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Tilda Swinton

ACTOR · BORN 1960

Tilda Swinton

Born
5 November 1960, London, England, UK
Known for
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), A Bigger Splash (2015), The Room Next Door (2024), Io sono l'amore (2009)

29 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026

Tilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is an actor best known for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, A Bigger Splash and The Room Next Door.

Tilda Swinton over the years

Tilda Swinton in 2005 (age 45)
2005 · age 45Eugene Wei from New York, CC BY-SA 2.0
Tilda Swinton in 2016 (age 56)
2016 · age 56Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC…
Tilda Swinton in 2024 (age 64)
2024 · age 64Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0

29 Interesting Facts About Tilda Swinton

Interesting Facts (1)

  1. #001

    She was offered to play Professor Sybil Trelawney on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), but role went to Emma Thompson.

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Production Story (2)

  1. #002

    Initially, she didn't want to do A Bigger Splash (2015). Not this movie nor others, due to the recent death of her mother, she ended up changing her mind and at a moment in her own life when she was all out of words, she proposed the idea of this woman unable to speak.

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  2. #003

    Was the original choice for the role of Dr. Serena Kogan/Skynet in Terminator Salvation (2009), however Helena Bonham Carter was cast instead.

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Behind the Scenes (3)

  1. #004

    Learned how to speak Italian and Russian for I Am Love (2009).

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  2. #005

    On her days off from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), she could be seen on-set, offering encouragement to her young co-stars.

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  3. #006

    She was heavily pregnant with her twins during filming Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998). She had to be filmed from the waist up.

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Characters & Cast (2)

  1. #007

    Does not always play women; she has played Mozart on stage, an Elizabethan nobleman in Orlando (1992) and an androgynous angel, Gabriel, in Constantine (2005).

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  2. #008

    She has twice played characters who were males in the original comic book: Gabriel in Constantine (2005) and The Ancient One in Doctor Strange (2016).

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Deeper Meaning (1)

  1. #009

    Considers Delphine Seyrig a major influence. She stated her role in the musical video David Bowie: The Stars (Are Out Tonight) (2013) was meant as an homage to the actress' performance in India Song (1975).

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Career & Awards (13)

  1. #010

    Was declared one of the ten best dressed women in the world by Vanity Fair in 2007.

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  2. #011

    She was the first non-director to be have a Film Benefit Gala held in her honor at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The event took place on her 53rd birthday, November 5, 2013 and was hosted by Karl Lagerfeld, Wes Anderson and David Bowie.

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  3. #012

    Performed live with Patti Smith on four nights of the 2005 London Meltdown Festival reading texts by Susan Sontag, Bertolt Brecht, William Blake and William S. Burroughs.

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  4. #013

    Reached great artistic acclaim through her art installation/performance piece "The Maybe", for which she lay sleeping in a glass case on public display for a week, once at the Sepentine Gallery in London and once at the Museo Barracco in Rome. The piece is often erroneously credited to artist Cornelia Parker, whom Swinton invited to collaborate for the installation in London (1995).

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  5. #014

    Delivered the seminal State of Cinema Address in 2006 at the San Francisco International Film Festival, discussing the relationship of dreams, inarticulacy and film.

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  6. #015

    Appeared on the cover of the Autumm/Winter 2015 issue of AnOther Magazine, but not as herself, instead she appeared as her character in A Bigger Splash (2015), Marianne Lane. In a work of fiction co-authored by Swinton, Glenn O'Brien, Luca Guadagnino and David Kajganich, Marianne Lane gave an interview for the magazine based around events in the film.

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  7. #016

    Funded and held her own very successful Film Festival in her small Scottish highland home-town: The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams. A purely cinephile, glamour-free community event. For eight and a half days in August 2008, she personally introduced and showed an eclectic mix of classics and rare films from around the world. The admission price was 3 pounds for adults, 2 pounds for children or a plate of home-baked cakes.

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  8. #017

    Contributed vocals on four tracks of the album 'The Bachelor' by glam-goth-folk singer/songwriter Patrick Wolf.

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  9. #018

    As of 2019, she has had four films in the official competition of the Berlin Film Festival, and a total of 24 films screened at the festival.

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  10. #019

    In her acceptance speech, she said she would give the Oscar she won for Michael Clayton (2007) to her agent Brian Swardstrom.

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  11. #020

    Listed A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Vertigo (1958), Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), To Be or Not to Be (1942), Walkabout (1971), Journey to Italy (1954), Pickpocket (1959), Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and La Dolce Vita (1960) as the 10 Greatest Films of All Time in the 2022 Sight & Sound Directors' Poll.

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  12. #021

    Tilda Swinton and director 'Mark Cousins' carried a 37-tonne portable cinema across the Scotland Highlands to bring cinema around the country. Titled 'Pilgrimage: A Scottish Road Movie Festival'.

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  13. #022

    Functioned as the muse and mascot of Dutch fashion designers Viktor and Rolf (Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren), who made an entire collection inspired by her (2003).

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Life & Family (7)

  1. #023

    Spent two years in South Africa and Kenya as a voluntary worker in children's schools, before studying at Cambridge.

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  2. #024

    The father of her children, John Byrne, is a Scottish artist and writer. They were together from around 1989 to 2003.

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  3. #025

    While at Cambridge University, she appeared in student productions of plays such as "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "The Duchess of Malfi" and "The Comedy of Errors".

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  4. #026

    Never planned to be an actress until she saw Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar (1966) in which a donkey's cute performance filled her with acting aspirations.

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  5. #027

    Moscow, Russia: Risked arrest waving a rainbow flag in front of the Kremlin in violation of Russia's new homosexual propaganda bill, and posting it widely in social media.

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  6. #028

    Is good friends with David Bowie, Julianne Moore, Luann de Lesseps, Idris Elba, Amy Schumer and Timothée Chalamet.

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  7. #029

    Since 2004, she has been in a relationship with Sandro Kopp, a painter from New Zealand.

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Related pages

  • Up — Tilda Swinton comes up in the facts on that page
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — Tilda Swinton comes up in the facts on that page
  • It — Tilda Swinton comes up in the facts on that page

Sources & editorial notes

Reference databases

  • Wikipedia English Wikipedia article
  • IMDb IMDb name page (biography and trivia)

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