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Maria Hill is a fictional character appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. As the former director of the planetary defense/intelligence service S.H.I.E.L.D., she appears in various storylines in which that organization figures prominently, which often feature the Avengers or members of that group, such as the late 2000s Civil War and Secret Invasion miniseries, and the monthly Iron Man series, in which she was a prominent supporting character during the "Dark Reign" and "Stark Disassembled" storylines.

Joe Quesada, who was Marvel's editor-in-chief during her first appearance, describes the character thus: "[Hill] is such a strong personality, she's like a force of nature and quite frankly, while perhaps not immediately loved by all involved, she's certainly as strong and imposing a figure as Nick Fury. Right now I feel that people view her as the outsider but [while] I don't think she’s any harsher than Fury has ever been, what's different is that we aren’t quite clear about her motives".^{[dead link][1]}

Maria Hill appears in the 2012 film The Avengers portrayed by Cobie Smulders.

Fictional character biography[link]

Introduction[link]

Born in Chicago^[2] to a father who never failed to make his resentment of her survival and her mother's death in childbirth clear to her, upon reaching adulthood Hill first joins the United States armed forces, and later becomes an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.^[3] Hill has a brief stint in Madripoor that gets her noticed by various heads of state and government around the world.

After the scandalous affair of the Secret War and its disastrous effect on New York City, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury goes into hiding. Maria Hill, viewed by the leaders of several nations as being both an efficient agent and, more importantly in their eyes, not directly loyal to Fury or any of his personal cadre, is appointed interim Executive Director. For a time, a Life Model Decoy of Fury is regularly used in public to maintain an illusion of normalcy within the Directorate's ranks. Hill is expected to be loyal to United States interests before those of the United Nations, which S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to serve before any other country. After she is named Director, Hill is confronted by Nick Fury one night.^[4] He warns her that if she ever sees anything suspicious to use an LMD, referencing the coming Secret Invasion. He also warns her that if she does anything that he feels is wrong, then he will kill her.

Hill quickly establishes new policies on super-powered heroes, as requested by the President of the United States and his peers in other national governments: to end S.H.I.E.L.D. support for the heroes. These policies are in full effect when Hill tries to prevent the Avengers from re-forming following the breakout at the super-villain prison the Raft. However, Captain America's champion status allows him to form any team he wants for any mission he sees fit, while Spider-Woman's status as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent gives her access to any files that the Avengers may require. With these two situations meaning that the Avengers could operate independent of Hill's authority while retaining access to the relevant information they need to complete their mission of tracking down the Raft escapees, Hill is convinced to leave the situation alone.

In the wake of events in the Savage Land the Avengers suspect Hill of being complicit in various crimes, but lack the evidence to prove her malfeasance. For her part, Hill has suspected the latest incarnation of the Avengers of harboring an illicit agenda in connection with, among other things, the "House of M" affair, to the point that she abducted Spider-Man and the Vision to question them about the situation even when dealing with the Collective.

She earns Iron Man's respect when she ignores the President's orders to nuke an island the Avengers were on at the time.

[edit] Civil War

In the 2006–2007 miniseries Civil War, Captain America refuses to assist Commander Hill in preparations to arrest any superheroes who refuses to comply with the Superhuman Registration Act, seeing such activity as politically motivated, but Hill, arguing that Captain America must obey the will of the American people, attempts to arrest him. Captain America fights his way out of the Helicarrier and escapes.^[5] After the Act passes into law, Hill is one of its leading enforcers. She blackmails Wonder Man into actively supporting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s crusade to hunt down the superheroes opposed to the Registration Act. She sends Kree supersoldier Noh-Varr, already brainwashed, to capture the Runaways. She directs the Thunderbolts to capture Spider-Man after he goes rogue. The two Thunderbolts members sent out, Jester and Jack O'Lantern, are slain by the Punisher.^{[volume & issue needed]} After foiling an attack on Stark Tower, Hill admits to Tony Stark that she does not want her job as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and thinks she should not have been offered it in the first place. She suggests that the only other person besides Nick Fury who should lead the organization is Stark himself.^{[volume & issue needed]} At the conclusion of the Civil War, the President of the United States appoints Tony Stark the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., with a displeased Maria Hill his acting deputy director.^[6]

