Rory Kinnear

Kinnear was born on 17 February 1978,^[1][2][3] in Hammersmith, London, the son of actor Roy Kinnear and actress Carmel Cryan.^[4] He grew up with two older sisters, Karina and Kirsty. He is the grandson of Scottish international rugby union and rugby league player Roy Kinnear and the godson of actor Michael Williams.^[5] He was educated at Tower House School (leaving in 1991),^[6] St Paul's School, London,^[7] and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied English.^[8] He then studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[9]

Theatre

Kinnear performed in Phyllida Lloyd's production of Mary Stuart, and in Trevor Nunn's Hamlet, in which he played Laertes.^[8] He also achieved recognition as the outrageous Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode at the National Theatre,^[8] winning the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role and Ian Charleson Award.^[8] His other notable theatre work includes the lead in Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy,^[8] Pyotr in Maxim Gorky's Philistines,^[8] and Mitia in a stage adaptation of the Nikita Mikhalkov film Burnt by the Sun,^[8] all for the National Theatre.^[8]

In 2010, he played Angelo in Measure for Measure at the Almeida Theatre.^[10] Later in 2010, he played the title role in Hamlet at the National Theatre.^[10][11] The two portrayals won him the best actor award in the Evening Standard Drama Awards for 2010.^[10][12]

Kinnear appeared in The Last of the Haussmans by Stephen Beresford at the National Theatre during the summer of 2012. It was broadcast to cinemas around the world on 11 October 2012 through the National Theatre Live programme.^[13]

He starred as Iago opposite Adrian Lester in the title role of Othello in 2013 at the National Theatre throughout the summer of 2013.^[14] Both actors won the Best Actor award in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for their roles;^[14] it is normally given to only one actor, but the judges were unable to choose between them. Kinnear also won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor 2014,^[14] for his performance in Othello.^[14]

From September 2013, the Bush Theatre in London staged Kinnear's debut play The Herd, directed by Howard Davies.^[15] It ran at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago beginning 2 April 2015.^[16] In October 2017, he appeared in the title role of Young Marx, the premiere production at the Bridge Theatre.^[17] He returned to the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre to star in the title role in Macbeth with Anne-Marie Duff from February 2018.^[8]

Opera

For The Threepenny Opera (a "play with songs") at the Olivier Theatre from May to October 2016, Kinnear found his "dormant" singing voice for the role of Macheath.^[18][19] In February 2017, he made his directing debut with The Winter's Tale, a new opera written by Ryan Wigglesworth and based on Shakespeare's play, for English National Opera.^[20]

Film

Kinnear portrays Bill Tanner in the Daniel Craig–era James Bond film series after taking over from Michael Kitchen. He is the fourth person to play the character. He has appeared in Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021). As well as the films, Kinnear also lends his voice and likeness to the Bond video games; GoldenEye 007 (2010), James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2010) and 007 Legends (2012). In 2014, he played the fictional character, Detective Nock, in The Imitation Game based loosely on the biography Alan Turing:The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. In January 2017, he portrayed Ellmann in the Netflix film iBoy. He played Henry Hunt in Mike Leigh's 2018 film Peterloo. In 2022, he played Geoffrey, as well as most of the other male roles, in Alex Garland's A24 horror film Men .^[21]

In 2023, Kinnear starred as Burnley wannabe banker Dave Fishwick in the film Bank of Dave, released on Netflix in January 2023.^[22]

Television

Kinnear appeared in the 2007 television film Mansfield Park, with Billie Piper and Michelle Ryan.^[23] He followed this in 2008, with his portrayal of Denis Thatcher in a BBC dramatisation of Margaret Thatcher's political career, The Long Walk to Finchley,^[23] which also starred Andrea Riseborough and Samuel West.^[23] in 2010, he starred alongside Lucy Punch and Toby Stephens in the BBC Two series Vexed.^[23] The same year, he was the co-lead with Mark Gatiss in the BBC4 TV drama, The First Men in the Moon.^[10]

In 2011, he provided narration during the BBC Proms production of 'Henry V – suite' arranged by Muir Mathieson during their Film Music Prom.^[24] He appeared in the lead role of Prime Minister Michael Callow in "The National Anthem", the first episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.^[25] In July 2012, Kinnear appeared as Bolingbroke in Richard II, a BBC Two adaptation of the play of the same name, with Ben Whishaw as King Richard and Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt.^[26]

In 2013, Kinnear starred as Michael in the BBC sitcom Count Arthur Strong,^[23] continuing in that role for 4 years. The same year, he appeared in the Channel 4 drama Southcliffe,^[23] and in December 2013, he portrayed British peer and suspected murderer Lord Lucan in the two-part ITV series Lucan.^[23] He also appeared as Frankenstein's monster in the Showtime television series Penny Dreadful, for which, he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2014.^[27]

In 2017, he appeared in the British miniseries Guerrilla as a Chief Inspector in the Special Branches.^[28] and as Robert Lessing from the early days of English medicine in the BBC Two comedy series Quacks.^[23] In 2018, he appeared in the first episode of the fourth series of the BBC One anthology series Inside No. 9, Zanzibar, a modern take on a Shakespearean comedy performed entirely in iambic pentameter.^[29][23]

In 2019, Kinnear played Craig Oliver in the Channel 4 television film Brexit: The Uncivil War,^[30] and the desperate financial advisor Stephen Lyons in the futuristic series Years and Years.^[23]

In 2021, Kinnear played Neo-Nazi Colin Jordan in the television drama Ridley Road^[31] and was Edward Williams in the BBC's The Mezzotint.^[23] In 2022, he starred in Our Flag Means Death.^[32]

In 2023 he played the fictional character of British Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge in the Netflix series The Diplomat alongside Keri Russell.

Radio

In 2010, he played Flugkapitän Jürgen Rahl in the BBC Radio drama Slipstream as a disaffected German pilot who joins a mission to steal an alien spacecraft harboured by the Nazis.^[33]

Kinnear is engaged to actress Pandora Colin^[10](née Pandora Ormsby-Gore), daughter of the 5th Baron Harlech and aunt to the current 7th Baron, Conservative sitting peer Jasset Ormsby-Gore.^[10] They have a son, Riley, born in 2010,^[10] and a daughter, Hope, born in 2014.^[34][35]

In May 2020 Kinnear's sister Karina died from coronavirus.^[36]

Film

Television

Theatre

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rory Kinnear.

• Rory Kinnear at IMDb
• Interview with The Observer
• Wish 143 – short film starring Rory Kinnear
• The First Men in the Moon