Age: 66
male
Hugo Wallace Weaving AO (born 4 April 1960) is an English actor. Born in Colonial Nigeria to English parents, he has resided in Australia for the entirety of his career. He is the recipient of six Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (AACTA) and has also been recognised as an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia. Weaving landed his first major role as English cricket captain Douglas Jardine on the Australian television series Bodyline (1984). Continuing to act in Australia, he rose to prominence with his appearances in the films Proof (1991) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), winning his first AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role with the former. By the turn of the millennium, Weaving achieved international recognition through appearances in mainstream American productions. His most notable film roles include Agent Smith in the first three The Matrix films (1999–2003), Elrond in The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) and The Hobbit (2012–2014) trilogies, the title character in V for Vendetta (2005), and Johann Schmidt / Red Skull in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). In addition to his live action appearances, Weaving has had several voice over roles, including in the films Babe (1995), Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet Two (2011), and the Transformers series as Megatron (2007–2011). He also reprised his roles of Agent Smith and Elrond in Matrix and Lord of the Rings video game adaptations.
It is 1414 and the Czech priest and reformer Jan Hus goes to the Church Council in Constance to defend his revolutionary ideas. For the journey he receives a Glejt from King Sigismund of Luxembourg himself, who is to guarantee his safe journey. But upon arrival, Hus is arrested and put on trial. During this he is condemned as a heretic, and subsequently handed over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake when he refused to recant his teachings. Jan Hus is burned at the stake on July 6, 1415. This news soon reaches the Bohemian Kingdom and causes a storm of resentment among the Bohemian nobility and common people. The result is the outbreak of the so-called Hussite Revolution, which culminates in the Prague Defenestration on 30 July 1419, when a mob of radical Hussites led by the preacher Jan Želivský throws the Catholic councillors out of the windows of Prague's New Town Hall. When the Czech King Wenceslas IV learns of these events, he suffers a massive stroke and soon dies from the effects. After the death of Wenceslas IV, the only rightful heir to the Czech throne was King Sigismund of Hungary and Rome, who decides to mount a crusade against the Hussites. Jan Žižka, a Hussite military leader, will lead the Hussite army. This is the beginning of the Hussite Wars.
