Anthony Hopkins

Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, CBE (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor of film, stage, and television, and a composer and painter. After graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in 1957, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was then spotted by Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre. In 1968, he got his break in film in The Lion in Winter, playing Richard I.

Considered to be one of the greatest living actors, Hopkins is well known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, its sequel Hannibal, and the prequel Red Dragon. Other notable films include The Mask of Zorro, The Bounty, Meet Joe Black, The Elephant Man, Magic, 84 Charing Cross Road, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Legends of the Fall, Thor, The Remains of the Day, Amistad, Nixon, The World’s Fastest Indian, Instinct, and Fracture.

Along with his Academy Award, Hopkins has also won three BAFTA Awards, two Emmys and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1993, Hopkins was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, and was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2008.

Early Life

Hopkins was born on 31 December 1937 in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, the son of Annie Muriel and Richard Arthur Hopkins, a baker. His schooldays were unproductive; he found that he would rather immerse himself in art, such as painting and drawing, or playing the piano, than attend to his studies. In 1949, to instill discipline, his parents insisted he attend Jones’ West Monmouth Boys’ School in Pontypool, Wales. He remained there for five terms and was then educated at Cowbridge Grammar School in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.

Hopkins was influenced and encouraged by Welsh compatriot Richard Burton (also born in Port Talbot), whom he met briefly at the age of 15. Hopkins promptly enrolled at theRoyal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, Wales, from which he graduated in 1957. After two years in the British Army doing his national service, he moved to London, where he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Hopkins made his first professional stage appearance in the Palace Theatre, Swansea, in 1960 with Swansea Little Theatre’s production of Have a Cigarette.

In 1965, after several years in repertory, he was spotted by Laurence Olivier, who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre in London. Hopkins became Olivier’s understudy, and filled in when Olivier was struck with appendicitis during a production of August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death.
Despite his success at the National, Hopkins tired of repeating the same roles nightly and yearned to be in films. He made his small-screen debut in a 1967 BBC broadcast of A Flea in Her Ear. In 1968, he got his break in The Lion in Winter playing Richard I. Although Hopkins continued in theatre (most notably at the National Theatre as Lambert Le Roux in Pravda by David Hare and Howard Brenton and as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra opposite Judi Dench as well as in the Broadway production of Peter Shaffer’s Equus) he gradually moved away from it to become more established as a television and film actor. He portrayed Charles Dickens in the BBC television film The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens in 1970, and Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC’s mini series War and Peace (1972). In 1972 he starred as WWI British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in Young Winston, and in 1977 he played British Army officer John Frost in Richard Attenborough’s WWII film A Bridge Too Far.

In 1980, he starred in The Elephant Man as the English doctor Sir Frederick Treves, who attends to Joseph Merrick (portrayed by John Hurt), a severely deformed man in 19th century London. That year he also starred opposite Shirley MacLaine in A Change of Seasons. In 1984, he starred opposite Mel Gibson in The Bounty as William Bligh, captain of the Royal Navy ship the HMS Bounty, in a retelling of the mutiny on the Bounty. In 1992, Hopkins portrayed Abraham Van Helsing in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Set in 1950s post-war Britain, Hopkins starred opposite Emma Thompson in the critically acclaimed The Remains of the Day (1993). Hopkins was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. Hopkins portrayed Oxford academic C. S. Lewis in the 1993 British biographical film Shadowlands, and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. During the 1990s, Hopkins had the chance to work with Bart the Bear in two films: Legends of the Fall (1994) and The Edge (1997).

Hopkins was Britain’s highest paid performer in 1998, starring in The Mask of Zorro and Meet Joe Black, and also agreed to reprise his role as Dr Hannibal Lecter. In 2000, Hopkins narrated Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Hopkins received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.

Hopkins has stated that his role as Burt Munro, whom he portrayed in his 2005 film The World’s Fastest Indian, was his favourite. In 2006, Hopkins was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. In 2008, he received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the highest award the British Film Academy can bestow.

On 24 February 2010, it was announced that Hopkins had been cast in The Rite, which was released on 28 January 2011. He played a priest who is «an expert in exorcisms and whose methods are not necessarily traditional». On 21 September 2011, Peter R. de Vries named Hopkins in the role of the Heineken owner Freddy Heineken in a future film about his kidnapping.

Hopkins portrayed Odin, the Allfather or «king» of Asgard, in the 2011 film adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Thor. Hopkins portrayed Alfred Hitchcock in Sacha Gervasi’s biopic Hitchcock, following his career while making Psycho. The film was released on 23 November 2012. In 2013, he reprised his role as Odin in Thor: The Dark World. In 2014, he portrayed Methuselah in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah.

Personal Life

Hopkins was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987, and was knighted at Buckingham Palace in 1993 for services to the arts. In 1988, Hopkins was made an Honorary D.Litt and in 1992 was awarded Honorary fellowship from the University of Wales, Lampeter. A few years later in a The Tonight Show with Jay Leno appearance, Hopkins humbly admitted that he liked his American fans and friends to call him «Tony».

As of 2007, Hopkins resides in Los Angeles, California. He had moved to the United States once before during the 1970s to pursue his film career, but returned to London in the late 1980s. However, he decided to return to the US following his 1990s success. Retaining his British citizenship, he became a naturalised US citizen on 12 April 2000, and celebrated with a 3,000-mile road trip across the country.

Hopkins has been married three times. His first two wives were Petronella Barker (1966–1972) and Jennifer Lynton (1973–2002). He has a daughter from his first marriage, Abigail Hopkins (born 20 August 1968), an actress and singer.

He is now married to Stella Arroyave. The couple live in Malibu. On Christmas Eve 2012, Hopkins celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary by having a blessing at a private service at St David’s Cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Hopkins has offered his support to various charities and appeals, notably becoming President of the National Trust’s Snowdonia Appeal, raising funds for the preservation of Snowdonia National Park in north Wales. In 1998 he donated £1 million towards the £3 million needed to aid the Trust’s efforts in purchasing parts of Snowdon. Prior to the campaign, Hopkins authored Anthony Hopkins’ Snowdonia, which was published in 1995.

Hopkins has been a patron of the YMCA centre in his hometown of Port Talbot, South Wales for more than 20 years, having first joined the YMCA in the 1950s. He supports other various philanthropic groups. He was a Guest of Honour at a Gala Fundraiser for Women in Recovery, Inc., a Venice, California-based non-profit organisation offering rehabilitation assistance to women in recovery from substance abuse. Although he resides in Malibu, California he is also a volunteer teacher at the Ruskin School of Acting in Santa Monica, California. Hopkins served as the Honorary Patron of The New Heritage Theatre Company in Boise, Idaho from 1997-2007, participating in fundraising and marketing efforts for the repertory theatre.

Hopkins is a recovering alcoholic; he stopped drinking on 25 December 1975. He quit smoking using the Allen Carr method. He contributed toward the refurbishment of a £2.3 million wing at his alma mater, the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff: the Anthony Hopkins Centre, which opened in 1999.

In 2008, he embarked on a weight loss programme, and by 2010, he had lost 80 pounds.
Hopkins is a prominent member of environmental protection group Greenpeace and as of early 2008 featured in a television advertisement campaign, voicing concerns about Japan’s continuing annual whale hunt. He has also been a patron of RAPt (Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust) since its early days and helped open their first intensive drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit at Downview (HM Prison) in 1992.

He is an admirer of the Welsh comedian Tommy Cooper. On 23 February 2008, as patron of the Tommy Cooper Society, the actor unveiled a commemorative statue in the entertainer’s home town of Caerphilly, South Wales. For the ceremony, Hopkins donned Cooper’s trademark fez and performed a comic routine.

Other work

In 1986, he released a single called «Distant Star», which peaked at No. 75 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2007, he announced he would retire temporarily from the screen to tour around the world. Hopkins has also written music for the concert hall, in collaboration with Stephen Barton as orchestrator. These compositions include The Masque of Time, given its world premiere with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in October 2008, and Schizoid Salsa.

In 1990, Hopkins directed a film about his Welsh compatriot, poet Dylan Thomas, titled Dylan Thomas: Return Journey, which was his directing debut for the screen. In 1996, he directed August, an adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya set in Wales. His first screenplay, an experimental drama called Slipstream, which he also directed and scored, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

In 1997, Hopkins narrated BBC natural documentary series, Killing for a Living, which showed predatory behaviour in nature. He narrated episode 1 through 3 before being replaced by John Shrapnel.

On 31 October 2011, André Rieu released an album including a waltz which Hopkins had composed many years before, at the age of nineteen. Hopkins had never heard his composition, «And the Waltz Goes On», before it was premiered by Rieu’s orchestra in Vienna; Rieu’s album was given the same name as Hopkins’ piece.

