Tom Wilkinson's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Prime Suspect (UK) Peter Rawlins John Adams Benjamin Fr… The Kennedys Joseph P. K… Martin Chuzzlewit (UK) Seth Pecksn… Spyship (UK) Martin Taylor

Main Movie Roles 2011 - The Green Hornet 2010 - The Ghost Writer 2009 - 44 Inch Chest 2009 - Duplicity 2008 - Valkyrie 2008 - RocknRolla 2007 - Dedication 2007 - Michael Clayton 2007 - Cassandra's Dream 2006 - The Last Kiss 2005 - Batman Begins 2005 - The Exorcism of Emily Rose 2005 - Separate Lies 2004 - Piccadilly Jim 2004 - Stage Beauty 2004 - A Good Woman 2004 - If Only 2004 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2003 - Girl with a Pearl Earring 2002 - The Importance of Being Earnest 2001 - Black Knight 2001 - In the Bedroom 2000 - Essex Boys 2000 - Chain of Fools 2000 - The Patriot 1999 - Ride with the Devil 1998 - Rush Hour 1998 - Shakespeare in Love 1997 - Oscar and Lucinda 1997 - Smilla's Sense of Snow 1997 - The Full Monty 1997 - Wilde 1996 - The Ghost and the Darkness 1995 - Sense and Sensibility 1993 - In the Name of the Father

BIOGRAPHY:

A popular British character actor, Tom Wilkinson was born on December 12, 1948, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England in a long line of urban farmers. Economic hardships had forced his family to move to Canada for a few years when Tom was a child. After he had returned to England, Tom attended and graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury with a degree in English and American Literature. Tom first became active in film and television in the mid-1970s, specializing in playing men suffering from some sort of emotional repression and/or pretensions of societal grandeur. In 1989 his daughter Alice was born, and in 1992 his daughter Molly was born, both with actress-wife Diana Hardcastle.

He first became familiar to an international audience in 1997 with his role as one of six unemployed workers who strip for cash in 'Peter Catteneo''s enormously successful and multiple Oscar-nominated comedy (including Best Picture) The Full Monty (1997). That same year, he was featured in Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda (1997), and as the rabidly unpleasant father of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's young lover in Wilde (1997). Wilkinson was also shown to memorable effect as a theatre financier with acting aspirations in the multiple Oscar-winning (including Best Picture) Shakespeare in Love (1998); also in 1998, he acted in one of his few leading roles in The Governess (1998), portraying a 19th century photographer with an eye for the film's title character (Minnie Driver). Over the next few years, Tom would become more popular, especially with American audiences, with such roles as General Cornwallis alongside Mel Gibson (I) in the blockbuster The Patriot (2000) and as the grief-stricken father, Matt Fowler, in the critically acclaimed and multiple Oscar-nominated (including Best Picture) In the Bedroom (2001). One of those nominations was Best Actor in a Leading Role for Tom (his first Oscar nomination).


TRIVIA:

• Has played both a villain and hero of the American Revolution; Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis in the Patriot and Ben Franklin in John Adams.
• Graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury with a degree in English and American Literature. Was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University in 2001.
• He was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the order of the British Empire) in the 2005 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to Drama.
• Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
• Was offered a role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but didn't like the prospect of a year long production keeping him away from his family.
• He has performed at the Oxford Playhouse, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and on the stage at London's West End.
• He was awarded the 1986 London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre Award) for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ghosts.
• Has two children: Alice, born in 1989 and Molly, born in 1992.