Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh
Branagh in July 2009
Born	Kenneth Charles Branagh 10 December 1960 (1960-12-10) (age 50) Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Occupation	Actor, film director
Years active	1981—present
Spouse	Emma Thompson (1989-1995, divorced) Lindsay Brunnock (2003-present)

Kenneth Charles Branagh (born 10 December 1960) is a Northern Irish actor and film director. He is known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays.

Early life

Branagh, the middle of three children, was born and brought up in Belfast to working class Protestant parents Frances (née Harper) and William Branagh, a plumber and joiner who ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings.^[1][2] He was educated at Grove Primary School.^[3] At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to Reading, Berkshire to escape "the Troubles".^[4][5] He attended Whiteknights Primary School, then Meadway School, Tilehurst,^[6][7] where he appeared in school productions such as Toad of Toad Hall"^[8] and Oh, What a Lovely War!.^[9] At school, he affected an English accent to avoid bullying. On his identity today he has said, "I feel Irish. I don't think you can take Belfast out of the boy," and he attributes his "love of words" to his Irish heritage.^[10]

Career

Stage work

Branagh achieved some early measure of success in his native Northern Ireland for his role as the title character in the BBC's Play for Today^[11] trilogy known as the Billy Plays (1982–84), written by Graham Reid and set in Belfast.

He received acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, first winning the 1982 SWET Award for Best Newcomer, for his role as Judd in Julian Mitchell's Another Country, immediately after leaving RADA. Branagh was part of the 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Bruce Payne and Fiona Shaw. He and David Parfitt founded the Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987, following success with several productions on the London 'Fringe', including Branagh's full-scale production of Romeo and Juliet at the Lyric Studio, co-starring with Samantha Bond. The first major Renaissance production was Branagh's Christmas 1987 staging of Twelfth Night at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, starring Richard Briers as Malvolio and Frances Barber as Viola, and with an original score by Scottish actor, musician and composer Patrick Doyle, who two years later was to compose the music for Branagh's film adaptation of Henry V. This Twelfth Night was later adapted for television.

Branagh became a major presence in the media and on the British stage when Renaissance collaborated with Birmingham Rep for a 1988 touring season of three Shakespeare plays under the umbrella title of Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, which also played a repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London. It featured directorial debuts for Judi Dench with Much Ado About Nothing (starring Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice), Geraldine McEwan with As You Like It, and Derek Jacobi directing Branagh in the title role in Hamlet, with Sophie Thompson as Ophelia. Critic Milton Shulman of the London Evening Standard wrote: "On the positive side Branagh has the vitality of Olivier, the passion of Gielgud, the assurance of Guinness, to mention but three famous actors who have essayed the role. On the negative side, he has not got the magnetism of Olivier, nor the mellifluous voice quality of Gielgud nor the intelligence of Guinness."^[12]

A year later in 1989 Branagh co-starred with Emma Thompson in the Renaissance revival of Look Back in Anger. Judi Dench directed both the theatre and television productions, presented first in Belfast then at the London Coliseum and Lyric Theatre.

More recently, in 2002, Branagh starred at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield as Richard III. In 2003 he starred in the Royal National Theatre's production of David Mamet's Edmond. Branagh directed The Play What I Wrote in England in 2001^[13] and directed a Broadway production in 2003.^[14][15] From September to November 2008, Branagh appeared at Wyndham's Theatre as the title character in the Donmar West End revival of Anton Chekhov's Ivanov in a new version by Tom Stoppard. His performance was lauded as the "performance of the year" by several critics.^[16] It won him the Critics' Circle Award for Best Male Performance but did not get him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, to the surprise of critics.^[17]

Film work

Branagh at the Roma Fiction Fest in July 2009, where he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award

Branagh is probably best known for his film adaptations of William Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V (1989), followed by Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Hamlet (1996), Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and As You Like It (2006). As You Like It premiered in theatres in Europe, but was sent directly to television in the U.S., where it aired on HBO in August 2007. Branagh was also in the 1995 film version of Othello where he played Iago, however, he did not direct the film; it was directed by Oliver Parker.

Notable non-Shakespeare films in which Branagh has appeared include Dead Again (1991) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), both of which he also directed, Wild Wild West (1999), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) and Valkyrie (2008). He starred as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). He also recently played the Minister, Dormandy, (a parody of PMG Tony Benn) in the film The Boat That Rocked (2009). From 1989 to 1996 Branagh mostly directed his own films, but the commercial and critical failure of Love's Labour's Lost ended his directorial career for a time. In 2006, the same year that Branagh's film version of As You Like It was released, he also directed a film version of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, which, although playing in Europe to good to excellent reviews, still has not, as of 2010, been released in the U.S. or shown on U.S. cable TV. A Region 2 DVD of the film has been released, but not a Region 1 one playable on U.S. DVD players. Branagh has also directed the thriller Sleuth (2007), a remake of the 1972 film. At a film promotion for Valkyrie Branagh confirmed he would be directing Thor, a film based on the Marvel superhero.^[18] Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Natalie Portman began filming in January 2010 for a 6 May 2011 release.^[19]

Television

Branagh has also been involved in several made-for-TV films. Among his most acclaimed portrayals is that of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the film Warm Springs (2005), for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. Though the film received 16 Emmy nominations, winning five (including Best Made-For-Television Film), Branagh did not win the award for his portrayal. He did, though, receive an Emmy for his portryal of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the TV film Conspiracy (2001), a depiction of the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi officials decided on the Final Solution. In 2002 Branagh starred in the two-part television movie Shackleton, a dramatization of the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's battle for survival, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award and an Emmy.^[20] Branagh also narrated the BBC documentaries Walking With Dinosaurs, Walking With Beasts and Walking With Monsters.