In January 2012, Hopkins released an album of classical music, entitled Composer, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and released on CD via the UK radio station Classic FM. The album consists of nine of his original works and film scores, with one of the pieces titled «Margam» in tribute to his home town near Port Talbot in Wales.

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales and the tenth largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is the country’s chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. The unitary authority area’s mid-2011 population was estimated to be 346,100, while the population of the Larger Urban Zone was estimated at 861,400 in 2009. Cardiff is part of the Cardiff and south Wales valleys metropolitan area of about 1,100,000 people. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographic’s alternative tourist destinations.

The city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan (and later South Glamorgan). Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. The Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area outside the county boundary, and includes the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a major port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region contributed to its rise as a major city.

Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955. Since the 1990s, Cardiff has seen significant development. A new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building, home to the Welsh Assembly and the Wales Millennium Centre arts complex. Current developments include the continuation of the redevelopment of the Cardiff Bay and city centre areas with projects such as the Cardiff International Sports Village, a BBC drama village, and a new business district in the city centre.

Sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium (the national stadium for the Wales national rugby union team), SWALEC Stadium (the home of Glamorgan County Cricket Club), Cardiff City Stadium (the home of Cardiff City football tea), Cardiff International Sports Stadium (the home of Cardiff Amateur Athletic Club) and Cardiff Arms Park (the home of Cardiff Blues and Cardiff RFC rugby union teams). The city was awarded with the European City of Sport in 2009 due to its role in hosting major international sporting events. Again Cardiff was the European City of Sport in 2014. The Millennium Stadium hosted 11 football matches as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the games’ opening event and the men’s bronze medal match.

History

Archaeological evidence from sites in and around Cardiff—the St Lythans burial chamber, near Wenvoe (about four miles (6.4 km) west, south west of Cardiff city centre), the Tinkinswood burial chamber, near St Nicholas (about six miles (10 km) west of Cardiff city centre), the Cae’rarfau Chambered Tomb, Creigiau (about six miles (10 km) north west of Cardiff city centre) and the Gwern y Cleppa Long Barrow, near Coedkernew, Newport (about eight and a quarter miles (13.5 km) north east of Cardiff city centre)—shows that people had settled in the area by at least around 6,000 years before present (BP), during the early Neolithic; about 1,500 years before either Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed. A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of The Garth (Welsh: Mynydd y Garth), within the county’s northern boundary. Four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiff’s present-day county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort, an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares (51,000 m2).

Until the Roman conquest of Britain, Cardiff was part of the territory of the Silures – a Celtic British tribe that flourished in the Iron Age – whose territory included the areas that would become known as Breconshire, Monmouthshire and Glamorgan. The 3.2-hectare (8-acre) fort established by the Romans near the mouth of the River Taff in 75 AD, in what would become the north western boundary of the centre of Cardiff, was built over an extensive settlement that had been established by the Silures in the 50s AD. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta (Caerleon) that acted as border defences. The fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a civilian settlement, or vicus, was established. It was likely made up of traders who made a living from the fort, ex-soldiers and their families. A Roman villa has been discovered at Ely. Contemporary with the Saxon Shore Forts of the 3rd and 4th centuries, a stone fortress was established at Cardiff. Similar to the shore forts, the fortress was built to protect Britannia from raiders. Coins from the reign of Gratian indicate that Cardiff was inhabited until at least the 4th century; the fort was abandoned towards the end of the 4th century, as the last Roman legions left the province of Britannia with Magnus Maximus.

Little is known about the fort and civilian settlement in the period between the Roman departure from Britain and the Norman Conquest. The settlement probably shrank in size and may even have been abandoned. In the absence of Roman rule, Wales was divided into small kingdoms; early on, Meurig ap Tewdrig emerged as the local king in Glywysing (which later became Glamorgan). The area passed through his family until the advent of the Normans in the 11th century.

In 1081 William I, King of England, began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort. Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. The castle was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian period byJohn Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, and the architect William Burges. Original Roman work can, however, still be distinguished in the wall facings.

A small town grew up in the shadow of the castle, made up primarily of settlers from England. Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages, a relatively normal size for a Welsh town in this period. By the end of the 13th century, Cardiff was the only town in Wales with a population exceeding 2,000, but it was relatively small compared with most notable towns in the Kingdom of England.

In the early 12th century a wooden palisade was erected around the city to protect it. Cardiff was a busy port in the Middle Ages, and was declared a Staple port in 1327. Henry II travelled through Cardiff on his journey to Ireland and had a premonition against the holding of Sunday markets at St Piran’s Chapel, which stood in the middle of the road between the castle entrance and Westgate.

In 1404 Owain Glyndŵr burned Cardiff and took Cardiff Castle. As the town was still very small, most of the buildings were made of wood and the town was destroyed. However, the town was soon rebuilt and began to flourish once again

In 1793, John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute was born. He would spend his life building the Cardiff docks and would later be called «the creator of modern Cardiff». A twice-weekly boat service between Cardiff and Bristol was established in 1815, and in 1821, the Cardiff Gas Works was established.

After the Napoleonic Wars Cardiff entered a period of social and industrial unrest, starting with the trial and hanging of Dic Penderyn in 1831.

The town grew rapidly from the 1830s onwards, when the Marquess of Bute built a dock, which eventually linked to the Taff Vale Railway. Cardiff became the main port for exports of coal from the Cynon, Rhondda, and Rhymney valleys, and grew at a rate of nearly 80% per decade between 1840 and 1870. Much of the growth was due to migration from within and outside Wales: in 1841, a quarter of Cardiff’s population were English-born and more than 10% had been born in Ireland. By the 1881 census, Cardiff had overtaken both Merthyr and Swansea to become the largest town in Wales. Cardiff’s new status as the premier town in South Wales was confirmed when it was chosen as the site of the University College South Wales and Monmouthshire in 1893.

A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Maindy Barracks in 1877.

Cardiff faced a challenge in the 1880s when David Davies of Llandinam and the Barry Railway Company promoted the development of rival docks at Barry. Barry docks had the advantage of being accessible in all tides, and David Davies claimed that his venture would cause «grass to grow in the streets of Cardiff». From 1901 coal exports from Barry surpassed those from Cardiff, but the administration of the coal trade remained centred on Cardiff, in particular its Coal Exchange, where the price of coal on the British market was determined and the first million-pound deal was struck in 1907. The city also strengthened its industrial base with the decision of the owners of theDowlais Ironworks in Merthyr (who would later form part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds) to build a new steelworks close to the docks at East Moors, which Lord Bute opened on 4 February 1891.

King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on 28 October 1905, and the city acquired a Roman Catholic Cathedral in 1916. In subsequent years an increasing number of national institutions were located in the city, including the National Museum of Wales, Welsh National War Memorial, and the University of Wales Registry Building—however, it was denied the National Library of Wales, partly because the library’s founder, Sir John Williams, considered Cardiff to have «a non-Welsh population».

After a brief post-war boom, Cardiff docks entered a prolonged decline in the interwar period. By 1936, their trade was less than half its value in 1913, reflecting the slump in demand for Welsh coal. Bomb damage during the Cardiff Blitz in World War II included the devastation of Llandaff Cathedral, and in the immediate postwar years the city’s link with the Bute family came to an end.

The city was proclaimed capital city of Wales on 20 December 1955, by a written reply by the Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George. Caernarfon had also vied for this title. Cardiff therefore celebrated two important anniversaries in 2005. The Encyclopedia of Wales notes that the decision to recognise the city as the capital of Wales «had more to do with the fact that it contained marginal Conservative constituencies than any reasoned view of what functions a Welsh capital should have». Although the city hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1958, Cardiff only became a centre of national administration with the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Development Agency, most of which were based in Cardiff.

The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population during the 1980s, consistent with a wider pattern of counter urbanisation in Britain. However, it recovered and was one of the few cities (outside London) where population grew during the 1990s. During this period the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was promoting the redevelopment of south Cardiff; an evaluation of the regeneration of Cardiff Bay published in 2004 concluded that the project had «reinforced the competitive position of Cardiff» and «contributed to a massive improvement in the quality of the built environment», although it had failed «to attract the major inward investors originally anticipated».

In the 1997 devolution referendum, Cardiff voters rejected the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales by 55.4% to 44.2% on a 47% turnout, which Denis Balsom partly ascribed to a general preference in Cardiff and some other parts of Wales for a ‘British’ rather than exclusively ‘Welsh’ identity. The relative lack of support for the Assembly locally, and difficulties between the Welsh Office and Cardiff Council in acquiring the original preferred venue, Cardiff City Hall, encouraged other local authorities to bid to house the Assembly. However, the Assembly eventually located at Tŷ Hywel in Cardiff Bay in 1999; in 2005, a new debating chamber on an adjacent site, designed by Richard Rogers, was opened.

