Matthew Macfadyen | |
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Macfadyen in London, 2007 |
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Born | 17 October 1974 Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England |
Occupation | Actor |
Spouse | Keeley Hawes (2004–present) |
David Matthew Macfadyen (born 17 October 1974) is an English actor, known for his role as MI5 intelligence officer Tom Quinn in the BBC television drama series Spooks (also known as MI-5) and for starring as Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.
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Macfadyen was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the son of Meinir (née Owen), a drama teacher and former actress, and Martin Macfadyen, an oil worker.[1][2] His paternal grandparents were Scottish and his maternal grandparents were natives of Wales.[1][3] Macfadyen was brought up in several locations, including Jakarta, Indonesia, because of his father's profession.[1] He attended schools in England (including in Louth, Lincolnshire), Scotland and Indonesia, and went to Oakham School in Rutland, before being accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at age 17.
After having studied at the RADA from 1992 to 1995, Macfadyen quickly became a well-known actor in British theatre due primarily to his work with the stage company Cheek by Jowl, for whom he played Antonio in The Duchess of Malfi, Charles Surface in The School for Scandal, and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. His Benedick was particularly memorable, played as an officer-class buffoon with a moustache and a braying laugh. In 2005, he played to further great acclaim the part of Prince Hal in Henry IV, Parts One and Two at the Royal National Theatre, with Michael Gambon in the role of Falstaff. In 2007, he returned to the stage, portraying an American, Clay, a stay at home father with a liberal attitude in the play The Pain and the Itch.
Macfadyen's major TV breakthrough came when he appeared as Hareton Earnshaw in a television adaptation of the Emily Brontë novel Wuthering Heights, screened on the ITV network in 1998. Further television drama work followed, including starring roles in the dramas Warriors (1999) and The Way We Live Now (2001), both for the BBC. Also in 2001, he earned much critical acclaim for his starring role in the BBC Two drama serial Perfect Strangers, which was written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff. In 2002, he starred in The Project, a BBC drama charting New Labour's rise to power, and he took his highest-profile role to date, when he was picked to star in Spooks, which went on to become a huge popular and critical success when screened on BBC One. A longer second season was screened in 2003, and a third season was broadcast in the autumn of 2004, with him leaving the series in the second episode. The series also found a following on cable television in the United States, where it aired as MI-5 on the A&E Network. In 2007 he appeared in the one-off Channel 4 drama Secret Life, which dealt with the controversial subject of paedophilia.[4] Matthew was nominated and subsequently won the 'Best Actor' award at the Royal Television Society 2007 Awards for this part, and has been nominated for a BAFTA. He also appeared in a short sketch for Comic Relief as the groom in Mr Bean's Wedding, alongside Rowan Atkinson and Michelle Ryan.
Macfadyen has appeared in several films including Enigma (released in 2001), in which he was cast as a battle-scarred submarine commander, and In My Father's Den, for which he received the New Zealand Screen Award for Best Actor. Most notably, he stars as the romantic lead Fitzwilliam Darcy in a highly acclaimed adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, released in the UK in September 2005. He starred in Frank Oz's Death at a Funeral with Rupert Graves, Alan Tudyk, Daisy Donovan and Keeley Hawes.
Matthew also starred in Incendiary, based on Chris Cleave's novel about a woman whose life is torn apart when her husband and infant son are killed in a suicide bombing at a football match whilst she was committing adultery. He played a senior anti-terrorist police officer alongside Michelle Williams and Ewan McGregor. He has also appeared in Ron Howard's film Frost/Nixon, in which he played John Birt.
In 2008, he acted as the male lead Arthur Clennam in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit. In 2009 Macfadyen appeared alongside Academy Award nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter in the BBC Four movie Enid, based on the life of Enid Blyton, as Hugh Pollock, Blyton's publisher and first husband.
In 2010, he played The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood. He also starred as Prior Philip in the TV miniseries The Pillars of the Earth, and was the middle-aged Logan Mountstuart in Any Human Heart.
In 2011 Macfadyen made a returning appearance in the BBC show Spooks, he did not quote his name as Tom Quinn.
In June, 2010 Macfadyen won a British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Criminal Justice.
In 2002, he began a relationship with his married Spooks co-star Keeley Hawes. They were married on 8 October 2004. Their first child, daughter Maggie, was born in December 2004. The couple announced the birth of a baby boy, Ralph, in September 2006. Macfadyen is stepfather to Keeley Hawes' son, Myles.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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2000 | Maybe Baby | Nigel | |
2001 | Enigma | Lt. Cave | |
2003 | The Reckoning | King's Justice | |
2004 | In My Father's Den | Paul Prior | |
2005 | Pride & Prejudice | Mr. Darcy | Nominated – London Film Critics Circle Award for Best British Newcomer of the Year |
2006 | Middletown | Gabriel Hunter | |
2007 | Grindhouse | Eye Gouging Victim | Segment: Don't |
2007 | Death at a Funeral | Daniel Howells | |
2008 | Incendiary | Terence Butcher | |
2008 | Frost/Nixon | John Birt | Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
2010 | Robin Hood | Sheriff of Nottingham | |
2011 | The Three Musketeers | Athos | |
2011 | The Promised Land | Geoffrey Morton | Pre-Production |