Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (2)

Trade Mark (5)

Likes to use very long takes (3-4 minutes) at certain points during his films.





Frequently gives small roles to Patrick Doyle , his composer.



Frequently works with Director of Photography Roger Lanser , with whom he has made eight films.



Frequently works with director Christopher Nolan

Trivia (73)



Originally cast as the lead in Amadeus (1984) before the production company decided on casting American actors in the leading roles.

Educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London.



Grew up in poverty in the shadow of a tobacco factory in Belfast.



At age 23, he became the youngest actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company to ever play the lead in Shakespeare's "Henry V".





Co-founded the Renaissance Theatre Company with David Parfitt , with Prince Charles as a royal patron.

Youngest actor to receive the Golden Quill (Gielgud Award), 2000.



He allegedly declined the C.B.E. (Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 1994.





He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1983 (1982 season) for Most Promising Newcomer for his performance in "Another Country".



He was nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor of 2003 for his performance in "Edmond" at the Royal National Theatre: Olivier Stage.

He was awarded the 1988 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Special Award.



He was nominated for a 2004 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in "Edmond" at the Royal National Theatre.





Claims that Derek Jacobi is the reason he got into acting, and thus Jacobi became a frequent collaborator with him in most of his movies.

Was age 15 when he first saw "Hamlet" performed.



A Member of the RADA Council.





Wrote many of the Ein Winternachtstraum (1995) characters for specific actors.



He was one of the guests at Prince Charles 's and Camilla Parker-Bowles ' wedding on 9 April 2005.



Is a vice-president of Chichester Cinema at New Park. Maggie Smith and Anita Roddick are also vice-presidents.

In 1990, he received an honorary doctorate in Literature from Queen's University (located in Belfast, Northern Ireland).





Was considered for the role of Jack Crawford in Das Schweigen der Lämmer (1991).

He can speak Italian.



He can play guitar, piano and tap.





Was originally considered for the part of the younger Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I - Die dunkle Bedrohung (1999).

Won the 2004 Evening Standard Theatre Award as Best Actor for his performance as the title character in Edmond at the Royal National Theatre.



Nominated for the 2009 Evening Standard Theatre Award as Best Actor in a play for his role as Ivanov in the play Ivanov at Wyndham's Theatre in London as part of the Donmar West End Season.





Middle brother of William Branagh Jr. and Joyce Branagh

Often circles the camera around his actors when they are performing a monologue or having a conversation in one of his Shakespearean films.



He was awarded the Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Drama and to the community in Northern Ireland.



He has been a fan of "Thor" since childhood. When Marvel Studios selected Branagh as the director of the film adaptation, they sent him the complete collection of the Marvel Thor comics series as reference material for the character.





Was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on November 9, 2012 at Buckingham Palace.

Was involved as director for a while in the early stages of production of Dragonheart.



Berkshire, England: Actor [June 2012]





Filming his scenes for TV series 10 Days to War (2008) on location in Jordan. [2008]



Filming and producing the three part Kommissar Wallander (2008) series for BBC TV, on location in Sweden. The series is based on three of the 'Kurt Wallander' novels by Swedish writer Henning Mankell . The three novels on which the series is based are called: "Sidetracked", "One Step Behind" and "Firewall". [April 2008]



Release of the book, "Ken & Em: A Biography of Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson" by Ian Shuttleworth . [1995]

Despite having lived in England for the majority of his life and being associated closely with it, he considers himself more Irish than English.





Although he played Cherie Lunghi 's son in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1994), he is only eight years her junior in real life.



To date, he is the last actor to have received an Academy Award nomination for his role in a Shakespearean film. He was nominated for Best Actor for playing the title character in Heinrich V. (1989), which he also directed.

He has no children from either of his marriages.



In 2015, he programmed a season of work at London's Garrick Theatre under the auspices of the Kenneth Brannagh Theatre Company.



Born on the same date as Michael Schoeffling.





As of 2018, he has only been credited for appearing in one Best Picture Nominee, Dunkirk (2017). However, early in his career he did appear as an uncredited extra in the Best Picture Winning Die Stunde des Siegers (1981).

Personal Quotes (18)

I feel more Irish than English. I feel freer than British, more visceral, with a love of language. Shot through with fire in some way. That's why I resist being appropriated as the current repository of Shakespeare on the planet. That would mean I'm part of the English cultural elite, and I am utterly ill-fitted to be.



I think the best actors are the most generous, the kindest, the greatest people and at their worst they are vain, greedy and insecure.



I'm just a foul-mouthed Brit.



My definition of success is control.



Friendship is one of the most tangible things in a world which offers fewer and fewer supports.



It's very strange that the people you love are often the people you're most cruel with.



There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them.



Variety is very, very good. Going from medium to medium - if you get the chance to do it - from theater to television to film, which are all distinctly different, keeps me sharp. What works in one doesn't work in the other, and you have to be looking for the truth of the performance, whatever way that medium might demand.





