Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (born December 22, 1962) is an English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre. His siblings are 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 earliest films include Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1992), with Juliette Binoche; and Peter Greenway’s The Baby of Mâcon (1993), with Julia Ormond and Philip Stone.

His portrayal of Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg‘s Schindler’s List (1993), with Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley; earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His performance as Count Almásy in Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient (1996), with Binoche, Willem Dafoe, and Kristen Scott Thomas; garnered him a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.

Other films of the 1990s include Robert Redford‘s Quiz Show (1994), with John Turturro and Rob Morrow; Kathryn Bigelow‘s Strange Days (1995), with Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore; Neil Jordan‘s The End of the Affair (1999), with Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea; Oscar and Lucinda (1997), with Cate Blanchett, Ciarán Hinds, and Tom Wilkinson; The Avengers (1998), with Uma Thurman and Sean Connery; Onegin (1999), with Liv Tyler, Toby Stephens, Lena Headey, Martin Donovan, Alun Armstrong, Harriet Walter, Irene Worth; Sunshine (1999), with Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Deborah Kara Unger, Molly Parker, James Frain, John Neville, Miriam Margolyes, and William Hurt.

Films in the 2000s include David Cronenberg‘s Spider (2002), with Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, John Neville, and Lynn Redgrave; an uncredited role in The Good Thief (2002), with Nick Nolte, Emir Kusturica, and Nutsa Kukhianidze; Red Dragon (2002), with Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, and Philip Seymour Hoffman; Wayne Wang’s Maid in Manhattan (2002), with Jennifer Lopez, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, and Bob Hoskins; The Chumscrubber (2005), with Jamie Bell, William Fuchtner, Allison Janney, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Glenn Closee; Chromophobia (2005), with Penélope Cruz, Rhys Ifans, and Ian Holm; The Constant Gardener (2005), with Weisz, Hubert Koundé, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, and Donald Sumpter; James Ivory’s The White Countess (2005), with Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Hiroyuki Sanada, Lynn Redgrave, Allan Corduner, and Madeleine Potter; Land of the Blind (2006), with Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander, and Lara Flynn Boyle; Martin McDonagh‘s In Bruges (2008), with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson; and Stephen Daldry’s The Reader (2008), with Kate Winslet; The Duchess (2008), with Kiera Knightley, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, and Hayley Atwell; The Hurt Locker (2009), with Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, David Morse, and Guy Pearce.

Films in the 2010s include Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010), with Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans, Asa Butterfield, Lil Woods, Oscar Steer, Eros Vlahos, Rosie Taylor-Ritson, Ewan McGregor, Sam Kelly, Sinead Matthews, Katy Brand, Bill Bailey, and Maggie Smith; Clash of the Titans (2010), with Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Alexa Davalos, and Neeson; Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant’s Cemetery Junction (2010), with Christian Cooke, Felicity Jones, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan, Emily Watson, and Matthew Goode; Wrath of the Titans (2012), with Worthington, Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy, Édgar Ramírez, Toby Kebbell, Danny Huston, and Neeson; Mike Newell’s Great Expectations (2012), with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Holliday Grainger, and Robbie Coltrane; Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), with Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Willam Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, Saorise Ronan, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Owen Wilson; and Vera Glagoleva’s Two Women (2013), with Anna Brenner-Vartanyan and Aleksandr Baluev.

Films in the mid to late 2010s include Luca Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash (2015), with Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Dakota Johnson; Joel & Ethan Coen‘s Hail, Caesar! (2016), with Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Swinton, and Channing Tatum; and Holmes & Watson (2018), with Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Rebecca Hall, Rob Brydon, Kelly Macdonald, and Steve Coogan; and Official Secrets (2019), with Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, Adam Bakri, and Indira Varma.

Films in the 2020s include The Dig (2021), with Carey Mulligan, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott, Archie Barnes, and Monica Dolan; Matthew Vaughn‘s The King’s Man (2021), with Arterton, Ifans, Goode, Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance; John Michael McDonagh‘s The Forgiven (2022), with Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Ismael Kanater, Caleb Landry Jones, Abbey Lee, Mourad Zaoui, Marie-Josée Croze, Alex Jennings, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Christopher Abbott; The Menu (2022), with Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo; Anderson’s anthology film The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Three More (2023), with Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, and Rupert Friend; Edward Berger’s Conclave (2024), with Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini; and Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (2024), with Binoche and Charlie Plummer.

Fiennes made his directorial debut with a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus (2011), with Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brion Cox, Jessica Chastain, John Kani, James Nesbitt, Paul Jesson, Lubna Azabal, and Ashraf Barhom; in which he also played the title character. His other directorial efforts include The Invisible Woman (2013), with Felicity Jones, Thomas, and Tom Hollander; and The White Crow (2018), with Oleg Ivenko, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Chulpan Khamatova, Aleksey Morozov, Raphaël Personnaz, Olivier Rabourdin, Ravshana Kurkova, Louis Hofmann, Sergei Polunin, and Maksimilian Grigoriyev.

Fiennes also starred in the Harry Potter film series (2005–2011), as the franchise’s main antagonist, Lord Voldemort, which collectively starred Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Coltrane, Gary Oldman, among others. He also appeared in the James Bond series (with Daniel Craig as Bond), in which he has played Gareth Mallory/M, starting Sam Mendes’s Skyfall (2012), with Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney, and Judi Dench; followed by Spectre (2015), with Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Harris, Dave Bautista, and Monica Bellucci; and Cary Joji Fukunaga’s No Time to Die (2021), with Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Whishaw, Harris, Jeffrey Wright, and Waltz.

