Michael Fassbender

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Michael Fassbender
Born	April 2, 1977 (1977-04-02) (age 31) Heidelberg, Germany

Michael Fassbender (born April 2, 1977) is an actor, born in Heidelberg, Germany, brought up in Killarney, county Kerry, Ireland, and currently a resident of London. He played Azazeal in the Sky One UK Television series Hex. Other credits include Band of Brothers and the Frank Miller film 300 in which he plays Spartan soldier Stelios ("Then we shall fight in the shade"). He also played the role of Michael Collins opposite Mel Smith as Winston Churchill at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Mary Kenny's play Allegiance^[1]. The play was directed by Brian Gilbert and produced by Daniel Jewel. Recently he has been cast in the lead role of Heathcliff in the John Maybury version of "Wuthering Heights" due in 2009 [[1]]

Contents 1 Early years and facts 2 Earlier projects 3 New projects 4 Complete filmography 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early years and facts

Michael Fassbender was born on April 2, 1977 in Heidelberg, Germany. His parents moved to Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland only a few years after his birth.

Michael attended St. Brendan's, Killarney (The Sem) and the Drama Centre London. He's 6ft (183cm) tall, has blue eyes and light brown hair. He plays guitar, piano and accordion and speaks fluent German. He has his own production company called Peanut Productions.

[edit] Earlier projects

He played the character of Azazeal in both series of Hex on Sky One and he also starred as the main character in the music video for the song 'Blind Pilots' by the British band, The Cooper Temple Clause. He could be heard as Dracula in the radio play Book at Bedtime of BBC Northern Ireland on November 24, 2003. He also can be seen in the Guinness-ad titled "The Quarrel", as a guy who swims through the ocean from Ireland to apologize personally to his brother in New York. The ad was on TV early 2004.

During the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Fassbender co-starred with Mel Smith in Allegiance, a play based on the meeting between Winston Churchill and Michael Collins while coincidentally his mother is great niece of Collins (whom he played). By many accounts he was riveting on stage. [2]. The play was a co-production between The Riverside Studios and London production company Third Man Films. In addition, he has produced, directed and starred in the stage version of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, along with his production company.

His latest is Angel a.k.a. The Real Life of Angel Deverell (UK title), about the rise and fall of a young eccentric British writer in the early 20th century (played by Romola Garai). Fassbender plays her love interest and average painter Esmé. First English effort by French director Francoise Ozon and based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor, the drama premiered on 17 February 2007 at Berlinale, and on 14 March 2007 in Paris. Info & trailer: [3].

He appears briefly in Wedding Belles as Barney, speaking with Scottish accent. The film had its premiere on 29 March 2007 on Channel 4. [4]

He has a cameo in the latest Woody Allen film, entitled Cassandra's Dream, that stars Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell.

[edit] New projects

He underwent a crash diet to play Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands, who died during a hunger strike in 1981. The British-made Channel 4 film was directed by Steve McQueen. Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army; his hunger strike at Northern Ireland's Maze Prison made him a cult figure among Republican supporters - and he was elected a Member of Parliament while in prison, before his death. The title is Hunger. ^[2]

He has been cast as 'Richard Wirth' in the Joel Schumacher film Town Creek , alongside Prison Break star Dominic Purcell. Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Batman Forever, Phone Booth) has signed to direct Town Creek, the vampire horror movie for Gold Circle and Lionsgate. The story centers on a West Virginia man who comes to terms with his moral qualms and helps his brother wipe out a family that had been protecting a Nazi vampire and who had kept his brother captive for him to feed off of for years. "There is blood in it, but it's not really a vampire movie," Schumacher says. The first part of the film will be set in 1936, at the height of Hitler's power, and the second half will be set during the present day, the theme being "ghosts of the past rising up to confront today's world." Dave Kajganich (The Visiting) wrote the screenplay and shooting has been started in Bucharest, Romania. [5] [6] [7]

He is also set to star in The Sycamores, A King Lear-esque murder mystery about an ill-fated family reunion set under the swirling skies of 1970s Northumberland. Written and to be directed by Natalie Sirett and Neil Hunter, one of the award-winning writer/directors of one of the most highly regarded UK films of 2002, Lawless Heart and executive produced by David Parfitt (Oscar winning producer of Shakespeare in Love). Production will start at the end of 2007. [8] [9]

[edit] Complete filmography