Kenneth Branagh Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actor , Director , Producer more
Birth name Kenneth Charles Branagh
Nationalities British, Irish
Birth December 10, 1960 (Belfast – Northern Ireland) (United Kingdom)

BIOGRAPHY
Coming from a modest Irish family, Kenneth Branagh decided, according to legend, to pursue an acting career when he discovered, when he was only a teenager, Derek Jacobi playing Hamlet on television. Shortly after, he embarked on a drama course at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Great Britain, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company ( RSC ) at the age of 23 where he triumphed thanks to the role of Henry V. After a few unsuccessful attempts in TV films, in 1985 Kenneth Branagh obtained the leading role in the costume drama Coming through , in which he played DH Lawrence.

In 1987, the actor separated from the RSC , judging the establishment’s priorities to be more bureaucratic than artistic, and undertook to found his own company, called Renaissance . If the first play performed in the Renaissance Theater was a failure, the following productions achieved a certain success and allowed Kenneth Branagh to adapt, direct and perform in the cinema in 1989 Henry V alongside the actress Emma Thompson , whom he married the same year. The film achieved great critical and public success, definitively launching the cinematographic career of the actor and filmmaker.

At the beginning of the 90s, Kenneth Branagh alternated between theater performances and film productions. He found success there with the film noir Dead Again (1991), the bitter comedy Peter’s Friends (1992) and Much Ado About Nothing (1993), a new adaptation of his favorite author William Shakespeare , but then experienced his first failure with Frankenstein (1994), which however offered him the opportunity to direct Robert De Niro .

After playing the traitor Iago in Othello (1995, the year his divorce from Emma Thompson was announced ), Kenneth Branagh realized his dream of adapting Hamlet on the big screen in a long four-hour epic fresco, cited in several categories at the Oscars and winning numerous awards. After this exhausting adventure, the author-performer more willingly accepted to let himself be directed, whether by Robert Altman in The Gingerbread Man (1998) or Woody Allen for Celebrity , even abandoning his classic image to interpret the extravagant and demonic Dr. .Loveless in Wild Wild West in 1999.

After modernizing Shakespeare’s Love’s Lost in a film paying homage to the musicals of the 1930s, Kenneth Branagh lends his voice to the mischievous character of Miguel in The Road to El Dorado . In 2002, the actor agreed to play the role of Professor of the Dark Arts Gilderoy Lockhart for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , the second part of the adventures of the sorcerer’s apprentice. He continued this role as an eccentric Englishman in another adaptation of a best-selling children’s book, Five Children and Me (2004).

After making a few minor films, he returned to directing in 2005 by adapting another great classic: Mozart ‘s The Magic Flute , which he transposed into the context of the First World War. Produced by the Peter Moore Foundation, this work aims to broaden the usual audience for opera. It was followed three years later by The Hound , a remake of the thriller by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in which Kenneth Branagh orchestrates a merciless psychological duel between Jude Law and Michael Caine . In 2009, the filmmaker returned to the camera again and played resistance German officers alongside Tom Cruise in the historical drama Walkyrie , before donning the costume of the spoilsport minister Dormandy, battling with the radio pirate of Good MorningEngland . Two years pass before his big return to directing in an unexpected register: with Thor , a superheroic blockbuster adapted from Marvel comics , he signs a fantastic feature film but with a very Shakespearean plot. Kenneth Branagh received a second Oscar nomination in 2012 as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in My Week with Marilyn , the biopic starring Michelle Williams . He plays the actor and director Laurence Olivier , immersed in the filming of the film The Prince and the Showgirl . That same year, in the summer, it was not in the cinema but on television that he reappeared. At the request of Danny Boyle in charge of the production, the Northern Irishman plays Isambard Kingdom Brunel, pioneer of the British railway, during the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games, and recites an extract from the Tempest by William Shakespeare . We had to wait until 2014 for his return to cinema: after Thor, he signed The Ryan Initiative

, bringing the hero of Tom Clancy ‘s novels up to date . For the first time since 2007 and The Hound, Branagh shares himself between directing and acting alongside Chris Pine , Keira Knightley and Kevin Costner . The public and critical failure of the feature film did not prevent him from continuing with the production of the blockbuster Cinderella , a live adaptation of the Disney classic.

After reprising his role as a police inspector in the 4th season of the series Inspector Wallander , Kenneth Branagh continues to act in front of Christopher Nolan ‘s camera twice: in the war film Dunkirk in 2017 and in the SF film Tenet in 2020. In the latter, he plays the antagonist of John David Washington and Robert Pattinson , a Russian billionaire and arms dealer who tyrannizes his wife.

Kenneth Branagh returns in front of and behind the camera in 2017 with the screen adaptation of Agatha Christie ‘s Murder on the Orient Express . Not content with directing, he took on the role of Hercule Poirot and surrounded himself with a 4-star cast, made up of Johnny Depp , Michelle Pfeiffer , Penelope Cruz , Willem Dafoe , Judi Dench and Daisy Ridley . Building on the success of this adaptation (352 million dollars in revenue worldwide for a budget of 55 million), he repeats the experience in 2022 with Death on the Nile . He once again slips behind the mustache of the famous Belgian detective, alongside Gal Gadot , Armie Hammer , Emma Mackey and Annette Bening . These two major productions do not prevent him from devoting himself to other projects. In 2020, he signed Artemis Fowl , based on the children’s literary saga by Eoin Colfer. This fantasy feature film, which is a dismal failure with both the public and critics, does not even have the honors of a theatrical release since it is made available on Disney+. No matter, he bounced back with his next project, the intimate and personal Belfast . Filmed in black and white, this autobiographical chronicle won the Golden Globe for best screenplay in 2022 and was nominated seven times for the Oscars.