Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (3)

Rich mellifluous voice



Often plays mysterious characters with equally mysterious pasts



Often plays menacing, sadistic villains



Trivia (46)

Name rhymes with "Safe Signs".



Ranked #34 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]





Of the roughly one dozen actors to play "Hamlet" on Broadway, he is the first to win a Tony Award for doing so, in the 1995 Almeida Theatre production directed by Jonathan Kent

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#33). [1995]



His uncle, Nicholas Lash, is a former priest and Cambridge theology professor, and his great-uncle, Dom Patrick Moore, is a Benedictine monk.





Gained several pounds of muscle for his role in Roter Drache (2002).



His performance as Amon Goeth from his film Schindlers Liste (1993) was ranked #15 on the American Film Institute's Villains list in their compilation of the 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains.

An Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).





His tattoo in Roter Drache (2002) took eight hours to apply.



4th cousin of Lord Saye & Sele, owner of Broughton Castle, which appears in Shakespeare in Love (1998) as Viola's house.



8th cousin of Prince Charles



Fiennes was reluctant to take the role of Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch (2005). In a television interview on AMC's Sunday Morning Shootout (2003) (November 20, 2005), he claimed to have been unimpressed with the previous three Harry Potter films. Fiennes was apparently nonplussed at the idea of appearing in the fourth film of a series and stated that he had "never bought into [the] world" of Harry Potter. Family members urged him to take the role while other friends counseled against it. He eventually changed his mind after Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell showed Fiennes preproduction conceptions of what the character of Voldemort might look like: "The little kid in me that likes to dress up and be bad went 'Yeah! I want to do it!'".



Broke up with Francesca Annis [February 7, 2006].



When he noticed that children watching the filming were scared of him as "Lord Voldemort" in Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch (2005), he knew he had the character right.



His performance as "Amon Goeth" in Schindlers Liste (1993) is ranked #61 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).



Filmed his role as Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch (2005) in only two days.



Has shared two roles with Peter O'Toole . They have both played Hamlet on stage, and both played T.E. Lawrence.

He was a guest of a Belgrade Film Festival - FEST 2009.



Won the 1995 Tony Award (New York City) for Actor in a Drama for "Hamlet" and was nominated for the 2006 Tony Award (New York City) for Actor in a Drama for "Faith Healer".



Has appeared twice on the cover of GQ magazine: August '94 and July '98.



London, UK: Playing lead role of Prospero in Trevor Nunn's production of The Tempest at the Royal Haymarket Theatre. [August 2011]



Appearing in the London West End production of Oedipus as the title character [October 2008]





New York, NY: It was announced that he, as well as Cate Blanchett , will be honored by gala tributes (separately) in October by the Film Society of Lincoln Center during its annual film festival. [August 2013]



Stars in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" as Mark Antony at London's Barbican Centre, in a production by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw (Calpurnia) and John Shrapnel (Caesar). The production will be on tour to France and Spain later this year with the same cast. [April 2005]



Currently appearing in the title role of Brian Friel 's "Faith Healer", at the Booth Theatre on Broadway. The revival co-stars 'Cherry Jones' and Ian McDiarmid , who won a Tony for best supporting actor. Ralph received a Tony nomination. [June 2006]

Belgrade (Serbia), sightseeing locations for filming "Coriolanus", Shakespeare play set in modern time. [August 2008]



He has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Many of his recent ancestors lived in India, during the British colonial period. He has said that his surname, "Fiennes", is of Norman origin.





Was considered for the role of James Bond years before being cast as Gareth Mallory in James Bond 007: Skyfall (2012).

He was considered for the title role in Batman Forever (1995) before Val Kilmer was cast.



Personal Quotes (25)

It's 'Rafe', actually.



When children were introduced to Lord Voldemort, they looked suitably terrified. Which gave me great gratification.



As an actor, a part of you expects to be looked at. A part of you wants to be looked at. But when I'm playing a part, in my imagined world, I feel I'm not me. I may be using bits of me, but I love the sense that I'm being someone else.



Awards are like applause, and every actor likes to hear applause.



The process of making a film is a mad lottery. Whenever you get the feeling that you're making something special, you have to quickly squash it because you are so often proved wrong.





[on Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone (1998)] I think it's a badge of honor to have a real flop on your resume.

