Rufus Sewell
Born: 29 October 1967
Where: Twickenham, UK
The actor first attracted attention with his smouldering portrayal of Will Ladislaw in the TV adaptation of George Eliot's Middlemarch.
Since then he has impressed on the big screen in a string of villainous roles ranging from Count Adhemar in A Knight's Tale to Armand in The Legend of Zorro.
His father was an Australian animator responsible for the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds segment of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and died when he was 10.
After attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama, he made his stage debut in Making It Better for which he won the Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award.
He also originated the role of Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and debuted in Translations in New York, picking up the Broadway Theatre World Award.
His film debut came in 1991 when he played a junkie in Twenty-One but his career suffered a setback with Michael Winner's execrable Dirty Weekend.
Normal service was resumed as Mark Gertler in Christopher Hampton's Carrington and as Fortinbras in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet.
Other roles followed in high-profile films such as 16th century drama Dangerous Beauty, mystery thriller Dark City and horror yarn Bless The Child.
Sewell returned to the public eye with scene-stealing performance as the villain in the knockabout comedy A Knight's Tale opposite Heath Ledger.
However, he didn't do himself any favours as the advertising director in the ludicrous adventure yarn Extreme Ops.
In 2005, he played the French villain Armand opposite Antonio Banderas in The Legend of Zorro and went on to play Lord Marke in the action drama Tristan + Isolde.
