|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Tim Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an Academy Award-nominated English film actor and director. While Tim Roth has become well-known for playing an assortment of villains and ne'er-do-wells, they are but only a fraction of what he can capably convey in his acting. Equally at home in comedy or drama, the lanky, ginger-haired, angular-featured actor originally set out to be a visual artist but having played the lead in a school staging of "Dracula" as a teenager eventually abandoned painting and sculpture for performing. He landed his first screen role which set the tenor for the majority of his career. Cast by director Alan Clarke as a teenage juvenile delinquent in the astonishing TV-movie "Made in Britain" (1982), Roth delivered a mesmerizing performance that was so believable, many felt Clarke had hired a young hood for the role. That same year, the actor was featured in Mike Leigh's "Meantime", a drama about a struggling working-class family that also featured Alfred Molina and Gary Oldman. But it took Stephen Frears and a bottle of bleach to catapult Roth on his way in films. As the dyed blond apprentice killer learning from John Hurt in Frears' "The Hit" (1984), the actor offered a strong turn that was an admixture of brutality and charm. With a pile of positive reviews, he was able to parlay that role into a career, playing variations in films like "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" (1989). Roth was born Timothy Simon Smith in Dulwich, London, the son of Anne, a painter and teacher, and Ernie Smith, a journalist and member of the British Communist Party. His father adopted the surname Roth after World War II in order to hide his nationality when traveling in countries hostile to the British. He attended the Strand School in Tulse Hill. As a young man, Roth wanted to be a sculptor and studied at London's Camberwell School of Art. After some time at the Camberwell School of Art, Roth tried acting and made his debut at the age of 21 playing a white power skinhead in a TV movie entitled Made in Britain. In 1984, Roth played an apprentice hitman in Stephen Frears' The Hit with Terence Stamp and John Hurt, earning an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. With that recognition, he appeared in several other films during the end of the decade. In 1989 he had a memorable supporting role as the buffonish lackey, Mitchell, in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. In 1990, Roth began to enjoy international attention with starring roles as Vincent Van Gogh in Robert Altman's Vincent & Theo and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. In a change of pace, Roth played a troubled character of an altogether different sort in Robert Altman's biopic "Vincent & Theo" (1990), which examined the relationship between the Van Gogh brothers. Played against Paul Rhys' controlled take on Theo, Roth's Vincent was the film's centerpiece, a performance rife with the energy and desperation of a creative but troubled mind. He lent the same kind of force to his pairing with Gary Oldman in Tom Stoppard's screen version of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (also 1990), although some found the theatricality inherent in the piece a detriment to its filming. Nevertheless, one aspiring filmmaker was impressed enough to pursue Roth, Quentin Tarantino offered the actor a leading role as the critically wounded Mr. Orange in the brutally violent "Reservoir Dogs" (1992). Adopting a flawless American accent, the actor held his own in an ensemble that included Harvey Keitel and Michael Madsen. Roth followed as another troubled teenager, American serial killer Charles Starkweather in the ABC miniseries "Murder in the Heartland" (1993). The British actor earned plaudits for the frighteningly realistic performance he delivered. Roth impressed director Quentin Tarantino and was cast as Mr. Orange in his 1992 ensemble piece Reservoir Dogs. This film paved the way for more work in Hollywood. In 1994, Tarantino cast him again as a robber in the acclaimed Pulp Fiction. They worked again in the 1995 flop Four Rooms. However, Roth returned to the successful road playing viciously evil English nobleman Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy opposite Liam Neeson. For that role he won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination, and a British Academy Award. Continuing in the same vein in 1994, Roth was featured in both Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and the crime drama "Little Odessa" as, respectively, a robber and a Russian-Jewish hit man. While he acquitted himself in the parts, Roth stood to become typecast. Even his Oscar-nominated supporting turn in "Rob Roy" (1995), as the scheming, obsequious fop Archibald Cunningham, cast him in the same vein. While he tried to break the tide with a comic turn as a bellhop--the unifying element in the anthology "Four Rooms" (also 1995), the results were mixed. Roth gamely tried to be what each of the four director's wanted but came off more mannered than amusing. He was back to form as the recently released convict whose attraction to a debutante upends her nuptial plans in Woody Allen's musical "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996). Roth displayed a modest set of pipes as he was called on to warble two songs. Paired with rapper Tupac Shakur in "GRIDLOCK'd" (1997), he once again plumbed the depths of a troubled man, this time a drug addicted musician trying to go straight. His work as the ruthless real-life Dutch Schultz in "Hoodlum" (1997) split critics, some praising it as spot on while others feeling it was too over-the-top. "Deceiver/Liar" (also 1997) played off his screen persona, casting the actor as a wealthy yuppie suspected of murder. Roth finally shed his bad guy image completely in Giuseppe Tornatore's English-language debut, "The Legend of 1900/The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean" (1998). Cast as the adult incarnation of a music prodigy who had spent his entire life on a luxury liner, a character that was more symbolic than real, he delivered a sweetly touching innocent. The fairy tale quality of the material may not have allowed for great shows of emoting, but Roth crafted a portrait of a gifted artist. While he was offering this change-of-pace display, he was also amassing critical kudos for his feature directorial debut, the intense family saga "The War Zone" (1999). In translating Alexander Stuart's controversial novel about incest to the screen, Roth took great pains not to sensationalize the material. Using an evenhanded approach, he meticulously crafted a powerful and devastating film. Displaying a virtuosity with his actors, including the relatively unknown Lara Belmont and Freddie Cunliffe (cast as the teenage children in the familial unit), Roth elicited amazing work and proved that if he ever grew weary of playing screen villains, he could easily find a home behind the cameras. In 1996, he went a different way, starring with Drew Barrymore in Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says I Love You. He also starred as Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon 1900 (or just "1900") in the movie The Legend of 1900. In 1999 he made a critically acclaimed debut as a director with The War Zone, a film of Alexander Stuart's novel. In 2001, he made another important move by portraying General Thade in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. He was also considered for the part of Hannibal Lecter in the 2001 film Hannibal had Anthony Hopkins not returned to the role. Roth appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth. Roth had a son Jack with Lori Baker in 1983. He married Nikki Butler in 1993, and had 2 sons with her: Timothy Hunter (b. 1995) and Cormac (b. 1996). Both of his sons with Butler are named after the couple's favorite authors: Hunter S. Thompson and Cormac McCarthy. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Celebrities Guide 
| WhoABC
Home : Disclaimer
: Terms
: Privacy
Policy : Contact
Us : Links All original content Copyright Celebrities Guide, WhoABC.com © 2004 - 2008. All Rights Reserved |