[on being told he is to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II ] I was very, very, very surprised and I was very touched. Michael Caine and Roger Moore , both of whom I've worked with, offered only the insight that it's handy to have the 'kneeling stool with the handle'. Roger Moore, who has a dodgy knee, was terrified on the way to the ceremony that, having knelt down, he wouldn't be kneeling back up again. You don't want to move suddenly while that sword's being wielded, I'm sure. I haven't read of [Her Majesty] having knicked someone on the ear just yet, but perhaps I'll be the first.

People often ask me, "Why do you keep doing Shakespeare?" Well, because it's meaningful to me. That to do it well - or even just to work on it - I find very life-enhancing. I don't have any kind of conventional religious belief and I find Shakespeare's a tremendous source of inspiration, because there's no situation that I've come up against that somehow hasn't been described in those plays. When I do work on it, it's like going back to some great piece of music. It is dramatic poetry, so each time you hear it, it reacts on you in a different, usually a richer, way. It's like a wonderful dog that gives you much more than you'll ever give it. There's unconditional love in there; he never lets you down and he's never sentimental; he's always bracing because he's so very, very realistic about families and love and all the normal human stuff.





[observation, 1989] I don't go around saying, 'Hello. Did you know I'm the new Olivier [ Laurence Olivier ]?'



[on Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1994)] People say to me in a slightly pitying way, "Were you interfered with on that movie?" To which I say, "No, it's my movie." It was bruising. I stopped reading the notices when I realised what was happening. I've had hostile reviews before, but these were very hurtful and personal. In a sense it was impossible for me to remain sane if I was to identify with any of that hostility. You can't do anything about people being irritated by you or what you are. But some people didn't like the movie and that's fair enough. I don't know what lesson one learns. De Niro gave a brave performance. I made the film I wanted to make and I'm very proud of it. In the end, all I do is make films and sometimes people don't like them. You can't worry about it or else you wouldn't get up in the morning. Our film was necessarily different from the traditional versions, and maybe people think there was a hubris in going up against the classics. We were trying to do Mary Shelley 's book, which is different - Frankenstein has a more unfathomable motivation and the monster is more sweet-natured - and not necessarily better than the camp black-and-white movies that James Whale made with all that neck-bolted iconography.



[on Ein Winternachtstraum (1995)] I wanted to do something very small after Frankenstein, which was very big, and it felt good to work on a completely different scale. I didn't have to explain anything to anyone. I didn't have to talk about casting, didn't have to send rushes to America, didn't have to preview the movie. We made it, finished it and then we sold it. I like In the Bleak Midwinter as a title. I like the hymn from which it comes and I even like the word 'bleak'. It's a very bracing word, very authoritative.



[on Hamlet (1996)] It was very important personally for me to do this. Hamlet has been in my blood for such a long time, over half my life. I have strong feelings about how I see the character. I was compelled to do this, I could do it no other way. It's such a huge piece so the challenge of trying to do the genius of the writer justice - from the performances, to the sets, to the costumes, to the music - was simply irresistible. My drive was to offer it to people who want to understand it, and my challenge is to make the story and poetry work. For me this play sums up the process of living. I saw Derek Jacobi do it when I was 16 and I was so uplifted by the whole experience, and shocked and scared. Seeing Derek in Hamlet was the turning point for me. From that moment I knew I wanted to play the role. I was astonished by what a terrific thriller it was. It had everything - murder, violence, passion, a ghost. It was magnificent. Everything I looked at from that night on was more vibrant and in sharper colour. I find that my performance has changed, not only because I'm more familiar with the part but because I hope I've matured a little myself. When Derek directed me in 1988, I was a pretty hectic Hamlet. Now I think my performance has deepened as I've gotten a little older and hopefully a little wiser. Hamlet is a young man's play. If I hadn't made the film by age 35, I wouldn't have done it. This was the last point when I could fill the age requirement for Hamlet. In your roaring 20s, everything seems limitless. But when you reach your 30s, time ticks away. And after 35, you have to get on with things and it grips you. Our aim wasn't to make a long film, but an entertaining one, the way it should be made. By filming the entire play, you have Shakespeare's complete entertainment. It has something to say to all generations about politics, families, war, love affairs and the loss of a parent. I felt that when I started it, I had a much greater right to be making the film; that if I didn't know exactly what I was doing, I at least had much more information, much more knowledge, and a deal more experience, about playing the role, about Shakespeare, and about doing what I was still interested in doing.



Tromeo & Julia (1996)? Body piercing, kinky sex, dismemberment the things that made Shakespeare great. Well they have a point and I'd be interested to see that.

[on taking up smoking at the age of 34, at a time when his career was in the doldrums] A daft late start on that one.



[October 2016] Two nights ago, I was watching Long Lost Family with Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall - that kind of thing I find very moving. I have a little Jack Russell dog who I just adore; he makes me cry, because he's just so there and loves life. And I love the month of May. I love it when that light hits this country and you see all that growth, all that possibility. I get that Seasonal Disorder thing, where I get very sad come mid-October when the nights draw in and I want to use every moment of the light that one can. So the arrival of May. That moves me a great deal...

