Dec 22, 1962

Suffolk, England

The eldest of 6 children, Fiennes trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. He is the only actor ever to have won a Tony Award for playing "Hamlet" on Broadway. In 2001, Fiennes received the William Shakespeare Award from the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.
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Fiennes made his film debut in 1992 as Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights" opposite Juliette Binoche. But it was in the following year that he became known internati... ... (read more...) onally, portraying the amoral Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List", for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He did not win the Oscar, but he did win the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for the role.
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In 1994, he portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in "Quiz Show", and in 1996, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the World War II epic romance "The English Patient".

Fiennes' work has ranged from thrillers ("Red Dragon") to animated Biblical epic ("The Prince of Egypt") to campy nostalgia ("The Avengers") to romantic comedy ("Maid in Manhattan"). In 2002, Fiennes and Miranda Richardson received critical acclaim for their performances in David Cronenberg's award-winning thriller Spider.
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In 2004, Fiennes was cast as Lord Voldemort in the fourth film of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". The film was released in November 2005. Fiennes will reprise the role in its sequels.

Also in 2005, "The Constant Gardener" was released, with Fiennes as the title role. The film is set in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. The situation affected the crew to the extent that they set up the Constant Gardener Trust in order to provide basic education around these villages. Fiennes is a patron of the charity.<br/>

Also, Fiennes was said to be a contender to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in the upcoming movie "Casino Royale", although there were multiple so called "contenders", including Jude Law, Clive Owen, Orlando Bloom, and Daniel Craig. Eventually, Craig was chosen for the iconic role.
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His recent performance in the play "Faith Healer" gained him a nomination for a Tony Award.