Tom Hiddleston

At 43 years old, Tom Hiddleston has this physical status:

Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor, film producer, and musician.

He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, and has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards. Born in London, England, he earned a double first in Classics at the University of Cambridge and later proceeded to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

At the beginning of his career, he appeared in West End productions of Cymbeline (2007) and Ivanov (2008).

He won the Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in Cymbeline and was also nominated for the same award for his role as Cassio in Othello (2008).

Hiddleston starred as the title character in a production of Coriolanus (2013-2014) winning the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor and receiving a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best Actor.

He made his Broadway debut in a 2019 revival of Betrayal. Hiddleston made his film debut in the drama Unrelated (2007).

He came to wider public attention when cast as Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

In 2011, he won the Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), the 2012 BBC series Henry IV and Henry V, and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013).

In 2015, he starred in Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak, Ben Wheatley's High Rise, and played the troubled country music singer Hank Williams in the biopic I Saw The Light.

The film Kong: Skull Island (2017) marked his first big-budget leading role outside MCU. He starred in and was an executive producer of the AMC / BBC limited series The Night Manager (2016), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and Outstanding Limited Series, and won his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film.

Early life

Thomas William Hiddleston was born on 9 February 1981 in the Westminster district of London, to Diana Patricia (née Servaes) Hiddleston, an arts administrator and former stage manager, and Dr. James Norman Hiddleston, a physical chemist and former managing director of a biotechnology company that liaised with Oxford University. His father is from Greenock, Scotland and his mother is from Suffolk. His younger sister, Emma, is also an actress, whilst his older sister, Sarah, is a journalist in India. Through his mother, he is a great-grandson of Vice Admiral Reginald Servaes and a great-great-grandson of food producer Sir Edmund Vestey. His paternal grandfather, Alexander, served in the Royal Artillery and worked as a plater in the shipyards. He shares the same name as his great-great uncle, Tom Hiddleston, a shipyard plater from Greenock and a member of Royal Artillery's 51st (Highland) Division, who died after the Battle of the Somme and whose name is engraved in the Broomhill war memorial.

Hiddleston was raised in Wimbledon in his early years, and later moved to a village near Oxford. He began boarding at Windlesham House School at age seven, moving to the Dragon School in Oxford a year later. His parents divorced when he was twelve. Regarding his parents' divorce, he said, "I like to think it made me more compassionate in my understanding of human frailty."

At age thirteen, Hiddleston started at Eton College, again as a boarder. He continued on to Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. During his second term at Cambridge, he was seen in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire by talent agent Lorraine Hamilton of Hamilton Hodell. He proceeded to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.

Personal life

Hiddleston resides in the Belsize Park area of north-west London.

Hiddleston dated English actress Susannah Fielding from 2008 to 2011 after they met while filming an episode of Wallander which Hiddleston was a series regular on. In 2016, Hiddleston briefly dated American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

In March 2022, it was announced that Hiddleston is engaged to English actress and writer Zawe Ashton, whom he starred with in the 2019 West End and Broadway play Betrayal. In June 2022, it was announced that they are expecting their first child.

He has donated items for auction and has supported several charities, including the Small Steps Project, Starlight Children's Foundation, Cure EB, Comic Relief, Red Nose Day USA, Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Amnesty International and Chance to Shine.

He is a UK ambassador of the humanitarian and developmental assistance fund group UNICEF. He travelled to Guinea in early 2013 to raise awareness about hunger and malnutrition, and to South Sudan in early 2015 and late 2016 to report the results of the ongoing civil war on the lives of vast numbers of children across the country. Hiddleston identifies as a feminist. In February 2018, he was named one of the donators by Justice and Equality Fund, the UK version of the Time's Up initiative. He is also an ambassador of the Illuminating BAFTA campaign, an action which aims to provide opportunities to those who otherwise would not have been given a chance in the film, games and television industries.

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Career

Hiddleston, who was still performing student roles, began appearing on television, on BBC/HBO co-production Conspiracy (2001), and as Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchill's uncle, in the BBC/HBO drama The Gathering Storm (2002).