The city was county town of Glamorgan until the council reorganisation in 1974 paired Cardiff and the now Vale of Glamorgan together as the new county of South Glamorgan. Further local government restructuring in 1996 resulted in Cardiff city’s district council becoming a unitary authority, the City and County of Cardiff, with the addition of Creigiau and Pentyrch.

Economy

As the capital city of Wales, Cardiff is the main engine of growth in the Welsh economy. Though the population of Cardiff is about 10% of the Welsh population, the economy of Cardiff makes up nearly 20% of Welsh GDP and 40% of the city’s workforce are daily in-commuters from the surrounding south Wales area.

Industry has played a major part in Cardiff’s development for many centuries. The main catalyst for its transformation from a small town into a big city was the demand for coal required in making iron and later steel, brought to the sea by packhorse from Merthyr Tydfil. This was first achieved by the construction of a 25-mile (40 km) long canal from Merthyr (510 feet above sea-level) to the Taff Estuary at Cardiff. Eventually the Taff Vale Railway replaced the canal barges and massive marshalling yards sprang up as new docks were developed in Cardiff – all prompted by the soaring worldwide demand for coal from the South Wales valleys.

At its peak, Cardiff’s port area, known as Tiger Bay, became the busiest port in the world and—for some time—the world’s most important coal port. In the years leading up to the First World War, more than 10 million tonnes of coal was exported annually from Cardiff Docks. In 1907, Cardiff’s Coal Exchange was the first host to a business deal for a million pounds Sterling. After a period of decline, Cardiff’s port has started to grow again – over 3 million tonnes of cargo passed through the docks in 2007.

Today, Cardiff is the principal finance and business services centre in Wales, and as such there is a strong representation of finance and business services in the local economy. This sector, combined with the Public Administration, Education and Health sectors, have accounted for around 75% of Cardiff’s economic growth since 1991. The city was recently placed seventh overall in the top 50 European cities in the fDI 2008 Cities of the Future list published by the fDi magazine, and also ranked seventh in terms of attracting foreign investment. Notable companies such as Legal & General, Admiral Insurance, HBOS, Zurich, ING Direct, The AA, Principality Building Society, 118118, British Gas, Brains, SWALEC Energy and BT, all operate large national or regional headquarters and contact centres in the city, some of them based in Cardiff’s office towers such as Capital Tower and Brunel House. Other major employers includeNHS Wales and the National Assembly for Wales. On 1 March 2004, Cardiff was granted Fairtrade City status.

Cardiff is home to the Welsh media and a large media sector with BBC Wales, S4C and ITV Wales all having studios in the city. In particular, there is a large independent TV production industry sector of over 600 companies, employing around 6000 employees and with a turnover estimated at £350 m. Just to the north west of the city, in Rhondda Cynon Taff, the first completely new film studios in the UK for 30 years are being built, named Valleywood. The studios are set to be the biggest in the UK. The BBC has announced it is to build new studios in Cardiff Bay to film dramas such as Casualty and Doctor Who, with the BBC intending to double media output from the city by 2016.

Cardiff has several regeneration projects such the St David’s 2 Centre and surrounding areas of the city centre, and the £1.4 billion International Sports Village in Cardiff Bay which played a part in the London 2012 Olympics. It features the only Olympic-standard swimming pool in Wales, the Cardiff International Pool, which opened on 12 January 2008.

According to the Welsh Rugby Union, the Millennium Stadium has contributed £1 billion to the Welsh economy in the ten years since it opened (1999), with around 85% of that amount staying in the Cardiff area.

Landmarks and attractions

Cardiff has many landmark buildings such as the Millennium Stadium, Pierhead Building the Welsh National Museum and the Senedd, the home of the National Assembly for Wales. Cardiff is also famous for Cardiff Castle, St David’s Hall, Llandaff Cathedral and the Wales Millennium Centre.

Cardiff Castle is a major tourist attraction in the city and is situated in the heart of the city centre. The National History Museum at St Fagans in Cardiff is a large open-air museum housing dozens of buildings from throughout Welsh history that have been moved to the site in Cardiff. The Civic Centre in Cathays Park comprises a collection of Edwardian buildings such as the City Hall, National Museum and Gallery of Wales, Cardiff Crown Court, and buildings forming part of Cardiff University, together with more modern civic buildings. These buildings surround a small green space containing the Welsh National War Memorial and a number of other smaller memorials.
In addition to Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch (Red Castle) is located in Tongwynlais, in the north of the city. The current castle is an elaborately decorated Victorian folly designed byWilliam Burges for the Marquess and built in the 1870s, as an occasional retreat. However, the Victorian castle stands on the footings of a much older medieval castle possibly built by Ifor Bach, a regional baron with links to Cardiff Castle also. The exterior has become a popular location for film and television productions. It rarely fulfilled its intended role as a retreat for the Butes, who seldom stayed there. For the Marquess, the pleasure had been in its creation, a pleasure lost following Burges’s death in 1881.

Cardiff claims to have the largest concentration of castles of any city in the world. As well as Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch, the remains of Twmpath Castle, the Llandaff Bishop’s Palace and Saint Fagans Castle are still in existence, whilst the site of Treoda (or Whitchurch Castle) has now been built over

Other major tourist attractions are the Cardiff Bay regeneration sites which include the recently opened Wales Millennium Centre and the Senedd, and many other cultural and sites of interest including the Cardiff Bay Barrage and the famous Coal Exchange. The New Theatre was founded in 1906 and completely refurbished in the 1980s. Until the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in 2004, it was the premier venue in Wales for touring theatre and dance companies. Other venues which are popular for concerts and sporting events include Motorpoint Arena, St David’s Hall and the Millennium Stadium. Cardiff Story, a museum documenting the city’s history, has been open to the public since Spring 2011.

Cardiff has over 1,000 listed buildings, ranging from the more prominent buildings such as the castles, to smaller buildings, houses and structures.

Cardiff has walks of special interest for tourists and ramblers alike, such as the Centenary Walk, which runs for 2.3 miles (3.7 km) within Cardiff city centre. This route passes through many of Cardiff’s landmarks and historic buildings.

Culture and recreations
Cardiff has many cultural sites varying from the historical Cardiff Castle and out of town Castell Coch to the more modern Wales Millennium Centre and Cardiff Bay. Cardiff was a finalist in the European Capital of Culture 2008. In recent years Cardiff has grown in stature as a tourist destination, with recent accolades including Cardiff being voted the eighth favourite UK city by readers of the Guardian. The city was also listed as one of the top 10 destinations in the UK on the official British tourist boards website Visit Britain, and US travel guide Frommers have listed Cardiff as one of 13 top destinations worldwide for 2008. Annual events in Cardiff that have become regular appearances in Cardiff’s calendar include Sparks in the Park, The Great British Cheese Festival, Cardiff Mardi Gras, Cardiff Winter Wonderland, Cardiff Festival and Made in Roath.

Cardiff has a strong nightlife and is home to many bars, pubs and clubs. Most clubs and bars are situated in the city centre, especially St. Mary Street, and more recently Cardiff Bay has built up a strong night scene, with many modern bars & restaurants. The Brewery Quarter on St. Mary Street is a recently developed venue for bars and restaurant with a central courtyard. Charles Street is also a popular part of the city.

Cardiff is known for its extensive parkland, with parks and other such green spaces covering around 10% of the city’s total area. Cardiff’s main park, Bute Park (which was formerly the castle grounds) extends northwards from the top of one of Cardiff’s main shopping street (Queen Street); when combined with the adjacent Llandaff Fields and Pontcanna Fields to the north west it produces a massive open space skirting the River Taff. Other popular parks include Roath Park in the north, donated to the city by the 3rd Marquess of Bute in 1887 and which includes a very popular boating lake; Victoria Park, Cardiff’s first official park; and Thompson’s Park, formerly home to an aviary removed in the 1970s. Wild open spaces include Howardian Local Nature Reserve, 32 acres (130,000 m2) of the lower Rhymney valley in Penylan noted for its Orchids, and Forest Farm Country Park, over 150 acres (0.61 km2) along the river Taff in Whitchurch.

Cardiff is one of the top ten retail destinations in the UK, with two main shopping streets (Queen Street and St. Mary Street), and three main shopping arcades; St. David’s Centre, Queens Arcade and the Capitol Centre. The current expansion of St. David’s Centre as part of the St. David’s 2 project has seen it become one of the largest shopping centres in the United Kingdom. As well as the modern shopping arcades, the city is also home to many Victorian shopping centres, such as High Street Arcade, Castle Arcade, Wyndham Arcade, Royal Arcade and Morgan Arcade. Also of note is The Hayes, home to Spillers Records, the world’s oldest record shop. Cardiff has a number of markets, including the vast Victorian indoor Cardiff Central Market and the newly established Riverside Community Market, which specialises in locally produced organic produce. Several out-of-town retail parks exist, such as Newport Road, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff Gate and Cardiff Bay.

