Kenneth Branagh - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

Kenneth Branagh - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Actor, Director, Producer, Writer.

Born December 10, 1960, Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland - British film and theater actor, film director, screenwriter and producer.

He was educated at Grove Primary School, Whiteknights Primary School, Meadway School, where he appeared in some school plays. At the age of eighteen, he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated in 1981 with the Bancroft Gold Medal, an award for excellence in education.

In the same 1981, Branagh made his television debut, starring in the miniseries "Meberi" about the everyday life of the hospital, and in films, getting a small role in the drama Hugh Hudson "Chariots of Fire". This picture was a great start for him, collecting an impressive number of a wide variety of awards. Over the next few years, Branagh regularly appeared on television, taking part in serials and television films. Most successful was his appearance in three episodes of the BBC series "Playing Today", after which he became popular in his homeland of Ireland.

At the same time, Branagh began to play in the theater. In 1983, at the age of twenty-three, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and played Henry V in the Shakespeare play of the same name, thus becoming the youngest performer of the role of the great king in the history of KOSH and earning the first rave reviews from critics. This was followed by the roles of Laertes in the production of Hamlet and Henry of Navarre in The Futile Efforts of Love. Despite the fact that audiences and critics welcomed his first works, Branagh, being ambitious by nature, worked in the troupe for a little less than two years, and after the company did not renew his contract, he starred in 1985 in the drama Way Out ", Playing the role of the famous classic writer David Herbert Lawrence (the author of the acclaimed novel" Lady Chatterley's Lover "). In the same year, Branagh wrote and directed the musical play Tell Me Honestly, and also played the main role there.

In 1986, Branagh returned to television and took part in the drama "Ghosts" based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, where Mrs. Alving was played by Judi Dench, and in the television movie "Lady Not to Burn." This was followed by supporting roles in the drama A Month in the Countryside and the comedy with Jacqueline Bisset's Might of Summer in 1987, as well as a work that brought the actor a BAFTA nomination - the main role in the seven-hour miniseries "Fortune of War" based on the novels of Olivia Manning ... In this series, which tells about the events of the outbreak of World War II, the actor played the professor of the University of Bucharest Guy Pringle, and the role of his character's wife was played by Emma Thompson. Soon, the relationship between the actors went beyond the set - an affair began between them, and in August 1989 Branagh and Thompson got married.

This period was successful for the actor professionally also because in 1987 Branagh, together with David Parfitt, opened his own theater company called Renaissance Theater Company and directed a number of plays - "Public Enemy" (this first production failed miserably, however the company was saved from ruin by 60 thousand pounds, invested by a broker and theatrical patron Stephen Evans), "The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte", "Twelfth Night" (the music for this performance was written by Paul McCartney), "Much Ado About Nothing", "Hamlet" and others.

Following the 1988 television movie Strange Interlude, based on the play by Eugene O'Neill, Branagh starred with Thompson in the television drama Look Back in Anger, and then in 1989 began work on his first major project, Henry V. In addition to the fact that this picture was Bran's directorial debut in the cinema, the actor personally adapted the play by Shakespeare and played the role of the king, whom he had already played in the theater six years ago. The film's success surpassed all expectations - it garnered a significant number of prestigious film awards, including a BAFTA and a US National Council of Film Critics Award for Best Director, as well as two Academy Award nominations (both for Best Director and Best Actor). Bran). The painting received rave reviews from critics who wrote, that it is difficult to imagine a more powerful and mesmerizing debut.

Further in the actor's film career came a two-year break, during which Branagh staged two more Shakespearean plays - "King Lear" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - as well as the play "Uncle Vanya" based on the play by A. Chekhov. In these three works, he again acted not only as a director, but also as an actor. In subsequent years, he began to pay more and more attention to cinema. In 1991, Branagh went to the United States, where he began working on the mystical thriller "To Die Again" as a director. In addition to Kenneth himself and his wife Emma Thompson, Andy Garcia, Robin Williams and other famous actors starred in the film. Critics once again praised Bran's skills - his second work as a director was nominated for a BAFTA award and the main prize of the Berlin Film Festival.

Returning to the UK in 1992, Branagh produced and directed the comedy Peter's Friends. He played one of the main roles himself, and his partners were the famous British actors Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (who had previously brilliantly played a duet in the TV series Jeeves and Worcester), as well as - once again - Emma Thompson. In the same year, after filming Chekhov's shortest play, Branagh filmed Swan Song with John Gielgud as Svetlovidov, and was again nominated for an Oscar.

In 1993, he returned to his beloved Shakespeare and released a comedy based on the play Much Ado About Nothing, where a whole galaxy of famous actors appeared - in addition to Kenneth himself and his wife, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington, Kate Beckinsale took part in the film and Michael Keaton. For this film, Bran was nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the world of cinema - the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Branagh then embarked on his most ambitious project to date, the $ 45 million Frankenstein Mary Shelley drama. For the role of the terrible creation of Victor Frankenstein, which he played himself, Bran invited Robert De Niro, and the film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The role of Elizabeth was given to Helena Bonham Carter.

