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IMDbPro

Mark Rylance

  • Actor
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000379
Mark Rylance
Maren, a young woman, learns how to survive on the margins of society.
Play trailer1:26
Bones and All (2022)
41 Videos
99+ Photos
Widely regarded as the greatest stage actor of his generation, Sir Mark Rylance has enjoyed an esteemed career on stage and on screen, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (2015). He is also the winner of 2 Olivier Awards and 3 Tony Awards, as well as a BAFTA for his role in The Government Inspector. His film appearances also include Prospero's Books (1991), Angels and Insects (1995), Institute Benjamenta (1996), Intimacy (2001), and Spielberg's The BFG (2016).

Rylance was born in Ashford, Kent, the son of Anne (née Skinner) and David Waters, both English teachers. His grandmother was Irish. His parents moved to Connecticut in 1962 and Wisconsin in 1969, where his father taught English at the University School of Milwaukee. Rylance attended this school. He starred in most of the school's plays with the theatre's director, Dale Gutzman, including the lead in a 1976 production of Hamlet. He played Romeo in the school's production of Romeo and Juliet.

Mark was the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, from 1995 to 2005. Rylance made his professional debut at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1980. He went on to win the Olivier Award for Best Actor for Much Ado About Nothing in 1994 and Jerusalem in 2010, and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Boeing Boeing in 2008 and Jerusalem in 2011. He won a third Tony Award in 2014 for Twelfth Night. On television, he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for his role as David Kelly in the 2005 Channel 4 drama The Government Inspector and was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA TV Award for playing Thomas Cromwell in the 2015 BBC Two miniseries Wolf Hall.

In 2007, Rylance performed in Boeing-Boeing in London. In 2008, he reprise the role on Broadway and won Drama Desk and Tony Awards for his performance. In 2009, Rylance won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award Best Actor, 2009 for his role of Johnny Byron in Jerusalem written by Jez Butterworth at the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 2010, Rylance starred in a revival of David Hirson's verse play La Bête. The play ran first at London's Comedy Theatre before transferring to the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, on 23 September 2010. Also in 2010, he won another Olivier award for best actor in the role of Johnny Byron in Jerusalem at the Apollo Theatre in London. In 2011, he won his second Tony Award for playing the same role in the Broadway production. He played Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall (2015), BBC Two's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's historical novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. For his performance, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. Rylance was featured as the castaway on the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs on 15 February 2015.

Rylance co-starred in the biographical drama Bridge of Spies, released in October 2015, directed by Spielberg, and starring Tom Hanks, Amy Ryan and Alan Alda. The film is about the 1960 U-2 Incident and the arrest and conviction of Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel and the exchange of Abel for U-2 pilot Gary Powers. Rylance plays Abel and has received unanimous universal acclaim for his performance with many critics claiming it as the best performance of 2015. The St. Louis Post-Depatch quoted, "As the deeply principled Donovan, Hanks deftly balances earnestness and humor. And Rylance's spirited performance is almost certain to yield an Oscar nomination." David Edelstein from New York cited 'It's Rylance who keeps Bridge of Spies standing. He gives a teeny, witty, fabulously non-emotive performance, every line musical and slightly ironic - the irony being his forthright refusal to deceive in a world founded on lies." Rylance won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and New York Film Critics Circle Award in the Best Supporting Actor categories, as well as receiving Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, among other wins and nominations.
BornJanuary 18, 1960
  • More at IMDbPro
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    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornJanuary 18, 1960
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,000379
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Won 1 Oscar

Photos158

Mark Rylance in Bones and All (2022)
Mark Rylance and Taylor Russell in Bones and All (2022)
Mark Rylance in Bones and All (2022)
Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Jonah Lees, Christian Lees, and Jake Davies in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance and Christian Lees in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance and Christian Lees in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance and Christian Lees in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
Mark Rylance and Barry Keoghan in Dunkirk (2017)

