Michael Fassbender

Michael Fassbender
Fassbender at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	(1977-04-02) 2 April 1977 Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Nationality	Irish-German
Alma mater	Drama Centre London
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2001–present

Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish-German actor. His notable roles include Lt. Archie Hicox in the film Inglourious Basterds (2009), Magneto in the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011), the android David in the science fiction movie Prometheus (2012), and slave owner Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave (2013), a historical drama that earned him a 2014 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2014, Fassbender will reprise his role as Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past, followed by Assassin's Creed in 2015.

His other credits include the fantasy action film 300 (2007); the drama film Fish Tank (2009); the romantic drama film Jane Eyre (2011); the historical film A Dangerous Method (2011); the biographical film Hunger (2008) and the drama film Shame (2011), both directed by Steve McQueen. For his role in Shame, he won the Volpi Cup best actor award at the 68th Venice International Film Festival held in August 2011, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA. For his role in 12 Years a Slave, he is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[1]

Early life and education

Fassbender was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. His mother, Adele, is from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, and his father, Josef Fassbender, is German.^[2][3] According to Fassbender's "family lore," his mother is the great-grand-niece of Michael Collins, an Irish leader during the War of Independence.^[2][4] When he was two years old, his parents moved to Killarney, County Kerry, in the Republic of Ireland, where they ran the West End House, a restaurant where his father worked as a chef.^[2][3] Fassbender served as an altar boy^[5] and is a lapsed Catholic.^[6] He has an older sister Catherine who works at the University of California, Davis as a neuropsychologist.^[7]

Fassbender and his sister spent summer holidays in Germany and he speaks German fluently.^[8] He attended Fossa National School and St. Brendan's College (The Sem).^[6] He discovered he wanted to be an actor at age 17 when he was cast in a play by Donie Courtney. At age 19, Fassbender moved to London to study at the Drama Centre London. He dropped out of the Drama Centre and toured with the Oxford Stage Company to perform the play Three Sisters.^[7]

Career

Early work

Fassbender first played the part of Burton "Pat" Christenson in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's award-winning television miniseries Band of Brothers.^[9] 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. In the video, he plays the part of a man on a stag night with his friends, only to slowly transform into a goat due to wearing a cowbell necklace.^[9]

Fassbender played the part of Jonathan Harker in a ten-part radio serialisation of Dracula produced by BBC Northern Ireland and broadcast in the Book at Bedtime series between 24 November and 5 December 2003. He was also seen in early 2004 in a Guinness television commercial, The Quarrel, playing a man who swims across the ocean from Ireland to apologise personally to his brother in New York.^[10] During the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fassbender played Michael Collins in Allegiance, a play by Mary Kenny based on the meeting between Winston Churchill and Collins.^[11] In addition, he produced, directed and starred in the stage version of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs,^[9] along with his production company.

He appeared in Angel (UK title: The Real Life of Angel Deverell), about the rise and fall of an eccentric young British writer (played by Romola Garai) in the early 20th century. Fassbender plays her love interest and average painter Esmé.^[9] The drama – the first English-language effort by French director François Ozon and based on the novel by Elizabeth Taylor – premiered on 17 February 2007 at the Berlin International Film Festival and on 14 March 2007 in Paris. He then made a brief appearance in Dean Cavanagh and Irvine Welsh's Wedding Belles as Barney, speaking with a Scottish accent.

Mainstream success

In 2006, Fassbender played the role of Stelios, a young Spartan warrior, in 300, a fantasy action film directed by Zack Snyder. The film was a commercial success.^[12] In preparation for his role as Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's 2008 film Hunger, Fassbender underwent a crash diet that restricted him to 600 calories a day. He received the British Independent Film Award for his performance.^[13]

One year after his success at the Cannes Film Festival with Hunger, he appeared in two films. The first was Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, in which he played the British officer Lieutenant Archie Hicox. The other film was Fish Tank directed by Andrea Arnold. Both films were critically acclaimed and Fassbender's work in them also well received. In 2010, Fassbender appeared as Burke in Jonah Hex, a Western film.^[14] In an interview at San Diego Comic-Con International, a comic book convention, Fassbender commented of the role: "I kind of developed this character and really pushed it – I’ll see how far I pushed it ... I had this idea about the character, he’s kind of psychotic, he gets his kicks in perverted ways. I didn’t want to make it very obvious or like something you’ve seen before."^[15] Hex received predominately negative reviews.^[16] Responding to criticism of Jonah Hex in 2011, Fassbender commented: "Pretty awful, was it? I haven't seen it myself."^[17]