Deputy Director[link]

After being made Deputy Director, Maria Hill becomes a core member of Stark's S.H.I.E.L.D. cabinet and assists Stark in dealing with a sudden rise in various terrorist groups who have gained access to hyper-advanced biological weapons. Unlike the rest of the cabinet (including Sal Kennedy, whom she loathed personally), Hill remains skeptical of a single conspiracy behind all these attacks.^[7] When the Mandarin's neoplastic tumor began infecting the Helicarrier, Hill organizes the evacuation; she (wrongly) believed the infection is the main objective of the attack.^[8] Subsequently, however, Hill becomes much more trusting in Stark's leadership, a trusted agent in her role as Deputy Director, and far less bound by conventional process, particularly after a confrontation with Dum Dum Dugan, in which he forces her to confront the fact that she was apparently willing to take actions that would allow innocent people to die while still sticking to "the book" because the alternative was to disobey orders.^[9] She eventually risks her career by locking down the United Nations under S.H.I.E.L.D. martial law so Stark can escape a tribunal going against him and track down the Mandarin.^[10]

2008 - 2010 storylines[link]

During the 2008 "Secret Invasion" storyline, after the Helicarrier is disabled by Skrull invaders, Hill, who is left in charge in Stark's absence, confronts a number of extraterrestrial Skrulls, shapeshifters who can assume the appearance of anyone or anything, who are revealed to have replaced Edwin Jarvis and a number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.^[11] The Skrulls execute Hill, but this "Hill" is revealed to be a Life Model Decoy of Hill. Hill then activates the Helicarrier's self-destruct system, killing all the Skrull infiltrators on board, escaping via jet pack.^[12]

In the aftermath of the Skrull Invasion's failure, during the "Dark Reign" storyline, S.H.I.E.L.D is disbanded by the President, and Hill and Tony Stark lose their jobs, replaced by the newly appointed director Norman Osborn who then reforms the fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. into H.A.M.M.E.R.^[13] In the Iron Man monthly series, Hill tries to go about having a normal life but Osborn dispatches H.A.M.M.E.R. to arrest her for theft. She joins her former boss, Tony Stark, as a fugitive after he stole the Superhuman Registration Database. The night before Tony leaves the two finally give in to the sexual tension that had been brewing for some time.^{[volume & issue needed]} Hill is sent on a mission by Tony to retrieve a hard drive. Hill finds the Controller holed up in the basement of Futurepharm, hooked into a large machine holding many people in containers. She barely manages to escape him, before downloading the data Tony sent her for. She then enlists the Black Widow to deliver the data to Captain America, all the while evading H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. However, they are captured when H.A.M.M.E.R. intercepts an e-mail from Stark. They are rescued by Pepper Potts, disguised as Madame Masque.^[14]

During the 2010 "Siege" storyline, Hill comes to the aid of Thor after Osborn launches an attack on him and his home of Asgard.^[15] In the 2010 "Heroic Age" storyline, which followed "Siege", Hill is appointed by Captain Steve Rogers to work with a new team of Avengers.^[16]

Other versions[link]

MC2[link]

In the world of the MC2 universe, Maria Hill is a member of the National Security Force. When a government assignment went awry a piece of the Carnage symbiote was released. The Symbiote was stopped by Spider-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Man as she later reported the success to that world's Nick Fury.

