Mark Rylance facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mark Rylance
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Rylance promoting The BFG at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
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| Born |
David Mark Rylance Waters
18 January 1960 Ashford, Kent, England
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| Education | Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
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| Years active | 1980–present |
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Works
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Full list |
| Spouse(s) |
Claire van Kampen
(m. 1989) |
| Relatives | Susannah Waters (sister) Jonathan Waters (brother) Juliet Rylance (stepdaughter) |
| Awards | Full list |
Sir Mark Rylance (born 18 January 1960) is a famous English actor, writer, and theatre director. He is well-known for his amazing performances on both stage and in movies. He has won many important awards, like an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Olivier Awards, and three Tony Awards.
In 2016, Time 100 magazine named him one of the world's most influential people. In 2017, Queen Elizabeth II made him a knight for his work in theatre.
Mark Rylance was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London. He held this important job from 1995 to 2005. He studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. His first professional acting job was in 1980.
He has starred in many popular plays. These include Much Ado About Nothing in 1994 and Jerusalem in 2010. For these roles, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. He has also performed on Broadway in New York. There, he won three Tony Awards.
Rylance has appeared in many films. Some of his early movies include Prospero's Books (1991) and The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). He won an Oscar and a BAFTA for his role in Steven Spielberg's film Bridge of Spies (2015). He worked with Steven Spielberg again in The BFG (2016) and Ready Player One (2018). He also appeared in movies like Dunkirk (2017) and Don't Look Up (2021).
On television, Rylance won a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his role in The Government Inspector (2005). He also won for playing Thomas Cromwell in the TV series Wolf Hall (2015).
Contents
Early Life and Education
Mark Rylance was born in Ashford, Kent, England, on 18 January 1960. His parents, Anne and David Waters, were both English teachers.
When Mark was two years old, his parents moved to the United States in 1962. They first lived in Connecticut and then moved to Wisconsin in 1969. His parents taught English at the University School of Milwaukee, where Mark also went to school. He returned to England in 1978.
Mark has a sister named Susannah Waters, who is an opera singer and writer. He also had a brother, Jonathan, who passed away.
Mark Rylance chose his stage name because his birth name, Mark Waters, was already being used by another actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London from 1978 to 1980.
Acting Career
Early Theatre Work
In 1980, Mark Rylance began his professional acting career. His first play was Desperado Corner in Glasgow. In the early 1980s, he performed in many plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). He acted in famous plays like The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In 1988, Rylance played the main role in Hamlet with the RSC. This play toured Ireland, Britain, and the US for several years. In 1990, Mark Rylance and his future wife, Claire van Kampen, started their own theatre company called "Phoebus' Cart".
Leading Shakespeare's Globe
In 1995, Mark Rylance became the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. This is a famous theatre built to look like Shakespeare's original Globe. He worked there until 2005.
At the Globe, Rylance directed and acted in many plays by Shakespeare and other writers. He even played Olivia in an all-male production of Twelfth Night. He also played the main role in Richard III. Under his leadership, new plays were also performed at the Globe.
In 1991, Rylance starred in the film The Grass Arena. He won an award for Best Newcomer for this role. In 1993, he starred in the play Much Ado About Nothing. His performance won him an Olivier Award for Best Actor.
Broadway Success and TV Roles
In 2005, Mark Rylance played David Kelly in the TV drama The Government Inspector. He won a British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for this role.
In 2007, Rylance performed in the play Boeing-Boeing in London. In 2008, he took the play to Broadway in New York. He won a Tony Award for his performance.
In 2009, Rylance won another award for his role in the play Jerusalem. He later won a Olivier Award in 2010 and a second Tony Award in 2011 for the same role.
In 2013, Shakespeare's Globe brought two all-male plays to Broadway. Rylance starred as Olivia in Twelfth Night and as the main character in Richard III. He won his third Tony Award for his role as Olivia.
Major Film Roles
In 2015, Rylance played Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall, a TV series based on historical novels. He was nominated for several awards for this performance.
Rylance co-starred with Tom Hanks in the film Bridge of Spies, released in 2015. He played Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy. Critics praised his performance. He won the Oscar and a BAFTA Award for this role.
Rylance then played the main character in Steven Spielberg's The BFG (2016). This film is based on the popular children's book by Roald Dahl. In 2017, he had a big role in Christopher Nolan's war film Dunkirk. In 2018, he worked with Spielberg again in the science fiction film Ready Player One.
In 2020, Rylance appeared in the legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. He played William Kunstler, a defense lawyer. The film was very well-received and nominated for six Academy Awards.
In 2021, Rylance was in the science fiction film Don't Look Up. He played Peter Isherwell, a quirky billionaire CEO. In 2022, he starred in the crime drama The Outfit as a tailor in Chicago. He also appeared in the horror film Bones and All that same year.
Personal Life
Family
In 1989, Mark Rylance married the composer and playwright Claire van Kampen. They met in 1987 while working on a play. Through this marriage, he became a stepfather to her two daughters, actress Juliet Rylance and filmmaker Nataasha van Kampen. Sadly, Nataasha passed away in 2012. Mark's brother, Jonathan, also passed away in 2022.
Charity and Activism
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Mark Rylance supports many good causes. He is a patron of LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre). He also supports the London Bubble Speech Bubbles project, which helps children find their voice through theatre.
He has been a supporter of Survival International, an organization that helps indigenous people. He also supports Peace Direct, a charity that helps people build peace in areas of conflict. He is a member of the Peace Pledge Union, which is a group of pacifists (people who believe in peace and oppose war).
Rylance has spoken out about environmental issues. In 2020, he stopped working with the Royal Shakespeare Company because of their sponsorship deal with a company he felt was not serious about climate change. He believes that harming the environment should be a crime.
Interests
Mark Rylance is interested in crop circles. He has also shared his favorite actor, Robert Mitchum, and his favorite film, Dersu Uzala.
Acting Credits and Awards
Mark Rylance has won many awards for his acting. These include Tony Awards and BAFTA Awards. At the 88th Academy Awards, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Bridge of Spies.
He has won three Tony Awards. This makes him one of only a few actors to have won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play twice. In 2014, he was nominated for two acting categories at the Tony Awards, which is also very rare.
In 2017, Mark Rylance was made a Knight Bachelor for his important contributions to theatre.
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See also
In Spanish: Mark Rylance para niños
