Age: 43
Birthplace: Clifton, Bedfordshire, England, UK
Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor. He is known for his stage role as Hamlet; his roles in the television series Nathan Barley, Criminal Justice, The Hour and London Spy; and film roles including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), I'm Not There (2007), Bright Star (2009), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Cloud Atlas (2012), The Lobster (2015), Suffragette (2015) and The Danish Girl (2015). He has also played the role of Q in the James Bond films starting with Skyfall (2012), and was the voice of Paddington Bear in the 2014 film, Paddington.
Whishaw was born in Clifton, Bedfordshire, and was brought up there and in Langford, the son of Linda (née Hope), who works in cosmetics, and Jose Whishaw, who works in information technology. His father is of French, German and Russian descent, and his mother is of English background. He has a fraternal twin, James. "Whishaw" is not the family's original surname.
He was a member of the Bancroft Players Youth Theatre at Hitchin's Queen Mother Theatre. He attended Henlow Middle School and then Samuel Whitbread Community College in Shefford where he first rose to prominence during collaborations with their offshoot theatre company, Big Spirit. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003.
Whishaw was involved in many productions with Big Spirit, perhaps most notably If This is a Man (also performed as The Drowned & The Saved), a piece devised by the company based on the book of the same name by Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp. It was adapted into a physical theatre piece by the group and taken to the 1995 Edinburgh Festival, where it garnered five-star reviews and great critical acclaim.
As the lead in Trevor Nunn's 2004 production of Hamlet at the Old Vic, he received highly favourable reviews and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor and the Ian Charleson Award. The role was shared with Al Weaver in an unusual arrangement that saw Whishaw playing all nights except for Mondays and matinées. Nunn is reported to have made this arrangement due to the youth of the two actors playing the lead, to relieve some of the pressure on each. It was Whishaw, however, who featured most prominently in the marketing materials and in the majority of reviews.
Whishaw's film and television credits include Layer Cake and Chris Morris's 2005 sitcom Nathan Barley, in which he played a character called Pingu. He was named "Most Promising Newcomer" at the 2001 British Independent Film Awards for My Brother Tom, and in 2005 he was nominated as best actor in four award ceremonies for his portrayal of Hamlet. He also played Keith Richards in the Brian Jones biopic Stoned. In the spring of 2005, Whishaw received lots of attention for his role as a drug dealer in Philip Ridley's controversial stage play Mercury Fur.
In Perfume, Whishaw played Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a perfume maker whose craft turns deadly. The film was released in Germany in September 2006 and in US theaters in December 2006. In the same year, Whishaw worked on Pawel Pawlikowski's abandoned The Restraint of Beasts. Whishaw appeared as one of the Bob Dylan reincarnations in I'm Not There in 2007, in the BBC's Criminal Justice in 2008, in a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, and in a stage adaptation of The Idiot at the National Theatre called ...some trace of her.
At the end of 2009, he starred in Cock, a new play by Mike Bartlett at the Royal Court Theatre. In 2009 he also starred as the poet John Keats in the film Bright Star. In February 2010, Whishaw made a successful off-Broadway debut at MCC Theater in the American premiere of the awarding-winning play The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell. He played Ariel in Julie Taymor's 2010 film adaptation of The Tempest, and was featured in The Hour, a BBC Two drama series.
In 2012, Whishaw appeared as Richard II in the television film Richard II, a part of the BBC Two series The Hollow Crown, for which he received the British Academy Television Award for Leading Actor.
Also in 2012, he appeared as part of the ensemble cast of the science-fiction drama film Cloud Atlas.
Whishaw appeared in the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, in the role of Q. He portrayed a younger Q than in previous films; Peter Burton and Desmond Llewelyn both received the role when they were in their forties, while Llewelyn and John Cleese played the role into their eighties and sixties, respectively. In addition, he was teamed a third time with Daniel Craig after they starred in the films The Trench and Layer Cake.
In spring 2013, Whishaw starred on stage alongside Judi Dench in the world premiere of Peter and Alice, a new play by John Logan inspired by the lives of Alice Liddell and Peter Llewelyn Davies. From October 2013 to February 2014 he again appeared on stage in the revival of Jez Butterworth's Olivier-award-winning play Mojo, also starring Rupert Grint, Brendan Coyle, Daniel Mays and Colin Morgan. He was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor for both roles. In the summer of 2015 he appeared as Dionysos in Euripides' tragedy Bakkhai at the Almeida Theatre in London.
In 2014, Whishaw starred in the independent film Lilting.
In 2015, Whishaw co-starred in The Lobster, a romantic science fiction drama from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos; appeared in Suffragette, a story of the early feminist movement written by Abi Morgan and also starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep and his The Hour co-star, Romola Garai; reprised his role, Q, in Spectre, the 24th James Bond film; and played author Herman Melville in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea.