Notable people

Many notable people have hailed from Cardiff, ranging from historical figures such as the 12th century Welsh leader Ifor Bach and to more recent figures such as Roald Dahl,Ken Follett, Griff Rhys Jones and the former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones. In particular, the city has been the birthplace of sports stars such as Tanni Grey-Thompson and Colin Jackson as well as many Premier League, Football League and international footballers, such as Craig Bellamy, Gareth Bale, Ryan Giggs, Joe Ledley, and former managers of the Wales national football team Terry Yorath and John Toshack. International rugby league players from Cardiff include Frank Whitcombe, Billy Boston, David Willicombe and Colin Dixon, and baseball internationals include George Whitcombe and Ted Peterson.

Saint Teilo (c. 500 – 9 February c. 560), is the Patron Saint of Cardiff. He was a British Christian monk, bishop, and founder of monasteries and churches. Reputed to be a cousin, friend, and disciple of Saint David, he was bishop of Llandaff and founder of the first church at Llandaff Cathedral, where his tomb is. His Saint’s Day is ninth of February.

Cardiff is also well known for its musicians, such as Ivor Novello, after whom the Ivor Novello Awards are named. Idloes Owen founder of the Welsh National Opera, lived in Llandaff, Shirley Bassey is familiar to many as the singer of three James Bond movie theme tunes, while Charlotte Church is famous as a crossover classical/pop singer, Shakin’ Stevens was one of the top selling male artists in the UK during the 1980s and Tigertailz, a popular glam metal act in the 80s, also hailed from Cardiff. A number of Cardiff-based bands, such as Catatonia and Super Furry Animals were popular during the 1990s.

Lena Hedey

After being scouted at age 17, Headey worked steadily as an actress in small and supporting roles in films throughout the 1990s, before finding fame for her lead performances in big-budget films such as the fantasy film The Brothers Grimm (2005), the action film 300 (2007), portraying Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, and the adventure and biographical film The Red Baron (2008).

Headey is best known for portraying Queen Cersei Lannister in HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones since 2011, a performance that has earned her two consecutive Emmy award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for playing the titular character Sarah Connor on Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the villainous drug lord Ma-Ma in Dredd.

Early Life

Headey was born in Hamilton, Bermuda, the daughter of Sue and John Headey. Her father, a Yorkshire police cadet, was stationed there at the time. She has one younger brother, Tim. The family moved to Somerset when she was five, and then relocated to Shelley, West Yorkshire when Headey was eleven. As a child, she took ballet lessons for a time before being told to discontinue.

Headey had her first experience of acting as a pupil at Shelley College and was noticed at the age of 17, when performing in a school production at the Royal National Theatre, being picked for a role in the 1992 film Waterland.

Career

At the age of 17, Headey performed in a one-off show and afterwards a casting agent took a photo and asked her to audition. Later, she got a supporting role in the dramaWaterland, in which she had the opportunity to work with actors who had been in the business several years before her. She landed a small role in The Remains of the Day, which came out in 1993 and received eight Academy Awards nominations.She played Katherine in Disney’s The Jungle Book, released in 1994.

After a number of film roles, she appeared opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the 1997 romantic drama Mrs Dalloway. Headey landed a supporting role in a higher-profile film titled Onegin, which starred Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler. The following year, she had the starring role in the drama Aberdeen. Headey received several good reviews for her performance in the film. She also had roles in 2000’s Gossip and 2001’s The Parole Officer.

She received the Silver Iris Award for Best Actress at the 2001 Brussels European Film Festival for her role in Aberdeen. In 2002, she had a role in the mystery drama Possession alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart.

Headey co-starred with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm, which was released in August 2005. In 2005, she starred with actress Piper Perabo in the films The Cave and Imagine Me & You. She played Queen Gorgo in Zack Snyder’s 300.

In addition to her film work, Headey starred in Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a television spin-off of James Cameron’s popular Terminator franchise. Headey played Sarah Connor from January 2008 to April 2009. The show ran for 31 episodes in two seasons until its cancellation in May 2009. She was nominated twice for the Saturn Award for Best Actress on Television for the role.

Headey has also appeared in a number of independent films, such as The Red Baron, a biographical film of the legendary World War I fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, in which she appeared alongside Matthias Schweighöfer and Joseph Fiennes. Her character was the love interest Käte Otersdorf, a nurse who may or may not have had a romance with Richthofen in real life. She also appeared as the stuffy Miss Dickinson in the 2007 release of the St. Trinian’s series. She starred in the Ridley Scott produced Tell-Tale, a film based on the short story «The Tell-Tale Heart» by Edgar Allan Poe.

In 2008, Headey starred in the horror film The Broken. The film was directed by Academy Award-nominated Sean Ellis. The film was about «a woman who suspects she’s being followed around London by a murderous doppelganger». The Broken was screened at the midnight portion of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and generally got average reviews.

Headey had a part in a short film called The Devil’s Wedding. She provided her voice for an episode of the Cartoon NetworkTV series The Super Hero Squad Show playing Black Widow and Mystique.

Since its premiere in April 2011, Headey has portrayed queen regent Cersei Lannister on the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels. Her performance has received critical acclaim: in 2011, she was nominated for a Scream Award in the category of Best Fantasy Actress for the role, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for portraying Cersei in 2014 and 2015.

Headey made a guest appearance in the television show White Collar in the episode «Taking Account» in which she played the role of Sally. In 2012, she appeared in the 3D action science-fiction film Dredd alongside Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby. Her character is Madeline Madrigal (Ma-Ma), the leader of a drug dealing gang, and the project’s primary villain. In May and June 2012, Lena filmed the fantasy adventure movie The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box throughout South West England, playing the role of Monica. The film was released in 2014.

She re-teamed with Ethan Hawke to co-star in The Purge, a ‘micro-budget’ horror film. In 2013, Headey was cast as Jocelyn Fray in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones opposite Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower.

Following the success of 300, Headey reprised her role as Queen Gorgo in the 2014 sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire.

Headey also appeared in the 2014 biopic Low Down, a film which detailed the life of jazz pianist Joe Albany, as well as playing the wife of Patrick Wilson’s character in Zipper in 2015.

Headey has been confirmed to star in upcoming comedy horror film Pride and Prejudice and Zombies opposite her former Game of Thrones co-star Charles Dance.

In July 2015, it was reported that Headey will voice Jeopardy Mouse in a reboot of Danger Mouse which will be broadcast on CBBC in late 2015. She will appear alongside Alexander Armstrong as Danger Mouse and Stephen Fry as Colonel K.

Personal Life

Headey was once engaged to Johnny Cicco, and dated actor Jason Flemyng for nine years, from 1994 to 2003. She and Flemyng met during the filming of The Jungle Book, and she had a tattoo of his name in Thai on her arm, which has since been covered. She was reportedly dating Marcos Domina, a Brazilian model, following her breakup with Flemyng

She married musician Peter Loughran in May 2007. Headey and Loughran have a son, Wylie Loughran, who was born on 31 March 2010. They separated in 2011 and she filed for divorce in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on 20 July 2012. The divorce was finalized on 26 December 2013.

In February 2015, Headey confirmed she was expecting her second child in summer 2015. On 10 July 2015, she gave birth to her second child, a daughter.

Headey has been close friends with actress Piper Perabo since they starred together in the 2005 films The Cave and Imagine Me & You. She has also campaigned on behalf of animal rights. Headey is good friends with her Game of Thrones co-star Peter Dinklage, who she has stated first pitched the role of Cersei Lannister to her.

Headey has a number of tattoos, and has stated «I was born wearing ink.» Her tattoos include a large floral design on her back as well as a Pema Chödrön quote on her ribs.

Belfast

Belfast is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland (United Kingdom). Most of Belfast, including the city centre, is in County Antrim, but parts of East and South Belfast are in County Down. It is on the flood plain of the River Lagan.

By population before the 2015 council reform, Belfast was the 17th largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest on the island of Ireland. It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly.

Historically, Belfast has been a centre for the Irish linen industry (earning the nickname «Linenopolis»), tobacco production, rope-making and shipbuilding: the city’s main shipbuilders, Harland and Wolff, which built the well-known RMS Titanic, propelled Belfast on to the global stage in the early 20th century as the biggest and most productive shipyard in the world. Belfast played a key role in the Industrial Revolution, establishing its place as a global industrial centre until the latter half of the 20th century. Industrialisation and the inward migration it brought made Belfast, if briefly, the biggest city in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century, and the city’s industrial and economic success was cited by unionist opponents of Home Rule as a reason why Ireland should shun devolution and later why Ulster unionists in particular would fight to resist it.

