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
13 Facts About Tilda Swinton's Life and Family
- #002
Before studying at Cambridge, Tilda Swinton spent two years volunteering at children's schools in South Africa and Kenya.
- #003
On 6 October 1997, Tilda Swinton gave birth to twins: a daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, and a son, Xavier Byrne.
- #004
Tilda Swinton is the daughter of Major-General Sir John Swinton of the Clan Swinton, whose ancestral home has been in the family since the 9th century.
- #009
Tilda Swinton is of Scottish, English and Northern Irish descent. She can trace some of her paternal ancestors back 35 generations, to the 9th century. Her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton of the Clan Swinton, is a former Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire and former head of the Queen's Household Division.
- #012
In Moscow, Russia, Tilda Swinton waved a rainbow flag in front of the Kremlin in a way that violated Russia's new anti-gay propaganda law and shared it widely on social media, putting herself at risk of arrest.
- #013
Tilda Swinton initially did not want to make A Bigger Splash (2015). She changed her mind, in this film and others, because her mother had recently died, and she proposed the idea of a woman who cannot speak, at a moment in her own life when words ran out.
- #016
Tilda Swinton has stated that her beauty and fashion icons are David Bowie, Patti Smith and Delphine Seyrig.
- #020
Tilda Swinton's favorite films are I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), Au hasard Balthazar (1966), Bag of Rice (1996), School of Rock (2003), Let the Right One In (2008) and Brüno (2009).
- #025
She lived in Germany as a child because her father was stationed there.
- #026
She lives in Nairn, Scotland, 26 miles east of Inverness, with her partner Sandro Kopp (a significant artist) and her children Xavier and Honor Swinton Byrne, whose father is the Scottish painter and playwright John Byrne.
- #028
Her father's great-grandfather was the Scottish politician and herald of Clan Swinton George Swinton, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was the Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour of Clan Balfour.
- #036
She regards the Welsh actor Roger Livesey, who starred in her favourite film of all time, I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), as a cinema idol.
- #044
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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