Ralph Fiennes

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A profile of the respected stage and screen actor whose films include The English Patient, Schindler's List and The Constant Gardener. And it's pronounced 'Rafe' don't you know...

Biography

Curious

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Ralph Fiennes
born: 22-12-1962
birth place: Suffolk, England

He starred in ‘Sunshine’ (1999), a drama surrounding the fate of a Hungarian Jewish family through the twentieth century, and won the 1999 European Film Award for Best Actor. The romantic drama, ‘Onegin’ (1999), was directed by his sister, Martha Fiennes, starred Fiennes as Evgeny Onegin and had him working for the first time as Executive Producer. He then played the role of Maurice Bendrix in ‘The End of the Affair’ (1999), an intense romantic war drama, directed by Neil Jordan, with Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea, for which he received BAFTA and London Critics Circle Award nominations.

Returning to London theatre, Fiennes played the title roles in Anton Chekhov’s ‘Ivanov’ (1997), and William Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus’ (2000) and ‘Richard II’ (2000). Having previously played roles in television films in the early 1990s – ‘Prime Suspect’ (1991) and ‘The Cormorant’ (1993) - Fiennes returned to the small screen once more, to star in ‘How Proust Can Change Your Life’ (2000). It was a documentary drama, directed by Peter Bevan, about the great 20th-century French writer, Proust. Following that, he provided the voice of Jesus in the animated Biblical story ‘The Miracle Maker’ (2000) and performed a cameo in ‘The Play What I Wrote’ (2001), directed by Kenneth Branagh.

His uncredited role in ‘The Good Thief’ (2002) was followed by critical acclaim, along with Miranda Richardson, for their performances in David Cronenberg’s award-winning thriller, ‘Spider’ (2002). Also that year were his roles as Francis Dolarhyde in ‘Red Dragon’ (2002), the prequel to Ridley Scott’s ‘Hannibal’ (2001) starring Anthony Hopkins, and as Chris Marshall in romantic comedy ‘Maid in Manhattan’ (2002), with Jennifer Lopez.

2003 found Fiennes back in the theatre, in ‘The Talking Cure’ (2003) by Christopher Hampton and in ‘Brand’ (2003) by Henrik Ibsen. In 2004, he was cast as Lord Voldemort in the fourth of the enormously successful Harry Potter series, ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ (2005). It was a role which he initially refused, but then accepted when he realised what fun it could be playing the ultimate villain in this children’s story, that is possibly even more popular with adults. He is set to reprise the roles in the Harry Potter sequels.

‘The Chumscrubber’ (2005), showing the dark underbelly of upper-class suburbia, had Fiennes playing Mayor Micheal Ebbs and he was Stephen Tulloch in ‘Chromophobia’ (2005), written and directed by Martha Fiennes. He played Mark Anthony in the theatre production of Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ (2005) in the Barbican Centre, London.

Starring as Justin Quayle, opposite Rachel Weisz, in ‘The Constant Gardiner’ (2005), a story of murder and conspiracy, based on the best-selling John le Carre novel, won Fiennes the 2005 British Independent Film Award for Best Actor and the 2006 ALFS Award for British Actor of the Year. The film was set in the slums of Kibera, Northern Kenya and it affected the crew so intensely that they formed The Constant Gardiner Trust to provide basic education for the villages in the area. Fiennes is patron of the charity.

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