Ralph Fiennes
Birthdate: Dec 22, 1962
Birthplace: Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK
Ralph Fiennes (birthname: Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes) is one of the most lauded and respected British actors of his generation, earning a Tony, a BAFTA as well as Oscar and Emmy nominations. Fiennes, after a remarkable decade as a major actor in British theater and the Shakespearean stage, made his big-screen debut in the co-starring role with Juliette Binoche in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1992), with Janet McTeer, Jeremy Northam, Simon Ward and Sinéad O’Connor (portraying author Brontë) under Peter Kosminsky’s direction.
Fiennes was cast by the stylish British filmmaker Peter Greenaway in his highly controversial drama, The Baby of Mâcon (1993), co-starring Julia Ormond, Philip Stone, Don Henderson, and Celia Gregory, and premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Fiennes made his breakthrough and scored his first Oscar supporting nomination as Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama, Schindler’s List (1993), starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall, and Embeth Davidtz, and winning seven Oscars (including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay), and grossing $322 million (on $22 million costs).
Ralph Fiennes joined director Robert Redford for his second consecutive Best Picture Oscar-nominated movie and second consecutive historical figure as the disgraced TV gameshow contestant Charles Van Doren in Quiz Show (1994), with John Turturro, Rob Morrow, David Paymer and Paul Scofield and released by Buena Vista Pictures. Fiennes continued his run of Best Picture Oscar movies (and his second Oscar nomination) as co-star with Juliette Binoche in The English Patient (1996), directed and written by Anthony Minghella from Michael Ondaatje’s 1992 novel, with Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth and Jürgen Prochnow, and grossing nearly ten times costs with a $232 million gross.
Fiennes starred with Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea in writer/director Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1951 novel, The End of the Affair (1999), with Ian Hart and Jason Isaacs, and released to poor results by Sony Pictures Releasing. Fiennes co-starred in the Hannibal Lecter sequel, Red Dragon (2002), with Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Tally and grossing $209 million for Universal Pictures.
Ralph Fiennes joined director Wayne Wang for Columbia Pictures’ rom-com, Maid in Manhattan (2002), co-starring Jennifer Lopez, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci and Bob Hoskins, and returning a sweet $154 million global gross. Fiennes starred with Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actress Rachel Weisz in the Fernando Meirelles-directed adaptation of John le Carré’s 2001 novel, The Constant Gardener (2005), co-starring Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, and Pete Postlethwaite, and turning a profitable $82.4 million for Universal Pictures and United International Pictures.
Fiennes turned to crime comedy-drama as a crime boss in Oscar-nominated director/writer Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges (2008), co-starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and grossing $34.5 million for Focus Features/Universal Pictures. Fiennes co-starred with Keira Knightley in the 18th-century historical Oscar-nominated drama, The Duchess (2008), with Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, and Hayley Atwell under co-writer Saul Dibb’s direction and released in the U.S . by Paramount Vantage.
Ralph Fiennes joined Kate Winslet to lead the cast of the WW2-themed romantic drama, The Reader (2008), co-starring David Kross, Lena Olin, and Bruno Ganz, directed by Stephen Daldry and written by David Hare, and delivering a strong $109 million (against $32 million costs) with distribution via The Weinstein Company. Fiennes was in the cast of another Best Picture Oscar winner in a supporting role in his second movie with director Kathryn Bigelow (after Strange Days in 19XX), The Hurt Locker (2009), written and co-produced by Mark Boal and co-starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, David Morse and Guy Pearce, and though it delivered muted box office for distributor Summit Entertainment, won six of its nine Oscar nominations (including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay).
