Kenneth Branagh (born 10 December, 1960) is an Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated Northern Irish actor and film director. He portrayed Gilderoy Lockhart in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Branagh is well known for his Shakespeare adaptations, a number of which he co-starred in with Emma Thompson, to whom he was married from 1989 to 1995. Thompson portrays Sybill Trelawney in the Harry Potter films. Branagh was later involved with Helena Bonham Carter, who portrays Bellatrix Lestrange in the films.
In 2001, Branagh won an Emmy Award for the TV movie Conspiracy. His remake of Sleuth, with Michael Caine and Jude Law, was released in 2007, to mostly negative reviews.
Outside his Shakespeare work, Branagh has also delved into SF and fantasy, playing Dr. Frankenstein in a popular mid-90s version of the Frankenstein story, and as Dr. Loveless in a film version of the TV series The Wild Wild West. He is reportedly scheduled to direct a planned film adaptation of the comic book superhero Thor, which is expected to be one of the films competing with the final Harry Potter movie for box office receipts in 2011.
Selected filmography
Actor
- Coming Through (1985) ... D.H. Lawrence
- Henry V (1989) ... Henry V
- Dead Again (1991) ... Roman Strauss/Mike Church
- Peter's Friends (1992) ... Andrew Benson
- Swing Kids (1993) ... Herr Knopp, Gestapo (uncredited)
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993) ... Benedick
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) ... Dr. Victor Frankenstein
- Othello (1995) ... Iago
- William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1996) ... Hamlet
- Wild Wild West (1999) ... Dr. Arliss Loveless
- Shackleton (2002) (TV) ... Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) ... Gilderoy Lockhart
- Warm Springs (2005) (TV) ... Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Valkyrie (2008) ... Major-General Henning von Tresckow
- The Boat that Rocked (2009) ... Sir Alistar Dormandy
Director
- Henry V (1989)
- Dead Again (1991)
- Peter's Friends (1992)
- Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
- In the Bleak Midwinter (1995)
- William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1996)
- Love Labour's Lost (2000)
- As You Like It (2006)
- Sleuth (2007)
- Thor (2011)
External links
- Kenneth Branagh at Wikipedia
- Kenneth Branagh at the Internet Movie Database