ACTOR · BORN 1960
Tilda Swinton
- Born
- 5 November 1960, London, England, UK
- Known for
- Avengers: Endgame (2019), Doctor Strange (2016), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
55 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
26 Interesting Facts About Tilda Swinton
- #005
Tilda Swinton's family and the Clan Swinton are among the oldest in Scotland.
- #006
During her days off from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Tilda Swinton could be seen on set encouraging her young co-stars.
- #007
Tilda Swinton attended West Heath Girls' School, where Princess Diana was one of her classmates, and later Fettes College.
- #008
For I Am Love (2009), Tilda Swinton learned to speak Italian and Russian.
- #010
Tilda Swinton does not always play women; on stage she has played Mozart, in Orlando (1992) an Elizabethan nobleman, and in Constantine (2005) the androgynous angel Gabriel.
- #011
Tilda Swinton was offered the role of Professor Sybil Trelawney in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), but the part went to Emma Thompson.
- #014
Tilda Swinton was the first non-director to be honored with a Film Benefit Gala at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The event took place on 5 November 2013, her 53rd birthday, and was hosted by Karl Lagerfeld, Wes Anderson and David Bowie.
- #015
Tilda Swinton has twice played male characters from the original comics: Gabriel in Constantine (2005) and The Ancient One in Doctor Strange (2016).
- #018
Tilda Swinton served as the muse and mascot of the Dutch fashion designers Viktor and Rolf (Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren), who created a collection inspired by her (2003).
- #019
Over four nights at the 2005 London Meltdown Festival, Tilda Swinton performed live with Patti Smith, reading texts by Susan Sontag, Bertolt Brecht, William Blake and William S. Burroughs.
- #021
Tilda Swinton has been in a relationship with New Zealand painter Sandro Kopp since 2004.
- #022
She received a 90-minute tribute at the 2008 AFI (American Film Institute) Festival.
- #024
Her art installation/performance piece "The Maybe", in which she slept in a publicly displayed glass vitrine for a week, once at the Serpentine Gallery in London and once at the Museo Barracco in Rome, won her great artistic acclaim. The work is often mistakenly attributed to the artist Cornelia Parker, whom Swinton invited to collaborate on the 1995 London installation.
- #027
She was heavily pregnant with her twins while filming Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998). She had to be filmed from the waist up.
- #029
In 2007 she was named by Vanity Fair as one of the ten best-dressed women in the world.
- #031
She contributed vocals to four tracks on glam-goth-folk singer/songwriter Patrick Wolf's album 'The Bachelor'.
- #034
She appeared in three films with George Clooney: Michael Clayton (2007), Burn After Reading (2008) and Hail, Caesar! (2016); and three with Ralph Fiennes: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), A Bigger Splash (2015) and Hail, Caesar! (2016).
- #037
Tilda Swinton is close friends with David Bowie, Julianne Moore, Luann de Lesseps, Idris Elba, Amy Schumer and Timothée Chalamet.
- #038
Swinton had never considered becoming an actor until she saw Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar (1966), in which a donkey's charming performance filled her with the desire to act.
- #039
She considers Delphine Seyrig a major influence, and has said that her role in the music video for David Bowie: The Stars (Are Out Tonight) (2013) was a tribute to the actress's performance in India Song (1975).
- #045
She has made five productions directed by Luca Guadagnino: The Protagonists (1999), Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory (2002), I Am Love (2009), A Bigger Splash (2015) and Suspiria (2018). Together they also created the concept for the short film Here (2012).
- #046
She is co-artistic director, with director Mark Cousins, of 'Cinema China', 'The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams' and 'A Pilgrimage'.
- #047
She is the founder and director of the 8½ Foundation.
- #048
She has said she is interested in acting in a film directed by Alain Resnais.
- #049
She was in the top 10 of the 2008 International Best Dressed List.
- #050
She appeared on the cover of the Autumn/Winter 2015 issue of AnOther Magazine, not as herself but as her A Bigger Splash (2015) character, Marianne Lane. In a fictional piece co-written by Swinton, Glenn O'Brien, Luca Guadagnino and David Kajganich, Marianne Lane gave an interview to the magazine based on the events of the film.
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