Kenneth Branagh

British actor and director who is often compared with Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier as a towering talent. The son of a carpenter, Branagh grew up in a large Protestant family in the heart of Belfast, poor and during the time of a troubled Ireland. If there was a shortness of advantages, there was an abundance of love and community spirit. When he was ten, his family moved to London. The boy's brogue was so thick that he had to repeat everything he said at school, slowly, but his drama teacher encouraged him. As a kid he became hooked on films and TV, and entered the royal Academy of Dramatic Art at 18, in spite of the incomprehension of his family. He was completely stage-struck. Branagh landed his first professional job in Belfast in November 1981 in "Too Late to Talk to Billy." Back among his kin who were eager to see the lad, he found that they had no concept of the life he had chosen and were surprised by his now-British accent. He began to experience the Anglo-Irish sense of "belonging nowhere." After "Billy," Branagh soon began work in another play. On the first day of rehearsals he met his future partner, David Parfitt, and soon they began discussions on the idea of a theater company. Polishing his ability to transform himself into the role he takes, Branagh continued into films and theater. The rave reviews began to roll in, often with amazement at the talent of so youthful a player. In 1989, he married actress Emma Thompson after being a couple for seven years; they have no kids. He wrote his autobiography young, at 28, "Beginnings," an entertaining and readable book. Nonetheless, in 1989, the British press and his fans had a period when they were cool toward him. Branagh formed his own Renaissance Theatre Company at 26 to produce Shakespeare; he later directed and starred in his own film version of Shakespeare's "Henry V" for which he got an Oscar nomination in 1989. His four-hour "Hamlet" released in 1996, was hailed as the most faithful film adaptation of the Bard ever released. By 1998, he had directed eight films including three adaptations of Shakespeare. Talented, energetic and determined, he is said to stop at nothing to further his ambitions. Branagh and Thompson began moving apart in 1993 and officially announced their separation on 9/30/1995. Helena Bonham Carter became his companion at that time, and his co-star in "The Theory of Flight" in 1998, separating in October 1999. Sometime on the weekend of May 24, 2003, Irish actor Kenneth Branagh so secretly wed Lindsay Brunnock, whom he met two years ago, that he did not reveal the date even after the wedding. This is his second marriage; he was divorced from actress Emma Thompson in 1996. Link to Wikipedia biography