Known for

Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies (2015)
Bridge of Spies
7.6
  • Rudolf Abel
  • 2015
Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill in The BFG (2016)
The BFG
6.3
  • BFG
  • 2016
Fionn Whitehead in Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk
7.8
  • Mr. Dawson
  • 2017
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
The Trial of the Chicago 7
7.7
  • William Kunstler
  • 2020

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • The Way of the Wind
    • Post-production
  • The Brutalist
    • Pre-production
  • Rebecca Ferguson and Mark Rylance in Spark Hunter (2022)
    Spark Hunter
    • (voice)
  • Inland (2022)
    Inland
  • Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell in Bones and All (2022)
    Bones and All
  • Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, and Hannah Khalique-Brown in The Undeclared War (2022)
    The Undeclared War
  • Nikki Amuka-Bird, Simon Russell Beale, Mark Rylance, Johnny Flynn, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O'Brien, Michael Addo, Alan Mehdizadeh, and Chiedu Agborh in The Outfit (2022)
    The Outfit
  • Leonardo DiCaprio, Ron Perlman, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Jennifer Lawrence, Timothée Chalamet, Kid Cudi, and Ariana Grande in Don't Look Up (2021)
    Don't Look Up
  • Rhys Ifans, Mark Rylance, and Sally Hawkins in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
    The Phantom of the Open
  • The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
    The Trial of the Chicago 7
  • The Flaneur (2019)
    The Flaneur
  • Johnny Depp, Mark Rylance, and Robert Pattinson in Waiting for the Barbarians (2019)
    Waiting for the Barbarians
  • Steven Spielberg, Ben Mendelsohn, George Michael, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, Perdita Weeks, Kamara Benjamin Barnett, Mandy June Turpin, T.J. Miller, Lena Waithe, Stephen Mitchell, Neet Mohan, Win Morisaki, Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Kae Alexander, Sarah Sharman, Robert Gilbert, Raed Abbas, Letitia Wright, Tye Sheridan, Asan N'Jie, Hannah John-Kamen, Cara Theobold, Olivia Cooke, Alphonso Austin, Amy Clare Beales, Jane Leaney, Kathryn Wilder, and Philip Zhao in Ready Player One (2018)
    Ready Player One
  • Fionn Whitehead in Dunkirk (2017)
    Dunkirk
  • Mark Rylance and Ruby Barnhill in The BFG (2016)
    The BFG
  • Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies (2015)
    Bridge of Spies
  • Mark Rylance and Elliot Kerley in Bing (2014)
    Bing
    • (voice)

Producer

  • Rebecca Ferguson and Mark Rylance in Spark Hunter (2022)
    Spark Hunter
  • Rhys Ifans, Mark Rylance, and Sally Hawkins in The Phantom of the Open (2021)
    The Phantom of the Open

Videos41

The BFG
Clip 0:30
The BFG
The BFG
Clip 0:52
The BFG
'BFG' Director Steven Spielberg on Finding Talent
Interview 2:10
'BFG' Director Steven Spielberg on Finding Talent
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:26
Official Trailer
Teaser
Trailer 0:29
Teaser
Trailer
Trailer 1:51
Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:24
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:42
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 1:51
Official Trailer
Comic-Con Trailer
Trailer 2:04
Comic-Con Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:27
Official Trailer
Trailer #2
Trailer 2:12
Trailer #2

Personal details

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    • Official Site
    • Theater_org
    • January 18, 1960
    • Ashford, Kent, England, UK
    • Claire van KampenDecember 21, 1989 - present
  • Other works
    Stage play: Two Gentlemen of Verona - playing Proteus, at Shakespeare's Globe, London, UK. The production toured to NYC.
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Interviews
    • 2 Articles
    • 2 Pictorials
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    In July 2011, Mark gave the Tony Award he had earned in "Jerusalem" to Mickey Lay, a 71-year-old builder and resident of Pewsey, a small village west of London. Lay had inspired and helped him to create the Gypsy character he played in his acclaimed Broadway role.
  • Quotes
    There have been more books alone written about Hamlet than have been written about the Bible.
    • Frequently works with Steven Spielberg

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