Tom Wilkinson's career in pictures: The Full Monty, Shakespeare in Love, Rush Hour and more

10 months ago 20
ARTICLE AD BOX

Tom WilkinsonImage source, Getty Images

By Emma Petrie

Arts and culture reporter

Tom Wilkinson, one of the UK's most acclaimed and versatile actors, starred in British films like The Full Monty as well as Oscar-winning dramas and Hollywood hits.

Image source, ITV/Shutterstock

His breakthrough role was fictional Labour MP Raymond Gould (second left) in the 10-part 1986 TV adaptation of Jeffrey Archer's best-selling novel First Among Equals.

In 1994, he appeared as Pecksniff in the BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit. He is pictured alongside Maggie Steed.

His career really took off after appearing in the film The Full Monty in 1997. Wilkinson won a Bafta for his portrayal of Gerald, a former factory foreman who joins fellow unemployed workmates in staging a strip show.

Wilkinson played theatre financier Hugh Fennyman in Shakespeare in Love in 1998. The film won seven Oscars, including best picture.

He played plenty of villains during his career, including Thomas Griffin, known as Juntao, opposite Jackie Chan in the first Rush Hour film in 1998.

In The Governess, he played a father with an interest in photography who falls for his muse, and governess, played by Minnie Driver. Stephen Holden from the New York Times described the romantic period drama as "ravishingly beautiful".

Wilkinson played a British officer in The Patriot, a US film about the Revolutionary War co-starring Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger and Jason Isaacs. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, but was criticised for its lack of historical authenticity.

He received a best actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a bereaved father in Todd Field's 2001 US domestic drama In the Bedroom.

In Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Wilkinson played a wealthy patron, Van Ruijven, who lusted after a maid (Scarlett Johansson). His character commissions a portrait of her by Dutch painter Vermeer (Colin Firth). The film, based on Tracy Chevalier's novel, was nominated for three Oscars.

Tony Gilroy's 2007 legal thriller Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney, was nominated for seven Oscars including best supporting actor for Wilkinson.

He showed his villainous side again as Lenny Cole, an old-school mobster in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla in 2008.

Wilkinson joined an ensemble cast of British actors including Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and Dame Maggie Smith for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2011.

In Ava DuVernay's 2014 historical drama Selma, Wilkinson portrayed President Lyndon B Johnson. The film tells of the protest marches held in Alabama in 1965 over voting rights for African Americans.

Image source, Getty Images

The actor met his wife Diana Hardcastle when she appeared alongside him in First Among Equals. The couple married in 1988 and had two daughters, Alice and Molly.

All photos subject to copyright.

Read Entire Article