Comprehensive information and links about Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes , rhymes with "vines"), born on December 22, 1962, is an Oscar nominated English actor.

Born in Suffolk, England, the eldest child of six of photographer Mark Fiennes (died in 2005, aged 71), and the artist Jennifer Lash (died of breast cancer in 1993, aged 55), including fellow actor, Joseph Fiennes. He is a cousin of the famous adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and an eighth cousin of HRH, the Prince of Wales.

The family moved to Ireland in 1973, living in West Cork and County Kilkenny for some years. They moved to Salisbury in England where Ralph finished his schooling before attending Chelsea College of Art.

He then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. He is the only actor ever to have won a Tony Award for playing on Broadway. In 2001 Fiennes received the William Shakespeare Award from the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Fiennes' film debut was in 1992, when he played Heathcliff in opposite Juliette Binoche. But it was in the following year that he became known internationally, portraying amoral Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg's , for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1994 he portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in ). In 2002, Fiennes and Miranda Richardson received critical acclaim for their performances in David Cronenberg's award-winning thriller .

He married actress Alex Kingston in 1993, but they divorced in 1997. In 1995, he started dating Francesca Annis, his much-older (18 years) co-star in . In February 2006, the couple separated. This came after tabloid reports that said Fiennes had an affair.

In 2004, Fiennes was cast as the newest incarnation of the evil, villainous, omnipresent Lord Voldemort in the fourth film of the Harry Potter series, thus winning a new legion of fans. The film was released in November, 2005. Fiennes will reprise the role in its sequels.

Also in 2005, was released, with Fiennes as the title role. The film is set in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. The situation affected the crew to the extent that they set up the Constant Gardener Trust in order to provide basic education around these villages. Fiennes is a patron of the charity.

table earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. While he didn't win the Oscar, he did win the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award, which is the British equivalent to the Oscar., Fiennes revealed that his favorite word is "heart" and his least favorite is "flabbergasted." Fiennes also stated that if he were not an actor, he would work in wildlife preservation and conservation, noting that he is "turned off" by environmental desecration and pollution., when he is naked running down the stairs in his house, his genital area had to be darkened because genitals were swinging too much.1997 - Golden Globe and Golden Satellite Award for best performance by an actor in a motion picture - Drama - 1999 - Annie Award for outstanding individual achievement for voice acting in an animated feature production -