Hiddleston appeared in his first film role after graduating from RADA, as he played Oakley in Joanna Hogg's first film, Unrelated (2006). Emma Badge was also in the film as Badge. Lucy Bevan, the film's casting director, had "total confidence about him." Hiddleston was one of Declan Donnellan's firm Cheek by Jowl's productions The Changeling (2006) and Cymbeline (2007). He received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play. Cassio appears in Michael Grandage's production of Shakespeare's Othello (2008) with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, and Lvov in the West End revival of Chekhov's Ivanov (2008) with Kenneth Branagh.

In 2006, Hiddleston was the voice over for BBC's documentary on the Galapagos Island. Hiddleston narrated the audiobook The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner in 2007, and Edward appeared in Hogg's second film, Archipelago (2010). Magnus Martinsson appears in the BBC detective drama Wallander (2008), Bill Hazleine in Suburban Shootout (2006), John Plumptre in the BBC costume drama television film Return to Cranford (2009). In 2007, he appeared alongside Kate Winslet and Orlando Bloom in the long-running medical drama Casualty.

Hiddleston is best known for his role as Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor. Kenneth Branagh, the film's producer, invited him to audition after being seen on Ivanov and Wallander. Branagh, "Ken has had a life-changing effect," Hiddleston said of him. He was able to inform the executives, 'You can trust me on this, and Tom will deliver'. It was huge and changed the direction of what is normally expected of me. "I'm not a genius," Ken says. He auditioned for Thor, saying, "I'm tall, blonde, classically educated, and classically trained," he said, and that seemed to be the template for what Thor was, a classical character. It was in my auditions. I owe this entirely to Marvel and their open-mindedness, as they discovered something that they deemed as interesting. They had a certain temperament that they loved." Hiddleston was given six weeks to bulk up, so he started following a strict diet and gained 20 pounds of muscle. Branagh later decided he was more suited as the villain and portrayed him as Loki. Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki as the 19th Greatest Movie Character of All Time by Empire magazine.

Hiddleston performed in and with Benedict Cumberbatch, Gemma Arterton, Eddie Redmayne, and Rose Byrne, among other things in Danny Boyle's one-time production of The Children's Monologues, a young girl grieving for her father's departure and excited for her birthday. The play was a one-time case of adapted stories about children's first-hand experiences in South Africa that were reinterpreted and performed by various actors.

In 2011, Hiddleston portrayed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald in writer-director Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. In War Horse, a film based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel written by Steven Spielberg, he later played noble Captain Nicholls. He appeared in the drama The Deep Blue Sea as Freddie Page, a RAF pilot, alongside Rachel Weisz. In 2012, he reprised his role as The Avengers' supervillain Loki. So many people were unable to look realistic enough during a scene with Chris Hemsworth, the film's director, told the fighting pair that the scene did not look realistic enough, so Hiddleston told Hemsworth that the fight scene had to be hit him specifically for the fight scene. "I told Chris, 'Dude, just hit me." I'm just struck because I'm covered and it's fine.'

He's like, 'Are you sure?'

I was like, 'Yeah, it will look fantastic.' "Just go for it." He performed the voice for the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead in 2011 and poetry for iF Poems and The Love Book on iTunes in 2012.

In the version of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I and Part II, Hiddleston appeared on television in 2012, portraying Prince Hal opposite Jeremy Irons as Henry IV. In 2013, Hiddleston appeared in Henry V, the television film version, after which he appeared as a vampire in Jim Jarmusch's film Only Lovers Left Alive with Tilda Swinton and Mia Wasikowska.

Hiddleston portrayed the title character in William Shakespeare's Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden, directed by Josie Rourke from December 2013 to February 2014. On January 30, 2014, it was also broadcast live throughout the world. Variety's David Benedict praised a "scorching" appearance. In the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted, he appeared as the Great Escapo.

In the gothic horror film Crimson Peak, directed by Guillermo del Toro, Hiddleston replaced Benedict Cumberbatch. In February 2014, the film was released in October 2015. In High-Rise (2015), based on J. G. Ballard's book of the same name and directed by Ben Wheatley, he appeared as Robert Laing.

Hiddleston became a spokesperson for Jaguar Cars in their "Good to Be Bad" ad campaign, which featured British stars in villain-themed commercials to promote Jaguar's latest models in January 2014. The first commercial of the campaign, titled "Retreezvous," first aired during the 2014 Super Bowl, starring Hiddleston and Ben Kingsley. In April of the same year, Hiddleston appeared in another commercial titled "The Art of Villainy" in April. It was unveiled on YouTube, promoting the F-Type coupe.

