Age: 65
male
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (born 10 December 1960) is a Northern Irish actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. His accolades include an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 2012 and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times's list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Branagh has directed and starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays, including Henry V (1989), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello (1995), Hamlet (1996), and As You Like It (2006). He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director for Henry V and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hamlet. He directed Swan Song (1992), which earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. He also directed Peter's Friends (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Thor (2011), and Cinderella (2015). For his semi-autobiographical film Belfast (2021), he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Director and won Best Original Screenplay. Branagh directed and starred as Hercule Poirot in the Hercule Poirot film series (2017–present). He has also acted in Celebrity (1998), Wild Wild West (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), and Valkyrie (2008). His portrayal of Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn (2011) earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He played supporting roles in Christopher Nolan's films Dunkirk (2017), Tenet (2020), and Oppenheimer (2023). Branagh has starred in the BBC1 series Fortunes of War (1987), the Channel 4 series Shackleton (2002), the television film Warm Springs (2005), and the BBC One series Wallander (2008–2016). He received a Primetime Emmy Award and an International Emmy Award for Best Actor for portraying SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the HBO film Conspiracy (2001).
A biopic about Queen Elizabeth II. The film is split into four chapters. The first chapter, titled "The Childhood", focuses on her grandfather's (King George V) death, and her uncle's (Edward VIII) extremely short reign as King due to his abdication crisis. The chapter also follows Elizabeth's father, George VI, becoming the new King, and her childhood during World War II. The second chapter, titled "The Coronation", begins with Elizabeth's and Phillip's wedding. The birth of their children, Charles and Anne, is also addressed. The majority of the chapter focuses on Elizabeth's father's sudden death and her accession of the throne. Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II and continued turning the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations. The third chapter, titled "The Mother", fast-forwards nearly thirty years. It is 1981, and Queen Elizabeth II survives an attempted assassination while attending the Trooping the Colour ceremony. The chapter focuses mainly on her son, Prince Charles, and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding. Her grandchildren's (William and Henry) births are also addressed. The chapter also focuses on the Queen's anxious period while her other son, Prince Andrew, served in the Falklands War. Other small things like the intruder in her Buckingham Palace bedroom and her meeting with Ronald Reagan are also addressed. The final chapter, titled "The Death", is an entire chapter focusing on the death of Princess Diana in 1997. In December of 1996, Prince Charles and Diana formally separated. The Queen and her family where criticized for "outing" Diana from the family. In August 1997, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. During this time The Queen was on vacation in Balmoral. The Queen and Phillip took the grandchildren, William and Henry, to church the following morning and then kept them away from the public inside the Balmoral Castle for five days. Her Majesty's Government seemed to no pay no attention to the horrific incident, not even lowering the flag to half-mast. The Queen returned to Buckingham palace the day before Diana's funeral to address the people. After her address, most of the public's hostility evaporated. The film ends with the Royal Family standing behind The Queen while she addresses her people on her Golden Jubilee in 2002.