Today, Belfast remains a centre for industry, as well as the arts, higher education, business, and law, and is the economic engine of Northern Ireland. The city suffered greatly during the period of conflict called «the Troubles», but latterly has undergone a sustained period of calm, free from the intense political violence of former years, and substantial economic and commercial growth. Additionally, Belfast city centre has undergone considerable expansion and regeneration in recent years, notably around Victoria Square.

Belfast is served by two airports: George Best Belfast City Airport in the city, and Belfast International Airport 15 miles (24 km) west of the city. Belfast is a major port, with commercial and industrial docks dominating the Belfast Lough shoreline, including the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard. Belfast is a constituent city of the Dublin-Belfast corridor, which has a population of three million, or half the total population of the island of Ireland. Belfast is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of ‘Gamma’.

Belfast is home to four Northern Ireland Football League association football teams; Linfield F.C., Glentoran F.C., Cliftonville F.C. and Crusaders F.C.

History (Origins, growth and “The Troubles”)

The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze Age. The Giant’s Ring, a 5,000-year-old henge, is located near the city, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen in the surrounding hills. Belfast remained a small settlement of little importance during theMiddle Ages. John de Courcy built a castle on what is now Castle Street in the city centre in the 12th century, but this was on a lesser scale and not as strategically important as Carrickfergus Castle to the north, which was built by de Courcy in 1177. The O’Neill clan had a presence in the area.

In the 14th century, Cloinne Aodha Buidhe, descendants of Aodh Buidhe O’Neill built Grey Castle at Castlereagh, now in the east of the city. Conn O’Neill of the Clannaboy O’Neills owned vast lands in the area and was the last inhabitant of Grey Castle, one remaining link being the Conn’s Water river flowing through east Belfast.

Belfast became a substantial settlement in the 17th century after being established as a town by Sir Arthur Chichester, which was initially settled by Protestant English and Scottish migrants at the time of the Plantation of Ulster. (Belfast and County Antrim, however, did not form part of this particular Plantation scheme as they were privately colonised.) In 1791, the Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast, after Henry Joy McCracken and other prominent Presbyterians from the city invited Theobald Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell to a meeting, after having read Tone’s «Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland». Evidence of this period of Belfast’s growth can still be seen in the oldest areas of the city, known as the Entries.

Belfast blossomed as a commercial and industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries and became Ireland’s pre-eminent industrial city. Industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering and shipbuilding, and at the end of the 19th century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers. In 1886 the city suffered intense riots over the issue of home rule, which had divided the city.

In 1920–22, Belfast became the capital of the new entity of Northern Ireland as the island of Ireland was partitioned. The accompanying conflict (the Irish War of Independence) cost up to 500 lives in Belfast, the bloodiest sectarian strife in the city until the Troubles of the late 1960s onwards.

Belfast was heavily bombed during World War II. In one raid, in 1941, German bombers killed around one thousand people and left tens of thousands homeless. Apart from London, this was the greatest loss of life in a night raid during the Blitz.

Belfast has been the capital of Northern Ireland since its establishment in 1921 following the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It had been the scene of various episodes of sectarian conflict between its Catholic and Protestant populations. These opposing groups in this conflict are now often termed republican and loyalist respectively, although they are also referred to as ‘nationalist’ and ‘unionist’. The most recent example of this conflict was known as the Troubles – a civil conflict that raged from around 1969 to 1998.

Belfast saw some of the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, particularly in the 1970s, with rival paramilitary groups formed on both sides. Bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout the Troubles. The Provisional IRA detonated 22 bombs within the confines of Belfast city centre in 1972, on what is known as «Bloody Friday», killing eleven people. Loyalist paramilitaries including the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) claimed that the killings they carried out were in retaliation for the IRA campaign. Most of their victims were Catholics with no links to the Provisional IRA. A particularly notorious group, based on the Shankill Road in the mid-1970s, became known as the Shankill Butchers.

In all, over 1,600 people were killed in political violence in the city between 1969 and 2001.Sporadic violent events continue as of 2015, although not supported by the previous antagonists who had reached political agreement in 1998.

Architecture

The architectural style of Belfast’s buildings range from Edwardian, like the City Hall, to modern, like Waterfront Hall. Many of the city’s Victorianlandmarks, including the main Lanyon Building at Queen’s University Belfast and the Linenhall Library, were designed by Sir Charles Lanyon.

The City Hall was finished in 1906 and was built to reflect Belfast’s city status, granted by Queen Victoria in 1888. The Edwardian architectural style of Belfast City Hall influenced the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta, India, and Durban City Hall in South Africa. The dome is 173 ft (53 m) high and figures above the door state «Hibernia encouraging and promoting the Commerce and Arts of the City».

Among the city’s grandest buildings are two former banks: Ulster Bank in Waring Street (built in 1860) and Northern Bank, in nearby Donegall Street (built in 1769). The Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street are home to Northern Ireland’s Supreme Court.

Many of Belfast’s oldest buildings are found in the Cathedral Quarter area, which is currently undergoing redevelopment as the city’s main cultural and tourist area. Windsor House, 262 ft (80 m) high, has 23 floors and is the second tallest building (as distinct from structure) in Ireland. Work has started on the taller Obel Tower, which already surpasses the height of Windsor House in its unfinished state.

The ornately decorated Crown Liquor Saloon, designed by Joseph Anderson in 1876, in Great Victoria Street is one of only two pubs in the UK that are owned by the National Trust (the other is the George Inn, Southwark in London). It was made internationally famous as the setting for the classic film, Odd Man Out, starring James Mason. The restaurant panels in the Crown Bar were originally made for Britannic, the sister ship of the Titanic, built in Belfast.

The Harland and Wolff shipyard has two of the largest dry docks in Europe, where the giant cranes, Samson and Goliath stand out against Belfast’s skyline. Including the Waterfront Hall and the Odyssey Arena, Belfast has several other venues for performing arts. The architecture of the Grand Opera House has an oriental theme and was completed in 1895. It was bombed several times during the Troubles but has now been restored to its former glory. The Lyric Theatre, (re-opened 1 May 2011 after undergoing a rebuilding programme) the only full-time producing theatre in the country, is where film star Liam Neeson began his career. The Ulster Hall (1859–1862) was originally designed for grand dances but is now used primarily as a concert and sporting venue. Lloyd George, Parnell and Patrick Pearse all attended political rallies there.

Culture

Belfast’s population is evenly split between its Protestant and Catholic residents. These two distinct cultural communities have both contributed significantly to the city’s culture. Throughout the Troubles, Belfast artists continued to express themselves through poetry, art and music. In the period since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Belfast has begun a social, economic and cultural transformation giving it a growing international cultural reputation.

In 2003, Belfast had an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 European Capital of Culture. The bid was run by an independent company, Imagine Belfast, who boasted that it would «make Belfast the meeting place of Europe’s legends, where the meaning of history and belief find a home and a sanctuary from caricature, parody and oblivion.»

In 2004–05, art and cultural events in Belfast were attended by 1.8 million people (400,000 more than the previous year). The same year, 80,000 people participated in culture and other arts activities, twice as many as in 2003–04. A combination of relative peace, international investment and an active promotion of arts and culture is attracting more tourists to Belfast than ever before. In 2004–05, 5.9 million people visited Belfast, a 10% increase from the previous year, and spent £262.5 million.

The Ulster Orchestra, based in Belfast, is Northern Ireland’s only full-time symphony orchestra and is well renowned in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1966, it has existed in its present form since 1981, when the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra was disbanded. The music school of Queen’s University is responsible for arranging a notable series of lunchtime and evening concerts, often given by renowned musicians which are usually given in The Harty Room at the university (University Square).
There are many Traditional Irish bands playing throughout the city and quite a few music schools concentrate on teaching Traditional music. Well known city centre venues would include Kelly’s Cellars, Maddens and the Hercules bar. Famous artists would include The McPeakes, Brian Kennedy and the band 9Lies.

Musicians and bands who have written songs about or dedicated to Belfast: U2, Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, Simple Minds, Elton John, Rogue Male, Katie Melua, Boney M, Stiff Little Fingers, James Taylor, Spandau Ballet, The Police, Barnbrack, Gary Moore, Neon Neon, Toxic Waste, and Energy Orchard.

Further in Belfast the Oh Yeah Music Centre is located (Cathedral Quarter), a project founded to give young musicians and artists a place where they can share ideas and kick-start their music careers as chance to been supported and promoted by professional musicians of Northern Ireland’s music-scene.

Like all areas of the island of Ireland outside of the Gaeltacht, the Irish language in Belfast is not that of an unbroken intergenerational transmission. Due to community activity in the 1960s, including the establishment of the Shaws Road Gaeltacht community, the expanse in the Irish language arts, and the advancements made in the availability of Irish medium education throughout the city, it can now be said that there is a ‘mother-tongue’ community of speakers.

