Biography
With his electrifying gaze, elegant comportment, and lips that look as if they could breathe life into concrete, Ralph Fiennes has caused many a jaded filmgoer to reaffirm the existence of British sex appeal. Since 1993, when he first impressed international audiences in the decidedly unglamorous role of Nazi sadist Amon Goeth in
Schindler's List, Fiennes has delivered performances marked by dignified passion and relentless intensity.
The oldest of six children, Fiennes was born in Suffolk on December 22, 1962. His father was a self-taught photographer and his mother a novelist who wrote under the pen name Jennifer Lash, professions which virtually ensured a unique upbringing. Fiennes' family moved a number of times while he was growing up, and the children were encouraged in their creative pursuits. Thus, it is less than surprising that four out of the six Fiennes siblings went on to work in the entertainment business, with Ralph and his brother Joseph becoming actors, his two sisters a director and a producer, and another brother a musician. Originally wanting to be a painter, Fiennes enrolled at the Chelsea College of Art and Design before transferring to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to study acting. Following graduation, he joined the Royal National Theatre in 1987, and he became part of the Royal Shakespeare Company a year later. While a member of the company, he performed a wide range of the classics, playing everyone from Romeo to King Lear's Edmund.
Fiennes first became known to a wider audience in 1991, when he starred as the title character in the acclaimed British television production of A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. The next year, he gained additional exposure, making his film debut as Heathcliff in
Wuthering Heights. Starring opposite
Juliette Binoche, Fiennes glowered his way across the screen with suitable aplomb, something that he would do again to devastating effect the next year in
Schindler's List. As the psychotic Nazi commandant Amon Goeth, Fiennes blended quiet yet absolute menace with surprising charisma (even more surprising given that he had gained over 30 pounds for his role) to such great effect that he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination and a British Academy Award for his portrayal. Fiennes' work in the film incited a flurry of interest in the actor, whose intensity and odd name (its correct pronunciation is "Rafe Fines") made him the subject of many a magazine article.
Interest in Fiennes only increased the following year, when, back to his normal weight and sporting an American accent, he played the more sympathetic (but tragically flawed) Charles Van Doren in
Robert Redford's
Quiz Show. Critics loved him in the role, and he further consolidated his acclaim two years later in
Anthony Minghella's Oscar-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, which won Fiennes Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as Best Actor. Given his newfound heartthrob status, many audience members were surprised to see Fiennes next turn up in the title role of the gawkish, ginger-haired minister with a gambling problem (playing opposite a then-unknown
Cate Blanchett) in
Oscar and Lucinda (1997). He gave a highly eccentric performance in the film, which received a mixed critical reception. Where
Oscar and Lucinda was only vaguely disappointing, Fiennes' next project, a 1998 film version of the popular 1960s TV series
The Avengers, was one of the most lambasted films of the year. Fiennes somehow managed to avoid most of the critical wrath directed at the film, and in 1999 he could be seen starring in no less than three disparate projects. In
Onegin, directed by his sister, Martha, Fiennes played the title character, a blasé Russian aristocrat; in
The End of the Affair, directed by
Neil Jordan, he portrayed a novelist embroiled in an adulterous affair with the wife (
Julianne Moore) of his best friend (
Stephen Rea); while in
Sunshine, directed by
István Szabó, he played three different roles in a saga tracing 150 years of the affairs and intrigues of a family of Hungarian Jews.
If his roles to date had served to showcase Fiennes' talent at about the rate of a solid performance per year, 2002 provided a trio of diverse and demanding roles that would prove just how well he could perform under pressure. In
Red Dragon -- the first of those efforts to hit stateside screens that year -- Fiennes' chilling performance as serial killer Francis Dolarhyde shifted between meekness and menace at the drop of a hat. Thankfully eschewing the grandiose theatrics of
Hannibal for a tone more in keeping with the original
Silence of the Lambs, the film proved a hit at the box office, and Fiennes' performance rivaled that of
Ted Levine's in providing the film with a chilling villain straight from the pages of the most lurid true-crime encyclopedia (Fiennes' character was purportedly based on the exploits of an uncaptured Wichita serial killer who went by the name "Bind, Torture, Kill"). A few short months later, audiences were treated to yet another deeply disturbed characterization by Fiennes, that of a schizophrenic man haunted by his childhood in director
David Cronenberg's dark psychological drama
Spider, based on author Patrick McGrath's bleak novel of the same name. Fiennes' performance substituted the menace of
Red Dragon with a more sympathetic protagonist whose memory slowly regresses to reveal a scarring childhood tragedy. No doubt having had his fill of disturbed characters that year, Fiennes once again caught audiences off guard with a disarmingly charming role in the romantic comedy
Maid in Manhattan.
Largely absent from the cinema for the next two years, only appearing briefly with an uncredited part in
Neil Jordan's
Bob Le Flambeur remake,
The Good Thief, Fiennes returned in 2005 with roles in more than five films. Among those, he would appear in his sister's sophmore effort,
Chromophobia, alongside an impressive cast including
Ian Holm,
Penélope Cruz,
Kristin Scott Thomas,
Rhys Ifans, and
Ben Chaplin. He could also be seen in the Merchant-Ivory film
The White Countess and
City of God director
Fernando Meirelles'
The Constant Gardener, while additionally providing his voice for an animated Wallace & Gromit film. Also highly noteworthy was the casting of of Fiennes as the nefarious Lord Voldemort in the fourth film in the immensely popular
Harry Potter series,
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; he subsequently portrayed the character for the remainder of the films. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide