Ralph Fiennes played Voldemort, and his nephew played the boy Voldemort
Ralph Fiennes is best known for chilling roles, from a Nazi commandant to Lord Voldemort. Yet one of his most loved parts is a flirtatious hotel concierge, built partly from memories of his own youthful job as a porter at Brown's Hotel in London. And the young Tom Riddle on screen was his nephew.
Born in Ipswich on 22 December 1962, he is the eldest of six children of a farmer-photographer and a writer, and his full surname is Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, a line of Norman origin that includes a 16th Baron Saye and Sele. The siblings form a creative clan: the actor Joseph, the director Martha, who cast him as Onegin, and the composer Magnus, who scored that film. His nephew Hero Fiennes Tiffin later played the teenage Tom Riddle in Half-Blood Prince.
He studied painting at Chelsea College of Arts before switching to acting and training at RADA from 1983 to 1985. Stage work at Regent's Park, the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company came first, then a 1990 television turn as T. E. Lawrence and a screen debut as Heathcliff opposite Juliette Binoche in 1992. On Broadway his 1995 Hamlet won him a Tony.
Steven Spielberg cast him as the camp commandant Amon Göth in Schindler's List, a part he gained weight for and later said disturbed him deeply. It brought a BAFTA, an Oscar nomination and the 15th spot on the AFI's list of great screen villains. The English Patient, as László Almásy, earned a Best Actor nomination. From 2005 he played Voldemort in four Harry Potter films, describing the role as a physical, instinctive exercise in playing someone without empathy.
He took over from Judi Dench as M in the Bond films after Skyfall, and directed himself twice: in Coriolanus, shot in Belgrade, and as Charles Dickens in The Invisible Woman. Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel revealed a comic streak few expected; Empire later ranked his Monsieur Gustave the 17th greatest film character ever. In 2024 he received a third Oscar nomination, playing a cardinal in Conclave.
Source: Ralph Fiennes