The language is heavily promoted in the city and is particularly visible in the Falls Road area, where the signs on both the iconic black taxis and on the public buses are bilingual. Belfast has the highest concentration of Irish speakers in Northern Ireland. Projects to promote the language in the city are funded by various sources, notably Foras na Gaeilge, an all-Ireland body funded by both the Irish and British governments. There are a number Irish language Primary schools and one secondary school in Belfast. The provision of certain resources for these schools (for example, such as the provision of textbooks) is supported by the charitable organisation TACA.

Sister cities

Belfast has the following sister cities: Nashville, Tennessee, United States (since 1994); Hefei, Anhui Province, China (since 2005) and Boston, Massachusetts, United States (since 2014).

Tom Hardy

Edward Thomas «Tom» Hardy (born 15 September 1977) is an English actor, screenwriter, and producer. He made his debut in the war film Black Hawk Down (2001). His other notable films include the science fiction film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), the crime film RocknRolla (2008), the biographical psychological drama Bronson (2008), the science fiction thriller Inception (2010), the sports drama Warrior (2011), the crime drama Lawless (2012), the drama Locke (2013) and the mobster film The Drop (2014).

He also portrayed Bane in the superhero film The Dark Knight Rises (2012),»Mad» Max Rockatansky in the post-apocalyptic film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and both Kray twins in the crime thriller Legend (2015).

Hardy’s television roles include the HBO war drama miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), the BBC historical drama miniseries The Virgin Queen (2005), ITV’s Wuthering Heights (2008), the BBC British historical crime drama television series Peaky Blinders (2013), and the Sky 1 drama series The Take (2009).

Hardy has also performed on British and American stages. He was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role as Skank in the 2003 production of In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, and was awarded the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for his performances in both In Arabia We’d All be Kings and for his role as Luca in Blood. He starred in the 2007 production of The Man of Mode and received positive reviews for his role in the 2010 Philip Seymour Hoffman-directed playThe Long Red Road.

Early life

Hardy was born in Hammersmith, London, the only child of Anne, an artist and painter whose family was of Irish descent, and Edward «Chips» Hardy, a novelist and comedy writer. He was raised in East Sheen, London. He studied at Tower House School and Reed’s School, then at Richmond Drama School, and subsequently at the Drama Centre London.

Career

In 1998, Hardy won The Big Breakfast‍ ’​‍s Find Me a Supermodel competition at age 21 (and with it a brief contract with Models One). Hardy joined Drama Centre London in September 1998, and was taken out early after winning the part of US Army Private John Janovec in the award-winning HBO-BBC miniseries Band of Brothers. He made his feature film debut in Ridley Scott’s 2001 war thriller Black Hawk Down. In 2003, Hardy appeared in the film dot the i, and then travelled to North Africa for Simon: An English Legionnaire, a story of the French Foreign Legion. In the same year, he gained some heavy international exposure as the Reman Praetor Shinzon, a clone of USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek Nemesis. He then returned to England to feature in the 2003 film LD 50 Lethal Dose.

Hardy was awarded the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performances in Blood and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings performed at the Royal Court Theatre and Hampstead Theatre. He was also nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 2003 in a Society of London Theatre Affiliate for his performance as Skank in the aforementioned production ofIn Arabia We’d All Be Kings. Hardy appeared in the 2005 BBC miniseries The Virgin Queen as Robert Dudley, a childhood friend of Elizabeth I. The miniseries portrays them as having a platonic, though highly romantic, affair throughout her reign over England during the 16th century. Hardy featured in the BBC Four adaptation of the 1960s sci-fi series A for Andromeda.

In 2007, he appeared in the BBC Two drama based on a true story, Stuart: A Life Backwards. He played the lead role of Stuart Shorter, a homeless man who had been subjected to years of abuse and whose death was possibly a suicide. In February 2008, he played a drug-addicted rapist in the British horror-thriller WΔZ. In September 2008, he appeared in Guy Ritchie’s London gangster film, RocknRolla; Hardy played the role of gay gangster Handsome Bob.

In early 2009, Hardy starred in the film Bronson, about the real-life English prisoner Charles Bronson, who has spent most of his adult life in solitary confinement. In June 2009, Hardy starred in Martina Cole’s four-part TV drama The Take on Sky One, as a drugs and alcohol fuelled gangster. The role gained him a Best Actor nomination at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards. In August 2009, he appeared in ITV’s Wuthering Heights, playing the part of Heathcliff, the classic love character who falls in love with his childhood friend Cathy

In early 2010, Hardy starred in The Long Red Road at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Hardy won some good reviews for his portrayal of Sam, an alcoholic trying to drink away his past. In 2010, he starred as Eames in Christopher Nolan’s science fiction thriller Inception for which he won a BAFTA Rising Star award.

Hardy starred as Tommy Riordan in the film Warrior, who is trained by his father to fight in a mixed martial arts tournament against his brother, for which he gained critical acclaim. He played the supervillain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Batmantrilogy, released on 20 July 2012. He played a bootlegger in John Hillcoat’s Lawless (2012).

Hardy played the title character, Max Rockatansky, in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. In 2015, Hardy is appearing in the BBC One series Taboo, which is set in 19th century England. Hardy plays an adventurer who wants justice after the death of his father. FX series will air the series in the US in 2016. In 2015, he starred in a dual role as London gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray in the crime thriller Legend.

Personal life
Hardy married Sarah Ward in 1999, but the marriage ended in divorce in 2004. He has a son, Louis Thomas (born 2008), with then-girlfriend Rachael Speed, whom he dated from 2004 to 2009.

In 2009, Hardy began a relationship with actress Charlotte Riley, whom he met on the set of Wuthering Heights. The couple became engaged in 2010 and married in July 2014. They have two dogs, both rescues, one of which Hardy appeared with in a PETA advert to promote pet adoption. In September 2015, it was announced that Riley was pregnant with the couple’s first child.

In 2010, Hardy became an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust, a leading UK youth charity which provides training, personal development, business start up support, mentoring and advice. In 2012, he and Riley became patrons of Bowel Cancer UK.

Hardy battled addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine in his early-to-mid-20s. He entered rehab and has been sober since 2003.

Hardy has named Gary Oldman as his «absolute complete and utter hero»[ and «the greatest actor that’s ever lived».

Hardy was named one of GQ magazine’s 50 best dressed British men in 2015.

Wolverhampton

It is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. People from Wolverhampton are known as «Wulfrunians».

Historically part of Staffordshire, the city is named after Wulfrun, who founded the town in 985. Prior to the Norman Conquest, the area’s name appears only as variants of Heantune or Hamtun. Alternatively, the city may have earned its original name from Wulfereēantūn = «Wulfhere’s high or principal enclosure or farm» after the Mercian King, who tradition tells us established an abbey in 659, though no evidence of an abbey has been found.

The city grew initially as a market town with specialism within the woollen trade. During and after the Industrial Revolution, the city became a major industrial centre, with mining (mostly coal, limestone and iron ore) as well as production of steel, japanning, locks, motorcycles and cars – including the first vehicle to hold the Land speed record at over 200 mph. Today, the major industries within the city are both engineering based (including a large aerospace industry) and within the service sector.

History

A local tradition states that King Wulfhere of Mercia founded an abbey of St Mary at Wolverhampton in 659.

Wolverhampton is recorded as being the site of a decisive battle between the unified Mercian Angles and West Saxons against the raiding Danes in 910, although sources are unclear as to whether the battle itself took place in Wednesfield orTettenhall. The Mercians and West Saxons claimed a decisive victory and the field of Woden is recognised by numerous place names in Wednesfield.

In 985, King Ethelred the Unready granted lands at a place referred to as Heantun to Lady Wulfrun by royal charter, and hence founding the settlement.

In 994, a monastery was consecrated in Wolverhampton for which Wulfrun granted land at Upper Arley in Worcestershire, Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Ogley Hay near Brownhills, Hilton near Wall, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Hilton near Wolverhampton, and Featherstone. This became the site for the current St. Peter’s Church. A statue of Lady Wulfrun, sculpted by Sir Charles Wheeler, can be seen on the stairs outside the church.

Wolverhampton is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being in the Hundred of Seisdon and the county of Staffordshire. The lords of the manor are listed as the canons of St Mary (the church’s dedication was changed to St Peter after this date), with the tenant-in-chief being Samson, William the Conqueror’s personal chaplain. Wolverhampton at this date is a large settlement of fifty households.

In 1179, there is mention of a market held in the town, and in 1204 it had come to the attention of King John that the town did not possess a Royal Charter for holding a market. This charter for a weekly market held on a Wednesday was eventually granted on 4 February 1258 by Henry III.

