Biography
A popular British character actor, Tom Wilkinson specializes in playing men suffering from some sort of emotional repression and/or pretensions of societal grandeur.
Active in film and television since the mid-'70s, Wilkinson became familiar to an international audience in 1997 with his role as of one of six unemployed workers who strip for cash in
Peter Cattaneo's enormously successful comedy
The Full Monty. That same year, he was featured in
Gillian Armstrong's
Oscar and Lucinda, and as the rabidly unpleasant father of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's young lover in
Wilde. Wilkinson was also shown to memorable effect as a theater financier with acting aspirations in
Shakespeare in Love (1998); also in 1998, he acted in one of his few leading roles in
The Governess, portraying a 19th century photographer with an eye for the film's title character (
Minnie Driver).
Though he would appear in such popular mainstream films as
Rush Hour (1998) and
The Patriot (2000) over the next few years, it was his role in director
Todd Field's emotionally intense
In the Bedroom that earned Wilkinson (as well as co-star
Marisa Tomei) an Oscar nod. After that success, his career began to really take off, and in just the next few years, he would appear in over a dozen films in roles of varying size. In 2003, he starred in HBO movie
Normal as a married, middle-aged man who decides to start living his life as a woman and eventually have a sex-change operation. Acting alongside
Jessica Lange, Wilkinson earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his brave and moving performance. In addition, he would also play a menacing, licentious patron of the arts in
Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) and an experimental doctor erasing his patient's memories in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), written by
Charlie Kaufman and starring
Jim Carrey.
Now an established star thanks to his impressive body of work, Wilkinson was called upon to appear in a number of high profile Hollywood hits, and could always be counted on to deliver in spades. Still, Wilkinson had the talent and foresight to always offset each blockbuster with at least one low-key, character-driven drama, and for every scenery-chewing
Batman Begins villain, a serious-minded
Separate Lies lawyer or
Ripley Under Ground Scotland Yard detective would be quick to follow. After doing battle with Beelzebub in 2005's frightening, fact-based horror film
The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Wilkinson would once again shift gears with impressive grace to portray the patriarch of a Texas family whose attempts to maintain order over his wildly dysfunctional family lead to a wild night on the town that ultimately helps him to restore his perspective in
Night of the White Pants. Later that same year Wilkinson would pull back a bit for a supporting role in
The Last Kiss - a romantic comedy drama starring
Scrubs'
Zach Braff and directed by
Tony Goldwyn.
2007 brough WIlkinson yet another role that earned him uniformly strong reviews. His mentally unhinged lawyer in
Michael Clayton garnered him a slew of year end accolades including Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he became part of the Woddy Allen family with a starring role in
Cassandra's Dream. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide