Ralph Fiennes

Actors

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.

For 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.

Fiennes has appeared in a number of other notable films, including 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; 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 Constant Gardener (2005), with Rachel Weisz, Hubert Koundé, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, and Donald Sumpter; Martin McDonagh‘s In Bruges (2008), with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson; and Stephen Daldry’s The Reader (2008), with Kate Winslet.

Later roles include Clash of the Titans (2010), with Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Alexa Davalos, and Neeson; Mike Newell’s Great Expectations (2012), with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Holliday Grainger, and Robbie Coltrane; and 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.

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; Lord Victor Quartermaine in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005), 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.

Fiennes also starred in the Harry Potter film series (2005–2011), in which he played 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 stars in the James Bond series (with Daniel Craig as Bond), in which he has played Gareth Mallory/M, starting with the 2012 film Skyfall (2012, with Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney, and Judi Dench.

Other notable films include 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; Sunshine (1999), with Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Deborah Kara Unger, Molly Parker, James Frain, John Neville, Miriam Margolyes, and William Hurt; David Cronenberg‘s Spider (2002), with Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, John Nevill, and Lynn Redgrave; The Chumscrubber (2005), with Jamie Bell, William Fuchtner, Allison Janney, and Glenn Closee; Chromophobia (2005), with Penélope Cruz, Rhys Ifans, and Ian Holm; The Duchess (2008), with Kiera Knightley, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, and Hayley Atwell; and The Hurt Locker (2009), with Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Christian Camargo, David Morse, and Guy Pearce; Joel & Ethan Coen‘s Hail, Caesar! (2016), with Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Swinton, and Channing Tatum; 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 Gemma Arterton, Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom 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; and The Menu (2022), with Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, and John Leguizamo.

In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus, with Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brion Cox, and Jessica Chastain; 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). 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