It is held that in the 14th and 15th centuries that Wolverhampton was one of the «staple towns» of the woollen trade, which today can be seen by the inclusion of a woolpack on the city’s coat of arms, and by the many small streets, especially in the city centre, called «Fold» (examples being Blossom’s Fold, Farmers Fold, Townwell Fold and Victoria Fold), as well as Woolpack Street and Woolpack Alley.

In 1512, Sir Stephen Jenyns, a former Lord Mayor of London and a twice Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, who was born in the city, founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, one of the oldest active schools in Britain.

From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of metal industries including lock and key making and iron and brass working.

Wolverhampton suffered two Great Fires: the first in April 1590, and the second in September 1696. Both fires started in today’s Salop Street. The first fire lasted for five days and left nearly 700 people homeless, whilst the second destroyed 60 homes in the first five hours. This second fire led to the purchase of the first fire engine within the city in September 1703.

On 27 January 1606, two farmers, Thomas Smart and John Holyhead of Rowley Regis, were executed on High Green, now Queen Square, for sheltering two of the Gunpowder Plotters, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton, who had fled to the Midlands. The pair played no part in the original plot but nevertheless suffered a traitor’s death of being hanged, drawn and quartered on butcher’s blocks set up in the square a few days before the execution of Guy Fawkes and several other plotters in London.

There is also evidence that Wolverhampton may have been the location of the first working Newcomen Steam Engine in 1712.

The young Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent (later Queen Victoria) is known to have visited Wolverhampton in the 1830s and described it as «a large and dirty town» but one which received her «with great friendliness and pleasure». In Victorian times, Wolverhampton grew to be a wealthy town mainly due to the huge amount of industry that occurred as a result of the abundance of coal and iron deposits in the area. The remains of this wealth can be seen in local houses such as Wightwick Manor and The Mount (both built for the Mander family, prominent varnish and paint manufacturers), and Tettenhall Towers. Many other houses of similar stature were built only to be demolished in the 1960s and 1970s.

Wolverhampton gained its first parliamentary representation as part of the Reform Act 1832, when it was one of 22 large towns that were allocated two members of parliament. It was incorporated as a municipal borough on 15 March 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 before becoming a County Borough in 1889.

The railways reached Wolverhampton in 1837, with the first station located at Wednesfield Heath, now Heath Town on the Grand Junction Railway. This station was demolished in 1965, but the area exists as a nature reserve just off Powell Street. Wolverhampton railway works was established in 1849 for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and became the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854.

In the 19th century the city saw much immigration from Wales and Ireland, following the Irish Potato Famine.

In 1866, a statue was erected in memory of Prince Albert the Prince Consort, the unveiling of which brought Queen Victoria to Wolverhampton. The unveiling of the statue was the first public appearance Queen Victoria had made since the funeral of her husband. A 40-foot (12 m) tall archway made of coal was constructed for the visit. The Queen was so pleased with the statue that she knighted the then-mayor, an industrialist named John Morris. Market Square, originally named High Green, was renamed Queen Square in honour of the visit. The statue replaced a Russian cannon captured from Sevastopol during the Crimean War in 1855, and remains standing in Queen Square.

Wolverhampton was represented politically in Victorian times by the Liberal MP Charles Pelham Villiers, a noted free trade supporter, who was also the longest serving MP in parliamentary history. Lord Wolverhampton, Henry Hartley Fowler was MP for Wolverhampton at the turn of the century.

Wolverhampton had a prolific bicycle industry from 1868 to 1975, during which time a total of more than 200 bicycle manufacturing companies existed there, but today none exist at all. These manufacturers included Viking, Marston, Sunbeam, Star, Wulfruna and Rudge. The last volume manufacturers of bicycles left Wolverhampton during the 1960s and 1970s – the largest and best-known of which was Viking Cycles Ltd, whose team dominated the UK racing scene in the 1950s (Viking’s production of hand-built lightweight racing and juvenile bicycles exceeded 20,000 units in 1965). Closures of other smaller cycle makers followed during the 1980s including such well-known hand-builders as Percy Stallard (the former professional cyclist) and Jack Hateley.

In 1918, David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, announced he was calling a General Election at «The Mount» inTettenhall Wood. Lloyd George also made his «Homes fit for heroes» speech at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in the same year. It was on the idea of «Homes fit for heroes» that Lloyd George was to fight the 1918 «Coupon» General Election.

Mass council housing development in Wolverhampton, to rehouse families from slum housing, began after the end of the Great War, with new estates at Parkfields (near the border with Coseley) and Birches Barn (near Bantock Park in the west of Wolverhampton) being built, giving the city some 550 new council houses by 1923. The first large council housing development in Wolverhampton was the Low Hill estate to the north-east of the city, which consisted of more than 2,000 new council houses by 1927 and was one of the largest housing estates in Britain at the time. Mass council housing development in Wolverhampton continued into the 1930s, mostly in the north of the city in the Oxley and Wobaston areas and on the new Scotlands Estate in the north-east. However, council house building halted in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II in September the previous year.

England’s first automatic traffic lights could be seen in Princes Square, Wolverhampton in 1927. The modern traffic lights at this location have the traditional striped poles to commemorate this fact. Princes Square was also the location of the United Kingdom’s first pedestrian safety barriers, which were erected in 1934. On 2 November 1927, the A4123 New Road was opened by the then-Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII of the United Kingdom) linking the city with Birmingham. The New Road was designed as an unemployment relief project and was the United Kingdom’s first purpose-built intercity highway of the twentieth century.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the council erected 400 prefabricated bungalows across Wolverhampton, and built its first permanent postwar houses at the Underhill Estate near Bushbury in the late 1940s. The 1950s saw many new houses and flats built across Wolverhampton as the rehousing programme from the slums continued, as well as the local council agreeing deals with neighbouring authorities Wednesfield Urban District and Seisdon Rural District which saw families relocated to new estates in those areas. The 1960s saw the rehousing programme continue, with multi-storey blocks being built on a large scale across Wolverhampton at locations including Blakenhall, Whitmore Reans and Chetton Green. The later part of the decade saw the Heath Town district almost completely redeveloped with multi-story flats and maisonette blocks.

By 1975, by which time Wolverhampton had also taken in the majority of the former districts of Bilston, Wednesfield and parts of Willenhall, Sedgley and Coseley, almost a third of Wolverhampton’s population lived in council housing, but since that date social housing has been built on a minimal scale in the area, and some of the 1919–1975 developments have since been demolished.

Art and Culture

From the 18th century, Wolverhampton was well known for production of the japanned ware and steel jewellery. The renowned 18th- and 19th-century artists Joseph Barney (1753–1832), Edward Bird (1772–1819), George Wallis (1811–1891) were all born in Wolverhampton and initially trained as japanned ware painters.

The School of Practical Art was opened in the 1850s and eventually became a close associate of the Art Gallery. Among its students and teachers were Robert Jackson Emerson (1878–1944), Sir Charles Wheeler (Emerson’s most famous pupil and the sculptor of the fountains in Trafalgar Square), Sara Page who established her studio in Paris, and many other artists and sculptors recognised locally and nationally.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery was established in 1884, whilst Wolverhampton Grand Theatre was opened in 1894.

There is a Creative Industries Quarter in Wolverhampton, just off Broad Street. From the newly opened Slade Rooms, to the art house cinema the Light House Media Centre and the Arena Theatre which is part of the University of Wolverhampton.

In 1970 the College of Art, at that time called Wolverhampton Polytechnic, later changed its status and name under P.M. John Major’s administration to University of Wolverhampton.
Additionally, Wolverhampton has a strong history in the ornate cast iron safe painting industry from the Victorian era. Numerous companies, such as Chubb Lock and Safe Company, hired, taught and expanded their artistic status to international reputation, whereby a safe became truly a work of art with fine script and hand-painted designs, highly collectible today. Even in the USA, one can find their preserved masterpieces to this day. The building has been converted into a National Historic Registered Landmark Treasure in 1992, which now houses a cinema, art galleries, nightclub, business offices and a beautiful large stained glass rotunda in its foyer. It is among the few canal street factories so well known in the «Black Country» that has been preserved.

Economy

Traditionally, Wolverhampton’s economy has been dominated by iron, steel, automobiles, engineering and manufacturing industries. However, by 2008 the economy was dominated by the service sector, with 74.9% of the city’s employment being in this area. The major subcomponents of this sector are in public administration, education and health (32.8% of the total employment), while distribution, hotels and restaurants take up 21.1%, and finance and IT takes up 12.7%. The largest non-service industry was that of manufacturing (12.9%), whilst 5.2% of the total employment is related to the tourism industry.

The largest single employer within the city is Wolverhampton City Council, which has over 12,000 staff.

