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).
Trailing a suspected terrorist, Bond is surprised to find himself at an auction house where his target bids an exobertant amount on a painting belonging to Lady Maria Krest. Apprehending his target Bond finds out the purchase of the painting was actually payment for the location data of a missing German WWII U Boat which had aboard a working Atomic Bomb. Lady Krest is said to be in possession of the information. Bond gets permission to interogate her but when he arrives at her country estate in Southern France he determines that she does not have the information. Lady Krest husband, Milton Krest, is an American millionaire who holds a party on his luxury yacht, Bond attends as he is very attracted to Lady Krest. He is drugged and wakes up 48 hours later with the boat of the coast of Argentina. It turns out that Milton Krest is the broker of the information and he has worked out who Bond is. He has agreed to exchange both Bond and the Sub to a new buyer. Lady Krest helps Bond escape but is killed by her husband who fights Bond using a cattle prod hidden in his cane he has been constantly carrying. Bond manages to escape but cannot stop the exchange from going down. Managing to contact M15 he lets them know the target is New York City. Ordered to stand down and let the Americans handle it Bond disobeys and contacts Felix Leiter who accepts Bonds help. Bond arrives in New York and fights Krest again this time on the top of the Empire State Building, Krest falls to his death after Bond shocks his hand gripping to the ledge with his own cattle prod. The Bomb is diffused and the end of the movie sees Bond tracking down the leader of the terrorist cell.