Fiennes took on another supporting role—as Hades, God of the Underworld--in the hit fantasy movie, Clash of the Titans (2010), starring Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, and Liam Neeson under Louis Leterrier’s direction and grossing over $493 million worldwide for Warner Bros., as well as the less-successful sequel, Wrath of the Titans (2012), directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Fiennes appeared in another literary adaptation as the criminal Magwitch in the Mike Newell-directed Dickens adaptation, Great Expectations (2012), starring Jeremy Irvine, Robbie Coltrane, and Helena Bonham Carter—which followed with Fiennes portraying Dickens himself while also directing the Dickens biopic, The Invisible Woman (2013).
Ralph Fiennes led the colorful ensemble of filmmaker Wes Anderson’s highly acclaimed comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), co-starring F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Almaric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Lea Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Owen Wilson, earning over $174 million after premiering at the Berlin Film Festival.
Fiennes joined another vivid ensemble for a very different starring role in director/producer Luca Guadagnino’s drama, A Bigger Splash (2015), loosely based by screenwriter David Kajganich on Jacques Deray’s La Piscine (1969) and co-starring Matthias Schoenaerts, Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson, premiering in competition at the Venice Film Festival and grossing $7.5 million with distributors StudioCanal and Lucky Red (in Italy).
Fiennes continued his screen work with ensembles with the role of an exiled European director in the Coen Brothers’ Hollywood comedy, Hail, Caesar! (2016), co-starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum, grossing a good $63 million (on $22 million costs) for Universal Pictures. Fiennes headed the versatile cast of director/writer/producer Matthew Vaughn’s third entry in the Kingsman franchise, The King’s Man (2021), co-starring Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Harris Dickinson, and Djimon Hounsou, but losing considerable money for 20th Century Studios.
Ralph Fiennes portrayed a master chef with a fatal agenda in the black comedy, The Menu (2022), with Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and grossing nearly $80 million for Searchlight Pictures. Fiennes led the impressive cast of the Vatican drama, Conclave (2024), starring Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini under Edward Berger’s direction, premiering at the Telluride Film Festival and released by Focus Features.
Fiennes took on the role of Odysseus in a rare film adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, The Return (2024), co-written by Edward Bond, John Collee and director/producer Uberto Pasolini, and marking Fiennes’ third co-starring movie with Juliette Binoche, and with Charlie Plummer, Tom Rhys and Marwan Kenzari, and released by Bleeker Street after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Fiennes teamed up with director/co-writer/producer Danny Boyle for the third movie in Columbia Pictures/Sony Releasing’s 28 Days Later series, 28 Years Later (2025), joining Cillian Murphy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer Jack O’Connell, and then Fiennes played opposite Jim Broadbent and Simon Russell Beale under Nicholas Hytner’s direction in The Choral (date to be announced), based on an original screenplay (and not a play) by Alan Bennett, and released by Sony Pictures Classics.
Ralph Fiennes portrayed another historical figure—renowned architect Mies van der Rohe—in director/writer Richard Press’s drama, Farnsworth House (date to be announced), co-starring Elizabeth Debicki. Fiennes’ voice roles include The Prince of Egypt (1998), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), The Lego Batman Movie (2017)
Fiennes has delivered a pair of recurring roles in huge commercial behemoths; first as Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 (2011); and second, as Gareth Mallory aka M in the James Bond franchise movies Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021).
Fiennes has one of the most robust track records as a filmmaker among film actors who’ve turned to directing and producing, first as director/producer Coriolanus (2011); director of the Charles Dickens biopic, The Invisible Woman; director/producer of the Rudolf Nureyev biopic, The White Crow (2018); producer of Four Quartets (2022), and director/writer as well as actor of The Beacon (date to be announced), as well as credits as executive producer on Onegin (1999), The King’s Man, Conclave and The Return.
Personal Details
Ralph Fiennes was born in Ipswich, England in the county of Suffolk. He was raised in Ipswich, County Cork and County Kilkenny in Ireland, and in Salisbury, England by parents Mark Fiennes (farmer, photographer) and Jennifer Lash (writer). Fiennes has five younger siblings, including actor Joseph Fiennes, filmmaker Sophie Fiennes, conservationist Jacob Fiennes, composer Magnus Fiennes, and director Martha Fiennes, as well as a foster brother, archeologist Michael Emery. Fiennes attended St. Kieran’s College (in Ireland’s County Kilkenny), Newtown School (in Ireland’s County Waterford), and then Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury, England.