Sports

Wolverhampton is represented in the Championship, the second tier of English football, by Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. «Wolves», as they are known, are one of the oldest English football clubs, and were one of the 12 founder members of theFootball League.

Their most successful period was the 1950s, where they won three Football League Championships (then the highest division) and two FA Cups, and were involved in the earliest European friendlies. They were hailed by the press as «The Unofficial World Champions» after one of their most famous victories, against Budapest Honvéd FC of Hungary. They were also the first English team to play in the Soviet Union. These victories instigated the birth of the European Cup competition which later evolved into the UEFA Champions’ League (see European Cup and Champions League history). The team also participated in the original United Soccer Association (progenitor of the NASL) in the United States in 1967. The team was based in Los Angeles as the Los Angeles Wolves, and won the league’s championship that year.

In total, they have won three Football League titles (prior to the top division becoming the Premier League), four FA Cups, have two League Cup victories and many other minor honours, including reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 1972, and appearances in the last eight of both the UEFA European Cup, and the European Cup Winners’ Cup, but spent just one season in the top division between 1984 and 2009. They are also the only club to have won five different league titles; they have championed all four tiers of the professional English league, as well as the long-defunct northern section of the Third Division.

Places of interest

St. Peter’s Collegiate Church is located at the highest point within the city centre, and is the leading church of the Parish of Central Wolverhampton. The Grade Ilisted building, much of which dates from the 15th century, is of significant architectural and historical interest; and is the seat of the Bishop of Wolverhampton. The earliest part of the church dates from 1205. The former grounds of the church (known as St. Peter’s Gardens) contain several artefacts: the Horsman Fountain, the Harris Memorial, a Saxon Pillar and Bargaining Stone. The Horsman Fountain dates from 1896, and commemorates Philip Horsman, a local businessman who founded Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and the Wolverhampton & Staffordshire Eye Infirmary; whilst the Harris Memorial commemorates a wireless operator in World War I who, whilst posted to an Italian ship, continued to send messages whilst under heavy fire until he was killed by shrapnel on 15 May 1917.

The church of St. John in the Square is located on the southern side of the city centre, and is a Grade II* listed building. It opened in 1760, although it was only given its own parish in 1847. It contains a Renatus Harris organ, of which there is a local story that it was played by Handel during the first performance of Messiah, prior to its installation in the church. The church was endowed by Sir Samuel Hellier, guardian of the Hellier Stradivarius and known to scholars of the organ.

Wightwick Manor is a Victorian manor house located on Wightwick Bank on the western side of the city and one of only a few surviving examples of a house built and furnished under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement. Wightwick Manor was built by Theodore Mander, of the Mander family, who were successful 19th-century industrialists in the area, and his wife Flora, daughter of Henry Nicholas Paint, member of Parliament in Canada. It was designed by Edward Ould of Liverpool in two phases; the first was completed in 1887 and the house was extended with the Great Parlour wing in 1893. It is a Grade I listed building. The nearby Old Malhouse is a Grade II listed building.

The Molineux Hotel is a former mansion house originally known as Molineux House, which later served as an hotel and is planned to be the home of the city’s archive service in March 2009. It is a Grade II* listed building, and stands in the city centre. It was constructed in about 1720, with extensions throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1860 the grounds were opened to the public as Wolverhampton’s first public park, whilst several years later the park was leased out to Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, for the Molineux Stadium. The hotel was closed in 1979, and restoration work started in 2005.

The statue of Prince Albert that stands in Queen Square was erected in 1866, and is one of the most recognised landmarks within the city. It is colloquially known as «The Man on the Horse», and was unveiled by Queen Victoria, on what is reputed to be her first public engagement after the death of Prince Albert.

Famous residents
There are a number of notable people who are associated with Wolverhampton.

Political figures include Enoch Powell MP, Sir Charles Pelham Villiers MP – who holds the record for the longest serving MP, Helene Hayman, Baroness Hayman who was the first Lord Speaker within the House of Lords, former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers, Boris Johnson who briefly worked as a writer for the Express & Star, David Wright, a former UK Ambassador to Japan and Button Gwinnett, who was a signatory of the US Declaration of Independence and briefly served as Governor of Georgia.

There are many sportspeople associated with the city, with footballers such as Billy Wright,Steve Bull, Bert Williams and Jimmy Mullen; along with Percy Stallard and Hugh Porter within the world of cycling, the Olympic medallist swimmer Anita Lonsbrough, professional darts player Wayne Jones, racing driver and winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans Richard Attwood as well as athletes such as Tessa Sanderson and Denise Lewis and cricketer Vikram Solanki who grew up here and played for Wolverhampton Cricket Club before joining Worcestershire.

Entertainers include actors Frances Barber, Meera Syal and Eric Idle; and musician Liam Payne of the band One Directionand television; presenters Suzi Perry, Mark Rhodes and Mark Speight.

Hugo Weaving

Weaving is an Australian-British film and stage actor. He is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003) and Elrond in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) film trilogy, as well as the title role of V in the 2006 film V for Vendetta.

His first major role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, as the English cricket captain Douglas Jardine. He first rose to prominence for his performance as Martin in the Australian drama Proof (1991). Other notable works include Tickin the comedy-drama The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994); Red Skull in the superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and multiple roles in the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012). He has also provided the voice Rex in Babe, Noah in Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two and Megatron in the Transformers film series, as well as starred in multiple Australian character dramas.

He has received many accolades in his career, including a Satellite Award, MTV Movie Award and several Australian Film Institute Awards.

Early Life
Weaving was born at the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital, Nigeria Protectorate, to English parents Anne, a tour guide and former teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. A year after his birth, his family returned to England, living in Bedford and Brighton before moving to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia; Johannesburg in South Africa; and then returning to England again.

While in England, he attended The Downs School, Wraxall, near Bristol, and Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital. His family moved back to Australia in 1976, where he atended Knox Grammar School in Sydney. He graduated from Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1981.

Career
Weaving’s first major role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, as the English cricket captain Douglas Jardine. Weaving appeared in the Australian miniseries The Dirtwater Dynasty in 1988 and as Geoffrey Chambers in the drama Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way From Home. He starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 film Bangkok Hilton. In 1991, Weaving received the Australian Film Institute’s «Best Actor» award for his performance in the low-budgetProof. He appeared as Sir John in the 1993 Yahoo Serious comedy Reckless Kelly, a lampoon of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

Weaving first received international attention in the hit Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994, and provided the voice of Rex the sheepdog and farm leader in the 1995 family film, Babe. In 1998, he received the «Best Actor» award from the Montreal Film Festival for his performance as a suspected serial killer in The Interview.
Weaving earned further international attention with his performance as the enigmatic Agent Smith in the 1999 blockbuster hit The Matrix. He later reprised that role in the film’s 2003 sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. He was a voice actor in the cartoon filmThe Magic Pudding.

He garnered additional acclaim in the role of Elrond in Peter Jackson’s three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, released between 2001 and 2003. Weaving was the main actor in Andrew Kotatko’s award-winning film Everything Goes (2004). He starred as a heroin-addicted ex-rugby league player in the 2005 Australian indie film Little Fish, opposite Cate Blanchett.

In 2006, he worked with Cate Blanchett on a reprise of the STC production of Hedd Gabler in New York City.

On 13 March 2011, The Key Man, which Weaving filmed in 2006, finally debuted at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. The child migrant saga Oranges and Sunshine opened in the UK on 1 April, the culmination of months of success on the festival circuit in late 2010-early 2011. In March, the Sydney Theatre Company and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that STC’s 2010 production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya would be reprised in Washington, D.C. during the month of August. He was part of the cast of the Wachowskis’ adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas.

2012 also found Weaving re-focusing on his theatrical career, with a well-received return to the Sydney Theatre Company to star in a new adaptation of Christopher Hampton’s play Les Liaisons Dangereuses in March. He portrayed the notorious Vicomte de Valmont, a character he first played onstage in 1987. His frequent stage foil Pamela Rabe costarred. Weaving and Cate Blanchett reprised their roles in STC’s internationally lauded production of Uncle Vanya for a ten-day run at New York’s Lincoln Center in July.

Personal Life
When he was 13 years old, Weaving was diagnosed with epilepsy. He has been with his longtime girlfriend Katrina Greenwood since 1984 and the two live in Sydney and have two children together, Harry and Holly. He has a brother, Simon, and a sister, Anna Jane. His niece, Samara Weaving, portrayed Indigo Walker on the long-running Australian soap, Home and Away, and her younger sister Morgan joined the cast as Lottie Ryan.

In 2004, Weaving became an ambassador for Australian animal rights organisationVoiceless, the animal protection institute. He attends events, promotes Voiceless in interviews, and assists in their judging of annual grants recipients.