Early and Personal life

Mendelsohn was born in Melbourne, Australia, the son of Carole Ann (née Ferguson) and Frederick Arthur Oscar Mendelsohn. His father is a prominent medical researcher who previously headed the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne, Australia, where he maintains the status of Professor Emeritus. Ben and his two brothers, Tom and David, as well as his mother (deceased), a registered nurse, lived in Europe and the US for long periods of time, and returned to Melbourne in high school. He attended Heidelberg Primary School and Eltham High & Banyule High Schools. He took drama because he thought it was an easy class, and was the only one of his friends to follow up an audition for Crawford Productions which was being advertised.

In October 2009, Mendelsohn was featured in the Australian series Who Do You Think You Are?, tracing the ancestry of his paternal grandfather, who was from a Jewish family, as well as convicts on his mother's side. Searching for a connection to composer Felix Mendelssohn, which was eventually dismissed, he discovered links to 19th century Prussia. His ancestors were amongst the first Prussian Jews to be naturalised in Schneidemühl in the province of Posen, now Piła in modern Poland.

Mendelsohn married British author Emma Forrest in June, 2012. Has two daughters, one with Forrest, born in 2014, and one from a previous relationship.

Career

After several early television roles, including The Henderson Kids, he attracted notice in his breakout film, The Year My Voice Broke (1987), winning him the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor. His next major role was in The Big Steal (1990), and Spotswood (1992) co-starring with Anthony Hopkins; this was followed in 1996 by Cosi and Idiot Box. In 2000 he was in two contrasting films, the Australian Mullet and the Hollywood Vertical Limit.

In 2005, he was preparing to play Mark Antony in the Sydney Theatre Company-produced Julius Caesar, and he was in the Terrence Malick-directed film The New World.

In 2007, Mendelsohn starred in the third season of the TV series Love My Way and in 2008, he appeared in Baz Luhrmann's Australia and filmed the 10-part Melbourne series Tangle, which premiered on Showcase in 2009. In 2009, he appeared in the American science fiction film Knowing directed by Alex Proyas. The same year, Mendelsohn starred as Ned in Beautiful Kate, directed by Rachel Ward, opposite Bryan Brown and Rachel Griffiths.

In 2010, he appeared in Animal Kingdom, starring in the film as Andrew 'Pope' Cody, a criminal on the run from the law living in the notorious Melbourne Underworld. This role won him many awards including IF Award's Best Actor and the AFI's award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He was also named GQ Australia's Actor of the Year for 2010.

He was selected as one of the entrants to the Who's Who in Australia 2012 edition. In 2012, Mendelsohn played the supporting role of John Daggett in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises.

In 2012, he appeared in Florence + the Machine's music video for "Lover to Lover". The video was directed by Vincent Haycock. In 2013, he guest starred in the TV series Girls as the father of Jessa, played by Jemima Kirke.

In 2014, Mendelsohn joined the cast of Bloodline, a Netflix original from the creators of Damages. The first season premiered on the site on 20 March 2015 and was well received. Mendelsohn's performance on the series has been critically lauded, with IGN reviewer Matt Fowler saying in his review of the first season "Everyone on the show shines...but it's Mendelsohn's lanky, damaged, bitter Danny Rayburn that truly drives the show into harrowing places. Spectacular work that I hope gets recognized come awards season."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	The Still Point	Peter
1987	The Year My Voice Broke	Trevor Leishman	AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1989	Lover Boy	Gazza
1990	The Big Steal	Danny Clarke	Nominated—AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1990	Nirvana Street Murder	Luke
1990	Return Home	Gary
1990	Quigley Down Under	O'Flynn
1992	Spotswood	Carey	Nominated—AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1992	Map of the Human Heart	Farmboy
1993	Say a Little Prayer	Nursery Manager
1993	Sirens	Lewis
1994	Metal Skin	Dazey	Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Male Nominated—AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1996	Idiot Box	Kev
1996	Cosi	Lewis
1997	True Love and Chaos	Jerry
1997	Amy	Robert Buchanan	Camério Award for Best Actor
1999	Secret Men's Business	Doug Petersen	Television film
1999	Love Brokers
2000	Vertical Limit	Malcolm Bench
2000	Sample People	John
2001	Mullet	Eddie 'Mullet' Maloney	Nominated—AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated—Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Male
2001	Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story	Alexander Hall	Television film
2002	Black and White	Rupert Murdoch
2005	The New World	Ben
2005	Second Chance	Dr. Larry Stewart	Television film
2008	$9.99	Lenny Peck	Voice
2008	Australia	Captain Dutton
2009	Prime Mover	Johnnie
2009	Beautiful Kate	Ned Kendall	Nominated—AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated—Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Male
2009	Knowing	Phil Beckman
2010	Needle	Detective Meares
2010	Animal Kingdom	Andrew 'Pope' Cody	AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role IF Award for Best Actor Film Critics Circle of Australia Award for Best Actor - Male
2011	Killer Elite	Martin
2011	Trespass	Elias
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	John Daggett
2012	Killing Them Softly	Russell
2012	The Place Beyond the Pines	Robin Van Der Hook
2013	Starred Up	Neville Love	BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—Village Voice Film Poll for Best Supporting Actor
2013	Two Mothers	Harold
2014	Lost River	Dave
2014	Exodus: Gods and Kings	Viceroy Hegep
2014	Black Sea	Fraser
2015	Slow West	Payne
2015	Mississippi Grind	Gerry	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead
2015	Gun for Hire	Kyle Sullivan
2016	Una	Ray	Post-production
2016	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	Director Krennic	Post-production
2018	Ready Player One	Nolan Sorrento	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Special Squad		Episode: "Slow Attack"
1985	A Country Practice	Luke Dawson	2 episodes
1985	The Henderson Kids	Ted Morgan	4 episodes
1986	Prime Time	Bartholomew 'Bart' Jones
1986	Fame and Misfortune
1986-1987	Neighbours	Warren Murphy	19 episodes
1987, 1989	The Flying Doctors	Brad Harris / Brian	2 episodes
1988	All the Way	Lindsay Seymour	3 episodes
1989	This Man... This Woman	Matthew Clarke	3 episodes
1989, 1994	G. P.	Max Fisher / Phillip Barton	2 episodes
1994	Roughnecks	Joe 90	Episode 1.4
1995	Snowy River: The McGregor Saga	Dale Banks	Episode: "High Country Justice"
1995	Police Rescue	Dean Forman	Episode: "Wild Card"
1995	Halifax f.p.	Peter Donaldson	Episode: "My Lovely Girl"
1996	Close Ups	Biz
1997	Good Guys Bad Guys	Brian O'Malley	Episode: "Unfinished Business"
1999	Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude	Vince McCaffery	4 episodes
2002	Farscape	Sko	Episode: "I-Yensch, You-Yensch "
2005	The Secret Life of Us	Rob	5 episodes
2006-2007	Love My Way	Lewis Feingold	15 episodes Nominated—Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor Nominated—AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama Nominated—ASTRA Award Most Outstanding Performance by an Actor - Male
2009	Tangle	Vince Kovac	10 episodes Nominated—Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor Nominated—ASTRA Award Most Outstanding Performance by an Actor - Male
2013	Girls	Salvatore Johansson	Episode: "Video Games"
2015-present	Bloodline	Danny Rayburn	13 episodes Nominated—Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Squadron 42	TBA	Voice / Motion Capture

[ Source: Wikipedia ]