Fiennes graduated from that school and studied painting in university at Chelsea College of Arts but switched to acting and attended London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1983 to 1985. Fiennes was married to actor Alex Kingston from 1993 to 1997 after dating for ten years. Fiennes had an affair with actor Francesca Annis during his marriage to Kingston and then had a relationship with her for eleven years until their separation in 2006. Fiennes’s height is 5’ 11”. Fiennes’s estimated net worth is $50 million.
Filmography
actor
Upcoming (1)
- 2025 | 28 Years Later
28 Years Later
Plot under wraps. The third film in the "28 Days Later" franchise.
Previous (19)
- 2024 |
- 2023 | Four QuartetsasSelf
Four Quartets
In the shadow of the Second World War, performance of a poem is a searching examination of who and what - we are. A journey into the imagination, bound by experience, memory and time.
- 2022 |
- 2021 | The King’s ManasDuke of Oxford
The King’s Man
In the early years of the 20th century, the Kingsman agency is formed to stand against a cabal plotting a war to wipe out millions.
- 2021 | No Time to DieasM
No Time to Die
James Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when Felix Leiter, an old friend from the CIA, turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.
- 2020 |
- 2019 | Official SecretsasBen Emmerson
Official Secrets
The true story of a British whistleblower who leaked information to the press about an illegal NSA spy operation designed to push the UN Security Council into sanctioning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- 2019 |
- 2018 | Holmes & WatsonasProfessor James Moriarty
Holmes & Watson
A humorous take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic mysteries featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
- 2018 | Schindler’s List: 2018 Re-releaseasAmon Goeth
Schindler’s List: 2018 Re-release
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
- 2018 | National Theatre Live: Antony & CleopatraasAntony
National Theatre Live: Antony & Cleopatra
Caesar and his assassins are dead. General Mark Antony now rules alongside his fellow defenders of Rome. But at the fringes of a war-torn empire the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony have fallen fiercely in love.
- 2017 | The Lego Batman MovieasAlfred Pennyworth
The Lego Batman Movie
A cooler-than-ever Bruce Wayne must deal with the usual suspects as they plan to rule Gotham City, while discovering that he has accidentally adopted a teenage orphan who wishes to become his sidekick.
- 2016 | Kubo and the Two StringsasMoon King
Kubo and the Two Strings
A young boy named Kubo must locate a magical suit of armour worn by his late father in order to defeat a vengeful spirit from the past.
- 2016 | Hail, Caesar!asLaurence Laurentz
Hail, Caesar!
A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line.
- 2015 |
- 2012 | Wrath of the TitansasHades
Wrath of the Titans
Perseus braves the treacherous underworld to rescue his father, Zeus, captured by his son, Ares, and brother Hades who unleash the ancient Titans upon the world.
- 2009 | The Hurt LockerasContractor Team Leader
The Hurt Locker
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
- 1996 | The English PatientasAlmásy
The English Patient
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
- 1993 | Schindler’s ListasAmon Goeth
Schindler’s List
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Some Facts About Ralph Fiennes
Family Tree: Ralph Fiennes has a family tree including grandfather and industrialist Maurice Fiennes, and family descending from the British peerage name of Baron Saye and Sele, including great-grandfather Alberic Arthur Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, and great-great-grandfather Frederick Benjamin Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes.
Dual Citizen: Fiennes received honorary Serbian citizenship in 2017.
International Views: Ralph Fiennes supports the United Nations as a UNICEF ambassador and through his work with them in India, Kyrgyzstan, Uganda, and Romania, Fiennes also opposed “Brexit,” the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.