He also portrayed Quintus Dias in Neil Marshall's war-thriller-drama film Centurion.^[18] and was cast as 'Richard Wirth' in the Joel Schumacher film Blood Creek alongside Dominic Purcell. The story centres 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 occultist and who had kept his brother captive for him to feed off for years. Fassbender played Edward Rochester in the 2011 film Jane Eyre, featuring Mia Wasikowska in the title role, with Cary Fukunaga directing.^[19]

Fassbender portrayed Magneto in the superhero blockbuster X-Men: First Class, the prequel to X-Men. Set in 1962, it focuses on the friendship between Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and Magneto and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The film was released on 3 June 2011 to general acclaim and financial success and promoted Fassbender to being more of a popular movie star.

In 2011, Fassbender starred in A Dangerous Method by director David Cronenberg, playing Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung. The film premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.^[20] He also starred in Shame, as a man in his thirties struggling with his sexual addiction. Shame reunited him with director Steve McQueen and premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival, where Fassbender won a Volpi Cup best actor award for his portrayal of Brandon.^[21] Fassbender was a serious contender for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but he was not nominated, and according to various sources his full-frontal nudity and depiction of sexual encounters inspired voters "to fantasize, and not actually vote."^[22][23] Fassbender achieved critical acclaim for his performance in Shame and received nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Starring in the film raised Fassbender's profile leading to roles in larger films.

In 2012, he appeared in Haywire, an action-thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh,^[14] and in the science fiction film Prometheus. Fassbender played the title role in The Counselor, a 2013 film directed by Ridley Scott, and based on the Cormac McCarthy script.^[24][25] In 2013, he starred in 12 Years a Slave his third collaboration with Steve McQueen. Fassbender's portrayal of Edwin Epps earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.^[26][27]

Future projects

Fassbender will reprise the role of Magneto in the sequel to X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, which will be released on 23 May 2014.^[28] He stars in the title role in "Frank," a comedy loosely inspired by Frank Sidebottom. It is set to be released in summer 2014. ^[29] Fassbender completed production on "Slow West," a western starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Mendelsohn. He plays Silas an the enigmatic traveller.^[30] It was announced in 2013 that Fassbender will take on the Shakespearean role of Macbeth in a film directed by Justin Kurzel, where he will team up with Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, with filming to begin in January 2014.^[31] Fassbender signed to star in actor Brendan Gleeson's directorial debut of At Swim-Two-Birds,^[32] a film adaptation of Irish author Flann O'Brien's novel. Together with screenwriter Ronan Bennett, Fassbender has formed a production company, Finn McCool Films. Fassbender and Bennett are currently developing a film about the Irish mythological hero Cú Chulainn.^[33]

Fassbender announced in November 2013 that there will be a sequel to Prometheus where he will repeat his role as the android David.^[34]

According to Variety, Sony Pictures was in negotiations with Ubisoft Motion Pictures to make a film version of Assassin's Creed. Ubisoft has confirmed that the film will be in 3D. Variety reports that Michael Fassbender will co-produce and star in the adaptation. Ubisoft will work with 20th Century Fox and New Regency to make the film. The movie was scheduled to start filming in 2013. and New Regency has hired first-time movie-script writer Michael Lesslie to pen the film. On May 17, 2013, it was announced that the film was to be released on May 22, 2015, which was later pushed back to June 19, 2015. On June 11, 2013, Frank Marshall is in negotiations to board as a producer and the following month, it was reported that Scott Frank, who wrote the scripts for Minority Report and, more recently, The Wolverine, has been hired to perform rewrites on the film script. The film was pushed back once again to a new release date of August 7, 2015. In January 2014, Twitch Film reported that Daniel Espinosa was in talks to direct the film, while a Linkedin profile for executive producer Fannie Pailloux stated filming is scheduled to begin in August 2014.

Personal life

Shifting between British films and American films, Fassbender resides in London where he has lived for the last 17 years, while making career-related visits to Los Angeles, California.

