Joseph Fiennes

Joseph Fiennes is a cousin of the polar explorer Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham Fiennes.

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Both Joseph and his brother Ralph Fiennes played love interests to the same leading actress, Cate Blanchett, in different films: Joseph in Elizabeth (1998) and Ralph in Oscar and Lucinda (1997).

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His sister Sophie Fiennes is a documentary filmmaker, and his brother Magnus Fiennes is a composer.

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After the success of Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Elizabeth (1998), Joseph Fiennes turned down a lucrative five-film deal with Miramax and went to India instead.

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He was Roman Polanski's first choice for the lead role in The Pianist (2002), but he turned it down because of his prior commitment to the theatre.

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He has two daughters: Sam, born on 8 March 2010, and Isabel, born on 29 December 2011.

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Joseph Fiennes is the 8th cousin of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

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He is the youngest of six children; his older siblings are Ralph Fiennes (b. 22 December 1962), Martha Fiennes (b. 1964), Magnus Fiennes (b. 1965), Sophie Fiennes (b. 1967) and Jacob Mark "Jake" Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (b. 27 May 1970). Jacob, Joseph's fraternal twin, is married to Melanie Plaice and has two children, Teale Isabella (b. 24 July 2000) and Nathaniel (b. 17 July 2002). Joseph also has a stepbrother, Michael Emery (b. 31 December 1952), who has been part of the family since Joseph was 11.

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He toyed with the idea of becoming a painter and still carries a sketchbook with him.

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He is highly skilled at swimming, horse riding, tennis and rock climbing.

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He is the 4th cousin of Lord Saye & Sele, the owner of Broughton Castle, which appears as Viola's home in Shakespeare in Love.

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He was to replace Omar Sharif as Yuri Zhivago in a remake of the classic Doctor Zhivago (1965).

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During his childhood he moved 14 times between London, Wiltshire and Ireland.

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He is the fraternal twin of Jacob Mark Fiennes, a gamekeeper.

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He supports a number of charities and causes, including The Prince's Trust, for which he serves as an ambassador.

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He and his brother Ralph Fiennes also worked with Rachel Weisz on Enemy at the Gates (2001) and The Constant Gardener (2005).

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He is the son of the novelist Jini Fiennes (also known as Jennifer Lash).

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In 1998 he played two different Elizabethan men: Robert Dudley in Elizabeth (1998) and William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love (1998). Both men were unfaithful to their wives, and both of the women they cheated on were nominated for the Best Actress Oscar: Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth (1998) and Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love (1998), who won.

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His Swiss wife, Maria Dolores Diéguez, was an internationally successful model and placed 3rd in the Miss Switzerland 2003 pageant. Their relationship began in the summer of 2005, and they married in Tuscany in August 2009.

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As of 2018, the only two films Joseph Fiennes has appeared in that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar are Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Elizabeth (1998), both released in 1998. Shakespeare in Love won the award.

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Joseph Fiennes has mostly played characters who write novels, plays, poetry or other literary works.

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At the age of 17, Joseph Fiennes attended an art school in Suffolk, England.

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Joseph Fiennes lost 21 pounds to play POW Major Gibson in The Great Raid (2005).

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In 1999, People magazine named Joseph Fiennes one of the 50 sexiest stars.

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Joseph Fiennes was considered for the role of Abbe du Coulmier in Quills (2000), alongside his two-time co-star and friend Geoffrey Rush.

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Joseph Fiennes graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in 1993.

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Joseph Fiennes was reported to have held talks with Bernardo Bertolucci about starring in a film about the life of the 16th-century artist Gesualdo da Venosa.

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Joseph Fiennes reunited with former leading lady Gwyneth Paltrow in Running with Scissors (2006). The two had previously worked together on Shakespeare in Love (1998).

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Joseph Fiennes is the uncle of Hero Fiennes Tiffin.

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Joseph Fiennes was offered the lead role in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth (2007).

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Joseph Fiennes was nominated for the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Fred Waterford in The Handmaid's Tale (2017), but lost to Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones (2011).

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Joseph Fiennes is the former brother-in-law of Alex Kingston.

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After successfully teaming with the director on Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II," in which Fiennes starred, he was to play Iago in a West End production of "Othello" to be directed by Michael Grandage in 2001.

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After playing the poet in the BBC radio series 'Byron's Women,' Joseph Fiennes was suggested to play Lord Byron in the film.

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In 2002, while filming The Great Raid (2005) in Queensland, Australia, Joseph Fiennes met his Filipino-Australian girlfriend Natalie Mendoza. Mendoza persuaded him to take acting classes at the Bristol Old Vic, and in September 2002 he moved with her to Notting Hill in West London.

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Joseph Fiennes was said to be playing the mountaineer George Mallory in the film (2001).

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Joseph Fiennes was reported to be in talks to reunite with Gwyneth Paltrow in a new British-backed production of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi.

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Joseph Fiennes was suggested to play a father searching for his young son in the period thriller Jeremy Brock.

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Joseph Fiennes is the brother-in-law of George Tiffin.

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Joseph Fiennes's characters in Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Elizabeth (1998) were both married and unfaithful to their wives, and there is more: neither character managed to tell his lover that he was married, and both lovers learned it from someone else.

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Joseph Fiennes auditioned for the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars and nearly won it, but apparently George Lucas's daughter did not think he was right for the part. The role of Obi-Wan Kenobi went to the Scottish actor Ewan McGregor.

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Joseph Fiennes took the role in Shakespeare in Love after the original plan with Daniel Day-Lewis fell through.

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Joseph Fiennes is the youngest of seven siblings.

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