I tried not to play Voldemort over the top, and then I realized there's no other way.



I veer away from trying to understand why I act. I just know I need to do it.



The people I consider successful are so because of how they handle their responsibilities to other people, how they approach the future, people who have a full sense of the value of their life and what they want to do with it. I call people successful not because they have money or their business is doing well but because, as human beings, they have a fully developed sense of being alive and engaged in a lifetime task of collaboration with other human beings -- their mothers and fathers, their family, their friends, their loved ones, the friends who are dying, the friends who are being born.



Success.. is all about being able to extend love to people... not in a big, capital letter sense but in the everyday. Little by little, task by task, gesture by gesture, word by word.





[on the death of Natasha Richardson ] I cannot imagine a world without her wit, her love, her mischief, her great, great talent and her gift for living. I loved her very much. She was a supreme friend. I shall miss her deeply.



[on filming Coriolanus (2011) in Belgrade, Serbia] I needed an important and big capital city and I didn't want it to be Rome, but any contemporary city. Given this is a modern interpretation of Shakespeare, Rome just wasn't the suitable location because Rome of today is reminiscent of a mighty state like the USA or Russia, and I wanted it to be something different. I've come to realize here in Belgrade that a lot of history is reflected through buildings. This is a capital city with a great history. I have been to Bucharest and Zagreb, but Belgrade has always been the first choice for me. Initially, I was attracted by Belgrade's spirit and later I realized this was an ideal filming location.



[on filming Coriolanus (2011) in Belgrade, Serbia] I am lucky to have a great crew from Serbia and the UK, and I've been working on the script with John Logan for almost three and a half years.



[on filming Coriolanus (2011) in Belgrade, Serbia] You really do have fantastic actors here in Serbia as well as a long theatre tradition, which is probably why it's now even stronger than that of London and I'm really flattered to be filming here.

My parents were very financially-challenged. All of us children have the memory of being told that there was no money, we have to sell this, there's no presents for Christmas. Of being in the front line of that constant worry; the atmosphere in the home always charged with anxiety. 'What do we do? What do we do?'





[on doing full frontal nudity in A Bigger Splash (2015)] I liked [the nudity] because it was in the service of illustrating extreme spontaneity in Harry's character. All my nude scenes are extremely spontaneous and appropriate for the situations in which my character is. My nudity is a function of the film's plot. I knew I'd run around naked, so I had to physically prepare, to tighten the muscles.



[on A Bigger Splash (2015)] I'd never been asked to play a guy who dances and gets naked and sings karaoke! I don't believe I ever played a part like Harry... It was a very special kind of film.

When you meet women, don't pretend to be anything that you're not.



I reject the notion that there's a moral entity out there running the universe and judging us. I think there's energy, which is frightening and unpredictable. We'll never fully understand it - we're at the mercy of it - and whatever that thing is, that might be God.



My mother wrote six novels and then another book about a trip to pilgrimage centres in France. She also painted. She was her own thinker; highly individual in the way she approached just who you are. For instance, I was at grammar school and there's a reasonable pressure to get good exam results and maybe go to university. My mother would say, "If that's what you want then go for it but don't feel that the system in place is the one that you have to adhere to. Be true to yourself, follow your path and give yourself 100 per cent. Don't dabble."



I have huge anxiety attacks. I'll wake up early in the morning with my brain anxious about something and I don't even know what it is, just a general sense of profound uncertainty. It's from the unconscious, I suppose, fears about existence. A weird twilight panic. We feel we can organise our lives and have an order that we can control but really we can't; it's always paper-thin and underneath there's this lurking chaos. You think, "Fuck! This could come at me at any moment."



I used to smoke socially and bum cigarettes off people at parties; the number of packets I've bought in my life I could count on both hands. Have I smoked marijuana? Yes. I think most people have had a drag on a joint.





Once in a while I like to watch some silly comedy, usually on airplanes. That movie with Mark Wahlberg and the bear was just excellent. Ted! I'd love to do something like that.

Vodka martinis are better stirred, not shaken.



We're all defined by how we relate to each other. One of the best things about acting is that it calls on trust and transparency with a director or another actor. I've often felt happiest in ensemble situations because you have to be open. Weirdly, I find it hard in real life.

