| Kenneth Branagh
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| Kenneth Branagh
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The critically acclaimed film won numerous nominations and awards: Best Actor and Best Director Academy Award nominations; an Academy Award for Best Costume Design; a Best Director award from the National Board of Review; a Best New Director award from the New York Critics Circle; two Felix Awards for Best Actor and Young European Film of the Year; a BAFTA Award for Best Director and the Evening Standard Award for Best Film of 1989.
Not surprisingly, Branagh was immediately invited to Hollywood to direct his next film, "Dead Again," in which he co-starred with Emma Thompson and which he pulled off the feat of playing dual starring roles as a gumshoe detective in 1990s Los Angeles and as a European composer in the 1940s. The film was a huge international hit in 1991.
In 1992 he co-produced, directed and starred in the low-budget "Peter's Friends" about a group of university friends reunited ten years on. The film won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award for Comedy.
Also in 1992, Branagh directed Richard Briers and Sir John Geilgud in the Academy Award nominated short film, "Swan Song," from a Chekhov play.
That same year he also co-produced, directed and starred in "Much Ado About Nothing" with Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Emma Thompson, Robert Sean Leonard and Richard Briers. The film was a popular and critical hit and was screened in competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
In 1993/4, Branagh directed and starred in "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" for Tristar Pictures and American Zoetrope. He played the obsessed scientist of the title with Robert De Niro as Frankenstein's Creature.
A MIDWINTER'S TALE is Branagh's sixth feature film as a director and the first in which he has not also appeared in front of the cameras. A MIDWINTER'S TALE premiered at the 1995 Venice International Film Festival where it was awarded the Osella d'Oro. It then screened at the 1995 Boston Film Festival, where Branagh was awarded the Filmmaker Excellence Award.
Born in Belfast and raised in the UK in Reading, Branagh studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) where he collected a number of awards including the Bancroft Gold Medal.
In early 1982, only six weeks after leaving RADA, Branagh was making his professional and West End debut in Julian Mitchell's "Another Country" for which he won the Society of West End Theatres' Award for the Most Promising Newcomer of 1982 and the Plays and Players Award in the same category.
In September 1983 he received considerable critical acclaim for his performance of Tennyson's "Maude" in "The Madness" at the Upstream Theatre Club which he followed with the title role in Julian Mitchell's "Francis" at the Greenwich Theatre.
He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984, landing the title role in "Henry V." He also appeared as the King of Navarre in "Love Labours Lost," as Laertes in "Hamlet" and as Mike in "Golden Girls" at the RSC's Other Place.
In 1985 he wrote and directed "Tell Me Honestly" which he played at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre in London and in 1986 he directed and starred in "Romeo and Juliet" at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. In 1987, with fellow actor David Parfitt, he created the Renaissance Theatre Company.
For their first season, he wrote and starred in "Public Enemy," which recently had its New York debut, and directed "Twelfth Night" starring Richard Briers. He also directed John Sessions' "The Life of Napolean" and "Napolean, The American Story."
In 1989 he was persuaded to write an early autobiography, "Beginning," which raised much needed funds for Renaissance's work.
For the company's second season, Branagh invited other actors to direct him and he starred in "Much Ado About Nothing" directed by Judi Dench, "As You Like It" directed by Geraldine McEwan and for which he was he was nominated for Comedy Performance of the Year in the 1988 Oliver Awards and in "Hamlet," directed by Derek Jacobi. The productions toured the UK before playing in London.
Renaissance's next project was a West End production of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" directed by Judi Dench in which Branagh and Emma Thompson starred. The production was also filmed for television. Soon after (1990-91) the company undertook a world tour with two productions directed by Branagh: "King Lear" in which he played Edgar and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in which he played Quince. Branagh co-directed "Uncle Vanya" with Peter Egan for the Renaissance UK tour in 1991.
Branagh's most recent appearances on stage were in the Renaissance production of "Coriolanus" at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1992 and as Hamlet in a sell-out production for the RSC in London and Stratford in 1992/3 that broke boxoffice records.
He has appeared in leading roles in British television productions of Graham Reid's three "Billy" plays, "To the Lighthouse," "Maybury," "Derek," "The Boy in the Bush," "Ghosts," "Coming Through," "Strange Interlude," "The Lady's Not For Burning," and the award-winning BBC drama serial "Fortunes of War" (1986/7) in which he co-starred for the first time with Emma Thompson. In early 1995 he recorded a BBC Playhouse presentation of Sean O'Casey's "Shadow of a Gunman."
Branagh has also starred in the films "A Month in the Country," "High Season" and "Swing Kids." His next film as an actor will be Oliver Parker's "Othello" in which he will play Iago.
With Glyn Dearman, Branagh co-directed three Renaissance Theatre Company radio productions of Shakespeare: "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet" in which he played Romeo and, as part of Sir John Gielgud's 90th birthday celebrations, an all-star "King Lear" with Sir John as Lear and Branagh as Edmund.
He has also recently recorded the Diaries of Samuel Pepys and the Laurie Lee trilogy for audio books.
In 1993, Branagh was awarded the BAFTA Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Cinema. He was also invited to join the board of Governors at the British Film Institute.
Last modified 02-Feburary-1996.
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