For several years, Whishaw refused to answer questions about his personal life, saying: "For me, it's important to keep a level of anonymity. As an actor, your job is to persuade people that you're someone else. So if you're constantly telling people about yourself, I think you're shooting yourself in the foot." In 2011, he told Out magazine: "As an actor you have total rights to privacy and mystery, whatever your sexuality, whatever you do. I don't see why that has to be something you discuss openly because you do something in the public eye. I have no understanding of why we turn actors into celebrities."
Whishaw entered into a civil partnership with Australian composer Mark Bradshaw in August 2012. In 2014, he publicly discussed his coming out as a gay man, saying that it was a tense experience for him but "everyone was surprisingly lovely".
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1999 | Trench, TheThe Trench | Pte. James Deamis | |
1999 | Escort, TheThe Escort | Jay | |
2001 | Baby | Little Joe | Short film |
2001 | My Brother Tom | Tom | British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer Sochi International Film Festival Award for Best Actor |
2002 | Spiritual Rampage | Short film | |
2003 | Ready When You Are Mr. McGill | Bruno | |
2003 | Booze Cruise, TheThe Booze Cruise | Daniel | |
2004 | 77 Beds | Ishmael | Short film |
2004 | Enduring Love | Spud | |
2004 | Layer Cake | Sidney | |
2005 | Stoned | Keith Richards | |
2006 | Perfume: The Story of a Murderer | Jean-Baptiste Grenouille | Bambi Award for Best Film - National Nominated - British Academy Film Award for Rising Star Nominated - European Film Award for Best Actor |
2007 | I'm Not There | Arthur | Independent Spirit Award for Best Cast |
2008 | Brideshead Revisited | Sebastian Flyte | |
2009 | The International | Rene Antall | |
2009 | Bright Star | John Keats | |
2009 | Love Hate | Tom | Short film |
2010 | Tempest, TheThe Tempest | Ariel | |
2012 | Skyfall | Q | |
2012 | Cloud Atlas | Cabin Boy Robert Frobisher Store Clerk Georgette Tribesman |
|
2013 | Beat | Unknown | Short film |
2013 | The Zero Theorem | Doctor 3 | |
2013 | Teenage | Narrator | Documentary |
2013 | Days and Nights | Eric | |
2014 | Lilting | Richard | World premiere 16 January 2014, Sundance Film Festival |
2014 | Paddington | Paddington Bear (voice) | |
2015 | The Muse | Edward Dunstan | Short film |
2015 | The Lobster | Limping Man | Nominated - BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor |
2015 | Unity | Narrator | Documentary |
2015 | Suffragette | Sonny | |
2015 | The Danish Girl | Henrik | |
2015 | Spectre | Q | |
2015 | In the Heart of the Sea | Herman Melville | |
2016 | A Hologram for the King | Dave |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | Black Cab | Ryan | 1 episode |
2000 | Other People's Children | Sully | 4 episodes |
2005 | Nathan Barley | Pingu | 6 episodes |
2008 | Criminal Justice | Ben Coulter | 5 episodes International Emmy Award for best actor Royal Television Society Award for Best Actor Nominated - British Academy Television Award for Best Actor |
2011-2012 | Hour, TheThe Hour | Freddie Lyon | Main Cast; Nominated - Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor (2013) |
2012 | Richard II | Richard II of England | Nominated - Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor British Academy Television Award Leading Actor |
2014 | Foxtrot | Ezra, Jacob | |
2015 | London Spy | Danny | BBC Two's five-part series Pending - British Academy Television Award for Best Actor |
Year | Title | Role | Theatre | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | His Dark Materials | Brother Jasper | National Theatre | |
2004 | Hamlet | Hamlet | Old Vic | Ian Charleson Award Third Prize 2005 Nominated - Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor Nominated - South Bank Sky Arts Award for Breakthrough Artist Nominated - Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer Nominated - What's On Stage Theatregoers Choice Awards for Best Actor |
2005 | Mercury Fur | Eliot | Paines Plough | |
2006 | Seagull, TheThe Seagull | Konstantin | National Theatre | |
2007 | Leaves of Glass | Steven | Soho Theatre | |
2008 | ...some trace of her | Prince Myshkin | National Theatre | |
2009 | Cock | John | Royal Court Theatre | |
2010 | The Pride | Oliver | Lucille Lortel Theatre | |
2013 | Peter and Alice | Peter Llewelyn Davies | Noël Coward Theatre | Nominated - WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor |
2013 | Mojo | Baby | Harold Pinter Theatre | Nominated - WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor |
2015 | Bakkhai | Dionysos | Almeida Theatre | |
2016 | The Crucible | John Proctor | Walter Kerr Theatre |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
2004 | Arthur | Arthur |
2006 | Look Back in Anger | Jimmy Porter |
2011 | Cock | John |