In June 2014, it was announced that Hiddleston would portray country music singer Hank Williams in the 2015 biopic I Saw the Light, based on the 1994 biography. Marc Abraham's film was the first to be shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics released the film on March 25, 2016. Although the film wasn't well received, Hiddleston's appearance was lauded by critics. "He honors Williams' contribution but also wriggles beyond it," Stephanie Zacharek of Time magazine said.

In the 2015 documentary Unity directed by Shaun Monson, Hiddleston was one of the narrators. Jonathan Pine appeared in The Night Manager, a 2016 television mini-series based on John le Carré's espionage and detective book. Hugh Laurie also appeared in the film, which premiered on BBC and AMC in Spring 2015. Pine Pine's role from start to finish, according to IndieWire's Ben Travers, "with an admirable resolve and a largely unbreakable constitution." He had been nominated for several awards, including two Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, for his role in the series.

Hiddleston's intention to take a long break from work and return to theater in early 2017. He appeared in Legendary Pictures' King Kong film Kong: Skull Island later this year. The film, which was released on March 10th and directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, was a commercial success, grossing over $566 million worldwide and receiving generally positive feedback. In a limited run of William Shakespeare's Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh, he appeared as the title character in a limited run of William Shakespeare's Hamlet in September 2017. The performance lasted for three weeks at a 160-seat theater, with tickets distributed by the lottery system to raise funds for RADA. Michael Billington of The Guardian called his appearance "a riveting Hamlet with a genuine nobility of soul." Ann Treneman of The Times praised his work as "completely his own, emotionally, magnetic, canny, and often frolicsome," and "it's sad" that so few will see his HiddleHamlet.

In Thor: Ragnarok, he appeared in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). With Endgame earning over $2 billion worldwide, all three films were well-received, with Endgame raging as the most high-grossing film of all time. In Nick Park's animated film Early Man, which was released in early 2018, he played the villain. Emilia Clarke, Felicity Jones, and Florence Pugh appeared in the short film Leading Lady Parts in support of the Time's Up campaign later this year. In 2019, he appeared as Robert from 5 March to June in a revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Harold Pinter Theatre, directed by Jamie Lloyd. The play premiered to glowing reviews and culminated in a sold-out West End run, with Henry Hitchings of the Evening Standard describing him as "irribly magnetic" with an enthralling presence in his part. In August 2019, he made his Broadway debut as the troupe returned to Broadway for a 17-week limited engagement at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Marilyn Stasio called Hiddleston's appearance "both physically and emotionally complex." He was nominated for Best Actor in a Play nomination.

Earth At Night In Color, Offspring Films' American nature documentary television series starring Hiddleston, was narrated by Hiddleston. On Apple TV+, the series premiered on December 4, 2020, with a second season debuting on April 2021. Hiddleston reprised his role as Loki in Loki, which premiered on Disney+ in June 2021. In the third episode of Loki, the mainly Norwegian-language song Very Full He Sing debuts at number ten on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales charts. Loki received generally positive feedback, and in July 2021, the series was officially renewed for a second season. "Hiddleston's success as Loki has always been defined by its humor, not necessarily its pathos," Michael Idato, a Sydney Morning Herald writer, concluded. Both seem to be on display in Loki in equal measure. "After the first season ended, TVLine named him "Persevere of the Week," claiming that "Hiddleston had to return a more insolent version of God of Mischief while still loving him enough. It was a delicate balance for the actor, and one he struck beautifully."

Hiddleston was drafted into the cast of Apple's TV+ drama series The Essex Serpent, based on Sarah Perry's novel of the same name. He portrayed Reverend Will Ransome opposite Cora Seaborne, played by Claire Danes. On May 13, 2022, the series premiered. He voiced Loki in the animated film What If...? in August 2021.

In February 2020, it was announced that he would be cast in Netflix's political thriller series White Stork. Hiddleston is back in talks to reprise his role in a second series of The Night Manager. He is cast in Frank Miller's comedy book mini-series Hard Boiled, produced by Warner Bros and in a James Ivory's interpretation of Shakespeare's Richard II as the eponymous character.

In April 20, it was announced that he would be playing in and executive producing the Apple TV+ limited series The White Shadow.

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