In the next three works, Kenneth turned back to Shakespeare. First, in 1995, he directed the black-and-white comedy "Winter's Tale" and was honored for directing with the Golden Ozella Prize at the Venice Film Festival. Then the actor appeared in the character of the villain Iago in the Othello drama by Oliver Parker, and finally, in 1996, he brilliantly filmed Hamlet, playing the role of the Danish prince himself in the film. This project again distinguished itself with a strong cast - Kate Winslet (played Ophelia), Richard Bryers, Julie Christie, Judy Dench, Gerard Depardieu, John Gielgud, Derek Jacoby, Robin Williams starred in the film - and as a result was awarded a number of awards, having received including four Oscar nominations.

In 1998-1999, Branagh did not make films, but he did a lot of films for others and not always successfully. Several of his Hollywood works were released - the thriller by Robert Altman based on the novel by John Grisham "Goblin", where Bran played the main role of lawyer Rick Magruder, the melodrama "The Proposal", the comedy of Woody Allen "Celebrity" and the pass-through romantic comedy "Theory of Flight" (paired with Helena Bonham Carter). 1999's 1999 disastrous Western comedy Wild, Wild West starring Will Smith and Salma Hayek, in which Brana starred as the insidious Doctor Loveless, won five awards and four Golden Raspberry nominations. In addition, Branagh has appeared in two short films, starring at home in the war film "Dance of Shiva" and in Germany in the fifteen-minute film "The Master of Wigs" based on the novel by Daniel Defoe. In addition, he acted as an announcer in the popular science series Walking with the Dinosaurs (1999).

Failures of 1999 could not be compensated by the musical romantic comedy "The Futile Efforts of Love", which Branagh shot in 2000, again inspired by Shakespeare. The film did not pay off at the box office, and he had to abandon his plans to shoot two more screen versions of the great playwright for the Shakespeare Film Company - Macbeth and As You Like It (the actor was able to return to the last project only six years later). Until the end of 2000, Branagh was engaged in less ambitious projects - he voiced one of the characters in the cartoon "The Road to Eldorado", together with Robin Wright Penn appeared in the tragicomedy "How to Kill a Neighbor's Dog?" and acted as a voice-over narrator in the documentary "The Ballad of Big Ale".

Luck returned to Bran in 2001 after he starred in the TV war drama Conspiracy. For the role of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the high-ranking officials of Nazi Germany, the actor received an Emmy award, and was also nominated for BAFTA and Golden Globe. Equally successful was his appearance in the 2002 biopic Shackleton, in which Branagh portrayed the Irish Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton on the screen. For his role in the television movie, Bran was nominated for a BAFTA and Emmy.

In general, 2002 was a more than successful year for Bran - together with Courteney Cox, he starred with Danny Boyle in the short fantasy film "Love Triangle in an Alien", then starred in the Australian adventure drama "The Rabbit Cage", which brought together a wide variety of awards at film festivals, and, finally, appeared in the role of the narcissistic Professor Lokons in the next film about the adventures of a young wizard "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."

Despite being very busy, Branagh did not forget about the theater. In 2002 he played King Richard III in the play of the same name based on the play by Shakespeare, and in 2003 he played the main role in the play Edmond by David Mamet. After releasing the short film Hearing, Branagh appeared in a supporting role in the family adventure film Five Children and That. Then the actor was again at the peak of success. In 2005, he starred in the biopic Warm Springs as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and for this role, which was named one of his best screen incarnations, was nominated for four major awards - Golden Globe, Golden Satellite "," Emmy "and Screen Actors Guild Award.

In 2006, Branagh returned to work as a director and released two films - the romantic comedy "As You Like It" based on the play by Shakespeare and the musical film "The Magic Flute". It premiered on September 7, 2006 at the Toronto Film Festival.

In 2007, he finished work on the thriller The Detective, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law.

From the following year, 2008, Kenneth Branagh plunged into filming the next crime television series Wallander, in which he played the title role of Commissioner Kurt Wallander.

On April 21, 2011, a new film by the director "Thor", based on the comics about Thor (based on German-Scandinavian mythology), was released.

In 2011, Branagh took part in the filming of the drama film “7 Days and Nights with Marilyn,” replacing the retired Rafe Fiennes. His performance as legendary actor Laurence Olivier was highly acclaimed by critics, and earned him new nominations for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTAs.

In January 2014, the movie Jack Ryan: Chaos Theory was released, a reboot of the Tom Clancy franchise directed by Bran himself. In the tape, a young Ryan, played by Chris Pine, works as a financial analyst on Wall Street and comes to Moscow at the invitation of a Russian oligarch. But the businessman turns out to be dishonest and turns things around in such a way that Jack Ryan is suspected of organizing a terrorist act with the aim of collapsing the US economy. The filming took place in part in Moscow.

In 2017, another adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express was released, in which Branagh again directed and at the same time played the main role - one of the literary “great detectives” of Hercule Poirot. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film was successful, and Branagh signed up to create a sequel based on the novel Death on the Nile, especially since he had previously expressed a desire to create a new film franchise about Poirot.

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Author: Jane Watson