He speaks German, though he stated that he needed to brush up a bit on his spoken German because it was a bit rusty before filming Inglourious Basterds.^[35][36] He has also expressed interest in performing in a German-language film or theatre production one day.^[37] Fassbender also speaks fluent Irish. Fassbender is a Formula 1 fan, has attended several races and whilst on Top Gear he stated that he was a Michael Schumacher fan and had met him at the British Grand Prix.^[38]

Fassbender dated his X-Men: First Class co-star Zoë Kravitz.^[39] In 2012, Fassbender also dated his Shame co-star, Nicole Beharie.^[40]

Filmography

Feature films

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	300	Stelios
2007	Angel	Esmé Howe-Nevinson
2008	Hunger	Bobby Sands
2008	Eden Lake	Steve
2009	Blood Creek	Richard Wirth
2009	Fish Tank	Connor
2009	Inglourious Basterds	Lt. Archie Hicox
2010	Centurion	Quintus Dias
2010	Jonah Hex	Burke
2011	Jane Eyre	Edward Rochester
2011	X-Men: First Class	Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
2011	A Dangerous Method	Carl Gustav Jung
2011	Shame	Brandon Sullivan
2012	Haywire	Paul
2012	Prometheus	David
2013	12 Years a Slave	Edwin Epps
2013	The Counselor	Counselor
2014	1: Life on the Limit	Narrator
2014	Frank	Frank
2014	Untitled Terrence Malick Project		Post-Production
2014	X-Men: Days of Future Past	Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto	Post-Production
2014	Slow West	Silas	Post-Production
2014	Macbeth	Lord Macbeth	Filming

Television

Fassbender was at the Top Gear studios in Surrey, England, on 8 February 2012 to film Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, where celebs try to set a fastest lap time of the Top Gear test track in a low-spec family hatchback. The lap and his interview with Jeremy Clarkson was aired on BBC2 on 19 February 2012. Fassbender narrated the 2014 F1 movie-documentary '1: Life on the Limit'

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Band of Brothers	Burton 'Pat' Christenson	Miniseries
	Hearts and Bones	Hermann	3 episodes
2002	NCS Manhunt	Jack Silver
	Holby City	Christian Connolly	1 episode
2003	Carla	Rob
2004	A Bear Named Winnie	Lt. Harry Colebourn
	Gunpowder, Treason & Plot	Guy Fawkes
	Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder	Charles Bravo
	Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking	Charles Allen
2004–2005	Hex	Azazeal	12 episodes
2005	Murphy's Law	Caz Miller	5 episodes
	Our Hidden Lives	German POW
	William and Mary	Lukasz	1 episode
2006	Poirot: After the Funeral	George Abernethie	1 episode
	Trial & Retribution: Sins of the Father	Douglas Nesbitt
2007	Wedding Belles	Barney
2008	The Devil's Whore	Thomas Rainsborough	Miniseries

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Fable III	Logan	Voice

Theatre

Year	Production	Playwright	Role	Notes
1994	Fairytales Fairytales 123	Donie Courtney	Cinderella's ugly sister	Stage debut[41]
1995	Reservoir Dogs	based on script by Quentin Tarantino	Mr. Pink	Also producer and director[41]
1999	Three Sisters	Anton Chekhov	Alexei Petrovich Fedotik	Performances: Oxford Stage Company
2006	Allegiance	Mary Kenny	Michael Collins	Performances: Edinburgh Festival Fringe[42]

See also

• List of awards and nominations received by Michael Fassbender

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael Fassbender.

• Michael Fassbender at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Fassbender Online
• His name Michael Fassbender
• The Actors Compendium
• Fassinating Fassbender
• Literature on Michael Fassbender

v t e Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (2001–2010) Gosford Park (2001): Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Tom Hollander, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Geraldine Somerville, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sophie Thompson, Emily Watson, James Wilby Chicago (2002): Christine Baranski, Ekaterina Chtchelkanova, Taye Diggs, Denise Faye, Colm Feore, Richard Gere, Deidre Goodwin, Queen Latifah, Lucy Liu, Susan Misner, Mýa, John C. Reilly, Dominic West, Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, John Noble, Miranda Otto, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, Elijah Wood Sideways (2004): Thomas Haden Church, Paul Giamatti, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh Crash (2005): Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate Little Miss Sunshine (2006): Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear No Country for Old Men (2007): Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly Macdonald Slumdog Millionaire (2008): Rubina Ali, Tanay Chheda, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Madhur Mittal, Dev Patel, Freida Pinto Inglourious Basterds (2009): Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Julie Dreyfus, Michael Fassbender, Sylvester Groth, Jacky Ido, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Denis Menochet, Mike Myers, Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Rod Taylor, Christoph Waltz, Martin Wuttke The King's Speech (2010): Anthony Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush, Timothy Spall Complete list (1995–2000) (2001–2010) (2011–2020)

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 36713181 LCCN: no2007152127 ISNI: 0000 0001 1566 9792 GND: 139370579

Persondata
Name	Fassbender, Michael
Alternative names
Short description	Irish-German actor
Date of birth	1977-04-02
Place of birth	Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Date of death
Place of death