Branagh filmed three stories for Wallander in 2008. They were adaptations of Henning Mankell's best-selling Wallander crime novels. Branagh plays the eponymous Inspector Kurt Wallander and also serves as the executive producer of the series. The three films were broadcast on BBC One in November and December 2008.^[21] Branagh won the award for best actor at the 35th Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Awards (2009). It was his first major television award win in the UK.^[22] He received his first BAFTA TV on 26 April 2009 for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series .^[23] For his performance in the episode One Step Behind, he was nominated in the Outstanding Actor, Miniseries or Movie category of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.^[24] The role has also gained him a nomination for Best Actor at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.^[25] Three more stories were filmed in 2009 and aired in January 2010.

Other work

Branagh has narrated several audio books, such as The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis.^[26]

Personal life

Branagh was married to actress Emma Thompson from 20 August 1989, until 1995. After he and Thompson divorced, he was in a well-publicised relationship for several years with actress Helena Bonham Carter, whom he directed and starred with in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In 2003 he married film art director Lindsay Brunnock,^[27] to whom he was introduced by Bonham Carter in 1997.^[28]

He speaks Italian and is a lifelong supporter of Belfast football team Linfield, as well as Tottenham Hotspur^[29] and Glasgow Rangers.

Honours

Branagh has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His first two nominations were for Henry V (one each for directing and acting). He also received similar BAFTA Award nominations for his film work, winning one for his direction. His first BAFTA TV award came in April 2009, for Best Drama Series (Wallander). Branagh's two other Academy Award nominations were for the 1992 film short subject Swan Song and for his work on the screenplay of Hamlet in 1996. Branagh has co-starred several times with actress Emma Thompson, to whom he was married from 1989 to 1995. They appeared together in Look Back In Anger, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Dead Again, and Peter's Friends. More recently, they both appeared in The Boat That Rocked, though with no shared scenes.

He is Honorary President of NICVA (the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action). He received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Queen's University of Belfast in 1990. He is also a patron for the charity Over The Wall.^[30]

In 1994, Branagh declined an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).^[31]

Branagh was the youngest actor to receive the Golden Quill (also known as the Gielgud Award) in 2000.

Alongside Roberto Benigni, he is one of only two non-American actors to be nominated for Oscars for acting, writing and directing and one of eight actors to have achieved this honour. The other six are Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, George Clooney, John Huston and John Cassavetes.

On 10 July 2009, Branagh was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the RomaFictionFest.^[32]

Filmography

Actor

Director

Narrator

• Anne Frank Remembered (Documentary) (1995)
• Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (Six-part TV special) (1996)
• Great Composers (TV mini-series) (1997)
• Cold War (CNN TV series) (1998)
• The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs (UK version) (TV series) (1999)
• Walking with Dinosaurs (UK version) (TV series) (1999)
• The Science of Walking with Beasts (Australia) (Two-part TV special) (2001)
• The Ballad of Big Al (UK version) (TV special) (2001)
• Walking with Beasts (UK version) (TV series) (2001)
• Walking with Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs (TV series) (2005)
• Goebbels-Experiment, Das (Documentary) (2005)
• IMAX: Galapagos (Documentary)

Discography and audiobooks

• Shakespeare's Richard III (complete) for Naxos Audiobooks
• In the Ravine & Other Short Stories by Anton Chekhov (unabridged) for Naxos Audiobooks
• Felix Mendelssohn's incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream (recitant) live recording for Sony Classical, conducted by Claudio Abbado
• The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1660-1669 (abridged) for Hodder Headline Audio Classics
• The Magician's Nephew by C.S Lewis for Harper Books
• Shakespeare's "Sonnet 30" for the 2002 compilation album, When Love Speaks (EMI Classics)
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein "[Abridged]

Further reading

• Kenneth Branagh (1990 [1989]) Beginning, London: Chatto and Windus, ISBN 0701133880; New York: W W Norton & Co, ISBN 0393028623
• Ian Shuttleworth (1994) Ken & Em, London: Headline. ISBN 0-747-24718-8
• Mark White (2005) Kenneth Branagh, London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-22068-1
• Theatre Record and its annual Indexes

References

External links

• Kenneth Branagh at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography on Tiscali film section
• The Kenneth Branagh Compendium, an extensive fan site
• Kenneth Branagh interview from Premiere (1996)
• Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, a fan site