The triumphs and challenges of 2024
Among the nominees for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role is Ralph Fiennes. The veteran British actor has twice been nominated for an Oscar, but in a near 40-year career has received numerous other accolades including a BAFTA, Tony Award, and recently a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Most of his films have been commercial and critical success stories. He is also an accomplished stage actor, well-versed in Shakespeare, having appeared on Broadway and in London's West End in some of the Bard's most famous plays. But it's for 'Conclave' that many expect Fiennes to lift the coveted statuette on March 1. So why is he deserving third time round of such a glittering prize?
Click through the gallery and revisit Ralph Fiennes' screen, stage, and television to date.
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born on December 22, 1962, in Ipswich, England.
'The English Patient,' released in 1996, saw Fiennes appear alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and his 'Wuthering Heights' costar, Juliet Binoche. The film was a huge success, garnering numerous awards and nominations including a second Oscar nod for Fiennes, this time for Best Actor.
Ralph Fiennes' turn as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence in the critically acclaimed political thriller 'Conclave' has seen the British actor receive his third Academy Award nomination.
It's one of numerous films Fiennes has been universally applauded for since he first entered the acting profession in 1987.
The following year Fiennes made a huge impact portraying Amon Göth, the Nazi commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, in Steven Spielberg's 'Schindler's List.'
Fiennes' next picture was 'Quiz Show,' the Robert Redford-directed movie dramatizing the 'Twenty-One' quiz show scandals of the 1950s. He played the real-life Charles Van Doren and was again praised for his character interpretation.
Back on more familiar territory in the drama 'The Constant Gardener,' Fiennes starred alongside Rachel Weisz in this well-received picture based on John le Carré's 2001 novel.
In 2011, Ralph Fiennes made his directorial debut with 'Coriolanus,' a fascinating film adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. Fiennes also chose to act in the picture, costarring alongside Gerard Butler. A critical success, Ralph Fiennes was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the 65th British Academy Film Awards.
Appearing alongside a stellar ensemble cast that included William Dafoe and Adrien Brody (coincidentally in competition with Fiennes this year for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in 'The Brutalist'), Fiennes exhibited his comedic talents to grand acclaim, picking up another BAFTA nod along the way.
In 1999 Fiennes was the recipient of a European Film Award for his role in 'Sunshine,' which follows five generations of a Hungarian Jewish family from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century.
The following year the actor was lured back on stage, taking the lead role of the Prince of Denmark in a Broadway production of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet.' A noted interpreter of the Bard's work, Fiennes won a Tony Award for his efforts.
The actor won a whole new fanbase after he appeared as the wicked Lord Voldemort in 2005's 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.' His frightening role was reprised throughout the Harry Potter franchise.
The pair are seen here together, with Fiennes clutching his BAFTA for his flawless role as Göth in 'Schindler's List.'
Between film roles Fiennes married Alex Kingston, known for her regular role as Dr. Elizabeth Corday in the NBC medical drama 'ER' (1997–2004). The couple tied the knot in 1993 but divorced in 1997.
In the same year, 1995, Fiennes married for the second time, to actress Francesca Annis. Their union lasted 11 years, with both going their separate ways in 2006.
Fiennes made his debut as Gareth Mallory—"M"—in the James Bond picture 'Skyfall' in 2012. He would play Daniel Craig's boss in two subsequent Bond movies, 'Spectre' in 2015 and 2021's 'No Time to Die.'
The actor first came to the attention of cinemagoers when he starred alongside Juliette Binoche in 'Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights,' his big-screen debut.
The black comedy-drama 'In Bruges' allowed Fiennes an opportunity to play another unsavory character in the shape of Harry Waters, an underworld boss who orders Colin Farrell (Ray) and Brendan Gleeson (Ken) to carry out an assassination in the Belgian city.
In 'The Menu' (2022), the British actor again put his laugh-out-loud talents to good use in this black comedy horror film, which costarred Anya Taylor-Joy.
Fiennes had a supporting role in another black comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen's hilarious 'Hail, Caesar!' A commercial and critical success, it was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016.
Always a master of character, Fiennes cleverly layered charm and malice as an effusive music producer in 'A Bigger Splash' (2015). He's seen arriving in typical form for the movie's premiere during the 72nd Venice International Film Festival in Italy.
Meanwhile, Fiennes and the rest of the 'Conclave' cast won the 2025 Screen Actors Guild award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Pictured with him are Sergio Castellitto, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. Will that elusive Oscar follow?
Sources: (Biography) (Variety) (Vulture)
Fiennes was trained at and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1985. He began his career on stage and first worked on screen in 1990 when he starred as T.E. Lawrence in the British television film 'A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia.'
For that role, Fiennes was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a BAFTA for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He's pictured with Spielberg and Ben Kingsley.
Fiennes acted against type in 'Red Dragon,' playing serial killer Francis Dolarhyde in this psychological thriller, a prequel to 'Hannibal' (2001) and 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991).
While still busy in cinema, Fiennes couldn't resist appearing in a modern adaptation of the Bard's 'Antony & Cleopatra' in 2018. He's seen taking a curtain call with fellow thespians Hannah Morrish, Tim McMullan, and Sophie Okonedo at the National Theatre in London.
Completed after 'Conclave,' 'The Return' marked the third time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche had worked together. Critics praised the "terrific performances" of both.
In 'The Dig,' Fiennes portrays Basil Brown, the man who discovered and excavated the 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in England in 1939—one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time.
Shakespeare has been Ralph Fiennes' calling for decades and in 2016 he made a triumphant return to the London stage in the Almeida Theatre production of 'Richard III.'
A remake of the 1955 film, 'The End of the Affair' saw Ralph Fiennes take on the role of Maurice Bendrix, originally played by Van Johnson, with Julianne Moore costarring as Sarah Miles, portrayed all those years ago by Deborah Kerr.
Ralph Fiennes: his life on screen, stage, and television
Will it be third time lucky at the Oscars for the British actor?
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Among the nominees for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role is Ralph Fiennes. The veteran British actor has twice been nominated for an Oscar, but in a nearly 40-year career has received numerous other accolades including a BAFTA, Tony Award, and recently a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Most of his films have been commercial and critical success stories. He is also an accomplished stage actor, well-versed in Shakespeare, having appeared on Broadway and in London's West End in some of the Bard's most famous plays. But it's for 'Conclave' that many expect Fiennes to lift the coveted statuette on March 2. So why is he deserving a third time round of such a glittering prize?
Click through the gallery and revisit Ralph Fiennes' career on screen, stage, and television to date.