She is later seen accusing American Dream of the A-Next, for crimes against the US, as the heroine stumbles upon a government mission.^[17]

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• Maria Hill appears in Iron Man: Armored Adventures voiced by Tabitha St. Germain. This version of Hill does not appear as an antagonist as she did in the comics, and her role has been reconfigured so that she acts as one of Nick Fury's lieutenants from the start of the series. She has a Russian accent in this show, similar to Natasha Romanoff. Along with Fury and Black Widow, she becomes privy to Tony Stark's identity after the latter's first fateful run-in with Mallen.
• Maria Hill is featured in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes voiced by Kari Wührer. She appears as a central member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a protege of Nick Fury serving as his second-in-command and being explicitly taken for tasks. She is often being corrected over mistakes or quizzed on her knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D. affairs. She maintains her comic self's hard-edged and aggressive nature as seen in the episode "Iron Man is Born" where she immediately tried to arrest Iron Man at gunpoint when he took a threatening stance towards Fury. After she and Nick Fury foil a break-out plot by Baron Strucker and Grim Reaper at the Vault, Maria asks Nick Fury if the three supervillain prisons (Vault, Cube, and Big House) and are like this. Nick Fury tells her that "all four are different" causing Maria to wonder what the fourth prison is. In "The Breakout" Pt. 1, Maria Hill's question about the fourth prison is answered when it turns out to be the The Raft. In "Hail, Hydra" she is the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D after Nick Fury's sudden disappearance, but she clearly lacks the maturity and experience to be as effective a leader as Fury, as evidenced by her attempt to arrest the Avengers during a city wide fire fight between AIM and HYDRA rather than focusing on stopping the two terrorist groups. She did offer them a chance to register and work for S.H.I.E.L.D but the Avengers refused, at which point she threatened to go to the government to petition the powers that be to force the Avengers to serve S.H.I.E.L.D or else. In "The Ultron Imperative" it is revealed that at least in this reality her middle name is Christina. In "Alone Against A.I.M." Maria attempts to convince Tony Stark to step forward and join S.H.I.E.L.D. in hopes of those like Spider-Man and the X-Men on the pretense of public safety, and remains adamant about him and all superheroes registering. In "Who Do You Trust?" Nick Fury and Mockingbird break into Maria's bedroom in the middle of the night, with Mockingbird covering her mouth and restraining her so that Fury can explain the details behind his disappearance. He leaves Maria a disc containing all the data he had gathered on the Skrulls' covert invasion of Earth and disappears, but not before warning Maria that Skrulls may have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. as well.

Film[link]

• Cobie Smulders plays Maria Hill in the 2012 live-action film The Avengers, she serves as one of Nick Fury's chief lieutenants, along with Phil Coulson.

Video games[link]

• Maria Hill appears as an NPC in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 voiced by Margaret Easley. After Captain America objected to help Maria Hill, she turned to Iron Man to help oversee the Superhuman Registration Act. The players had to choose whether to sign up or go against the SRA. During the attack at Geffen-Meyer Chemical Plant, she piloted the Helicarrier to see that no Anti-Registration heroes can escape. When it came to the players invading Ryker's Island to get a nanite sample, Maria Hill encounters them with some S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. She reluctantly gives up the key card to the portal leading to Prison 42. After the nanite-controlled supervillains incident at Prison 42, Maria Hill and some S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents confronted both groups to arrest Captain America's group. When Iron Man asks for Maria to get some medics for both groups, Maria declines stating that she is under direct orders from the President. When Iron Man threatens to have both sides retaliate, Maria Hill reluctantly tells her men to get the medics. Three days later, Maria Hill was present at the memorial service for the missing and presumed deceased heroes following the Prison 42 incident.^{[citation needed]}
• Maria Hill appears as a non-playable character in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

See also[link]

• List of S.H.I.E.L.D. members

References[link]

External links[link]

• Maria Hill at Marvel.com
• Maria Hill at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe

Cobie Smulders
Smulders at Area on La Cienega, Los Angeles, 2011
Born	Jacoba Francisca Maria Smulders (1982-04-03) April 3, 1982 (age 30) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2001–present
Spouse	Taran Killam (engaged)
Children	1

Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders^[1] (born April 3, 1982)^[2] is a Canadian actress and former model, known for her role as Robin Scherbatsky on the television series How I Met Your Mother and Maria Hill in The Avengers.

