Kenneth Branagh
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Image:Kenneth Branagh.jpg Kenneth Charles Branagh (born December 10 1960) is a versatile Emmy Award-winning Northern Irish born British actor and film director.
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Biography
Branagh was born in Belfast, where he was educated at Grove Primary School, Belfast; but at the age of nine relocated with his family to Reading in England. He received a honorary doctorate in Literature (D.Litt.) from the Queen's University of Belfast in 1990.
Branagh has worked on both stage and screen. He received initial acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, including the title role in Hamlet. He is probably best known for his popular film adaptations of the works of William Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V in 1989 and including versions of Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and Hamlet (1996). He has also starred in a number of other successful films unrelated to Shakespeare.
Branagh has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including two for directing and acting in Henry V and another for the screenplay of Hamlet. He has also won an Emmy Award for his performance in the 2001 TV film Conspiracy. Branagh was also nominated for the Worst supporting actor "Razzie" in 1999 for his work in the film Wild Wild West.
He starred several times with his then wife, Emma Thompson; they were married in 1989, and divorced in 1995. For several years, starting while he was still married to Thompson, he was in a well-publicised relationship with Helena Bonham Carter, with whom he also starred several times. Thompson has cited Branagh's affair with Carter (which ended in 1999) as the primary reason for their divorce. He married again, in 2003, to film art director Lindsay Brunnock, who had been introduced to him by Carter in 1997, although they had not started seeing each other seriously until 2002. ([1])
He also narrated the book The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis for Harper Audio.
In 1994 Branagh declined to become a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Filmography
Selected Filmography (actor)
- Warm Springs (2005) as Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart
- Shackleton (TV) (2002) as Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
- How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2002)
- Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) as A. O. Neville
- Conspiracy (TV) (2001) as Reinhard Heydrich
- Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
- The Road to El Dorado (2000) (voice)
- Wild Wild West (1999) as Dr. Arliss Loveless
- Celebrity (1998)
- The Theory of Flight (1998)
- Hamlet (1996) as Hamlet
- Othello (1995) as Iago
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) as Dr. Victor Frankenstein
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993) as Benedick
- Swing Kids (1993) as Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
- Peter's Friends (1992)
- Dead Again (1991) as Mike Church, P.I.
- Henry V (1989) as Henry V
- A Month in the Country (1988) as James Moon
- Fortunes of War (TV) (1987)
Selected Filmography (director)
- The Magic Flute (2006)
- As You Like It (2006)
- Love's Labour's Lost (2000)
- Hamlet (1996)
- A Midwinter's Tale (1996)
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
- Peter's Friends (1992)
- Dead Again (1991)
- Henry V (1989)
Narrator
- Cold War (TV series) (1996)
- Walking with Dinosaurs (UK version) (TV series) (1999)
- The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs (UK version) (TV series) (1999)
- The Ballad of Big Al (UK version) (TV special) (2001)
- Walking with Beasts (UK version) (TV series) (2001)
- The Science of Walking with Beasts (Australia) (Two-part TV special) (2001)
- Walking with Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs (TV series) (2005)
External links
- {{{2|{{{name|Kenneth Branagh}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- The Kenneth Branagh Compendium, a fansite
- Kenneth Branagh Interviewca:Kenneth Branagh
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Categories: 1960 births | Living people | Best Actor Oscar Nominee | British film directors | British stage actors | Film actors | Irish Anglicans | Harry Potter actors | Natives of Belfast | Northern Irish actors | Northern Irish screenwriters | People of Irish descent in Great Britain | Worst Supporting Actor Razzie Nominee