He voiced Rameses in The Prince of Egypt (1998), with Val Kilmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short; Jesus in The Miracle Maker (2000), with Julie Christie
Richard E. Grant, Holm, Michael Bryant, Emily Mortimer, and Alfred Molina; Lord Victor Quartermaine in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), with Peter Sallis, Bonham-Carter, Peter Kay, Nicholas Smith, Dicken Ashworth, and Liz Smith; Moon King in Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), with Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, George Takei, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Brenda Vaccaro, Rooney Mara, and Matthew McConaughey; and Alfred Pennyworth in The Lego Batman Movie (2017), with Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, and Rosario Dawson.

TV movies include A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1990), with Alexander Siddig, Denis Quilley, and Nicholas Jones; Bob Balaban’s Bernard and Doris (2006), with Susan Sarandon; Page Eight (2011), with Bill Nighy, Weisz, Gambon, Tom Hughes, and Judy Davis; Turks & Caicos (2014), with Nighy, Carter, Rupert Graves, Ewen Bremner, James McArdle, Winona Ryder, Christopher Walken, Dylan Baker, Meredith Eaton, Zach Grenier, Julie Hewlett, James Naughton, and Malik Yoba; and Salting the Battlefield (2014), with Olivia Williams.

In 1995, he won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway. Since 1999, Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK. Fiennes is also an Honorary Associate of London Film School. For his work behind the camera, in 2019 he received the Stanislavsky Award.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Prime Suspect (1991) – directed by Christopher Menaul – miniseries
A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (1992) – directed by Christopher Menaul – TV movie
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1992) – directed by Peter Kosminsky
The Baby of Mâcon (1993) – directed by Peter Greenway
Schindler’s List (1993) – directed by Steven Spielberg
Quiz Show (1994) – directed by Robert Redford
Strange Days (1995) – directed by Kathryn Bigelow
The English Patient (1996) – directed by Anthony Minghella
Oscar and Lucinda (1997) – directed by Gillian Armstrong
The Avengers (1998)* – directed Jeremiah Chechik
The Prince of Egypt (1998)* – directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickmer, & Simon Wells
Sunshine (1999) – directed by István Szabó
Onegin (1999) – directed by Martha Fiennes – also executive producer
The End of the Affair (1999) – directed by Neil Jordan
Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999) – directed by Henry Arends, Jun Falkenstein, & Karl Geurs – straight to video
How Proust Can Change Your Life (2000) – directed by Peter Bevan – TV movie
The Miracle Maker (2000) – directed by Derek W. Hayes & Stanislav Sokolov
Spider (2002) – directed by David Cronenberg
The Good Thief Film (2002) – directed by Neil Jordan – uncredited
Red Dragon (2002) – directed by Brett Ratner
Maid in Manhattan (2002) – directed by Wayne Wang
Ten Days to D-Day (2004) – directed by Marion Milne – TV movie
The Chumscrubber (2005) – directed by Arie Posin
Chromophobia (2005) – directed by Martha Fiennes
The Constant Gardener (2005) – directed by Fernando Meirelles
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)* – directed by Nick Park & Steve Box
The White Countess (2005) – directed by James Ivory
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)* – directed by Mike Newell
Land of the Blind (2006) – directed by Robert Edwards
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)* – directed by David Yates
In Bruges (2008) – directed by Martin McDonough
The Duchess (2008) – directed by Saul Dibb
The Hurt Locker (2008) – directed by Kathryn Bigelow
The Reader (2008) – directed by Stephen Daldry
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)* – directed by David Yates
The Wildest Dream (2010) – directed by Anthony Geffen – documentary
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010) – directed by Susanna White – aka Nanny McPhee Returns
Clash of the Titans (2010)* – directed by Louis Leterrier
Cemetery Junction (2010) – directed by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)* – directed by David Yates
Coriolanus (2011) – also director
Page Eight (2011) – directed by David Hare
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)* – directed by David Yates
Wrath of the Titans (2012) – directed by Jonathan Liebsman
Skyfall (2012) – directed by Sam Mendes
Great Expectations (2012) – directed by Mike Newell
The Invisible Woman (2013) – also director
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)* – directed by Wes Anderson
Turks & Caicos (2014) – directed by David Hare
Salting the Battlefield (2014) – directed by David Hare
Two Women (2014) – directed by Victor Glagoleva
National Theatre Live: Man and Superman (2015) – directed by Simon Godwin – filmed play
A Bigger Splash (2015) – directed by Luca Guadagnino
Spectre (2015) – directed by Sam Mendes
Hail, Caesar! (2016)* – directed by Joel & Ethan Coen
The Works (2016) – Elliot Barnes-Worrell – short
Richard III (2016) – directed by Robert Goold & Robin Lough – filmed play
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)* – directed by Travis Knight
The Lego Batman Movie (2017)* – directed by Chris McKay
Sea Sorrow (2017) – directed by Vanessa Redgrave
The White Crow (2018) – also director
National Theatre Live: Antony & Cleopatra (2018) – directed by Simon Godwin & Tony Grech-Smith – filmed play
Holmes & Watson (2018) – directed by Etan Cohen
Official Secrets (2019) – directed by Gavin Hood
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)* – directed by Mike Mitchell
Dolittle (2020) – directed by Stephen Gaghan
The Dig (2021) – directed by Simon Stone
The King’s Man (2021)* – directed by Matthew Vaughn – also executive producer
No Time to Die (2021) – directed by Cary Joi Fukunagi
The Forgiven (2022) – directed by John Michael McDonagh
The Menu (2022)* – directed by Mark Mylod
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) – directed by Wes Anderson
Conclave (2024) – directed by Edward Berger
The Return (2024) – directed by Uberto Pasolini
28 Years Later (2025) – directed by Danny Boyle
The Choral (202-) – directed by Nicholas Hytner
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (202-) – directed by Nia DaCosta

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