramedy (Oscar and Lucinda) and historical drama (Sunshine). In 1999, Fiennes returned to playing brooding, tormented lovers in Onegin and The End of the Affair.
The Constant Gardener, another vehicle for Fiennes as brooding lover, was released in 2005 with Fiennes in the title role. The film is set in Kenya, dealing in part with poor people in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani. The situation affected the 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.
Fiennes portrayed Lord Voldemort in the 2005 fantasy film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He kept the role for both Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2. However, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there is a flashback scene in which Voldemort is an 11 year-old boy – the character was played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, Fiennes's nephew, for this scene.
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.
Personal life
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| Fiennes in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 2003 during his visit as a UNICEF UK ambassador. |
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, following Daily Mail's report claiming that Fiennes had an affair with Romanian singer Cornelia Crisan.
In February 2007, staff aboard a Qantas flight from Sydney, Australia to Mumbai, India caught Fiennes leaving an aircraft lavatory with 38-year-old flight attendant Lisa Robertson. At first denying allegations of a tryst, Robertson later confessed to having unprotected sex in the lavatory with Fiennes, whom she had met just hours before. Fiennes was en route to Mumbai, as a participant in AIDS awareness efforts for UNICEF. The organisation retained Fiennes as an ambassador; Qantas fired Robertson.
Work
Filmography
1990 A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia T. E. Lawrence Television film
1991 Prime Suspect Michael (a victim's boyfriend) Television series
1992 Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights Heathcliff
1993 The Baby of Mâcon The Bishop's son
1993 Schindler's List Amon Göth
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actor
London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best British Actor
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance
1994 Quiz Show Charles Van Doren
1995 Strange Days Lenny Nero Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actor
1996 The English Patient Count László de Almássy
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1997 Oscar and Lucinda Oscar Hopkins
1998 The Avengers John Steed
Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Actor
Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple (with Uma Thurman)
1998 The Prince of Egypt Rameses II
Nominated – Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
1999 Sunshine Ignatz Sonnenschein
Adam Sors
Ivan Sors
European Film Awards for Best European Actor
Nominated – Genie Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
1999 Onegin Evgeny Onegin Also executive producer
1999 The End of the Affair Maurice Bendrix
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best British Actor
2000 The Miracle Maker Jesus Christ
2002 Spider Dennis "Spider" Cleg
Nominated – European Film Award for Best European Actor
Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best British Actor
2002 The Good Thief Tony Angel Uncredited
2002 Red Dragon Francis Dolarhyde Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2002 Maid in Manhattan Christopher Marshall Nominated – Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Liplock
2005 The Chumscrubber Mayor Michael Ebbs
2005 Chromophobia Stephen Tulloch
2005 The Constant Gardener Justin Quayle
Evening Standards British Film Award for Best Actor
London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best British Actor
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
2005 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Lord Victor Quartermaine Nominated – Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
2005 The White Countess Todd Jackson
2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Lord Voldemort Nominated – MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
2006 Land of the Blind Joe
2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Lord Voldemort
2007 Bernard and Doris Bernard Lafferty
Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie
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
2008 In Bruges Harry Waters Nominated – British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
2008 The Duchess William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire
Nominated – British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Nominated – Irish Film and Television Award for Best International Actor
Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for Best British Actor
2008 The Reader Older Michael Berg
2009 The Hurt Locker Contractor Team Leader
Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble
2010 Cemetery Junction Mr Kendrick
2010 Clash of the Titans Hades
2010 Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang Lord Gray
2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 Lord Voldemort
2010 The Wildest Dream George Mallory
2011 Coriolanus Coriolanus Also director and producer
2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Lord Voldemort Scream Award for Best Villian
Nominated – Scream Award for Best Ensemble
2011 Page Eight Alec Beasley
2012 Wrath of the Titans Hades
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