Early life[link]

Smulders was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a Dutch father and an English mother. She was named after her great-aunt, Jacoba, from whom she gained the nickname "Cobie".^[3]

Smulders worked in modeling, which she later said she "kind of hated", adding that the experience made her hesitant about pursuing acting as a career: "You know you go into these rooms, and I've had the experience of people judging you physically for so long and I was over that. But then it was like, 'Oh no, I have to actually perform. I have to do well, and I have to have a voice, and I have to have thoughts now.'"^[4]

Career[link]

Smulders' first role was as a guest in the Showtime science-fiction series Jeremiah, and she has appeared in several television series since, including a recurring part in The L Word. Off-Broadway, she has performed in Love, Loss, and What I Wore.^[5] Her first permanent series role was in the short-lived ABC series Veritas: The Quest, and her second was television reporter Robin Scherbatsky on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Joss Whedon has suggested that he considered her for the role of Wonder Woman in his draft of the (cancelled) eponymous film.^[6] Smulders plays Maria Hill in Whedon's 2012 film The Avengers.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Smulders resides in Los Angeles, California.^[8] On January 28, 2009, Smulders and actor Taran Killam announced their engagement.^[9] Their daughter Shaelyn Cado Killam was born on May 14, 2009.^[10] Smulders is an avid Vancouver Canucks fan.^[11] In December 2010 she was on the cover of Maxim Magazine.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cobie Smulders

• Cobie Smulders at the Internet Movie Database
• Cobie Smulders Bio at CBS – How I Met Your Mother

Jeremy Renner
Renner at the 82nd Academy Awards, March 7, 2010
Born	Jeremy Lee Renner (1971-01-07) January 7, 1971 (age 41) Modesto, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, musician
Years active	1995–present

Jeremy Lee Renner (born January 7, 1971) is an American actor, film producer and musician. Renner appeared largely in independent films throughout the 2000's such as Dahmer (2002) and Neo Ned (2005). He also offered supporting acting work in bigger films, S.W.A.T. and 28 Weeks Later (2007). He eventually came to prominence for his critically acclaimed performance in The Hurt Locker (2009) which garnered him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He then turned out another praised performance for his role in The Town for which he received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This subsequent recognition gave him the opportunity to star alongside some of Hollywood's biggest talent in blockbusters such as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) and The Avengers (2012) which broke records grossing more than a billion dollars internationally.

Early life[link]

Renner was born in Modesto, California, the first child of Valerie and Lee Renner, who managed a bowling alley.^[1][2] His parents married as teenagers and divorced when he was ten.^[3][4][5] He has five younger siblings, He graduated from Fred C. Beyer High School and attended Modesto Junior College. Renner is of German and Irish descent.^[6]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Renner's film debut came in 1995 when he played an underachieving student in the cult favorite National Lampoon's Senior Trip. Although the film was critically panned, he went on to guest star on two television shows, Deadly Games and Strange Luck and had a minor role in the television movie, A Friend's Betrayal as the friend of Brian Austin Green's character. Over the next few years, Renner had guest roles in Zoe, Duncan, Jack and Jane (1999), The Net (1999), The Time of Your Life (1999) and Angel (2000).^[7] Renner also had a small role on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2001. In between acting roles, Renner worked as a makeup artist to make ends meet.^[8]

Early success: 2002–2008[link]

In 2002, Renner had a starring role in the film Dahmer playing serial-killer Jeffrey Dahmer. He found the role a challenge to cope with after he had finished shooting after seeing how easily Dahmer took advantage of his victims.^[9] His performance was well received, and he gained a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male. He also appeared in Pink's 2003 music video for her song "Trouble" as a Bad Boy Sheriff.^[10] Renner went on to appear in S.W.A.T.^[11] as the former police partner of Colin Farrell's character in 2003 and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things^[12] in 2004.

In 2005, Renner starred with Julia Stiles and Forest Whitaker in A Little Trip to Heaven, North Country and 12 and Holding.^[13] He next starred as a neo-Nazi skinhead who is admitted into a psychiatric hospital in Neo Ned opposite Gabrielle Union. The film won all of the awards it was nominated for at festivals, including the Palm Beach International Film Festival Award for Best Actor. Renner also had a small (though uncredited) role in skateboard film Lords of Dogtown as the manager of Emile Hirsch's character. In 2006 he starred with Ginnifer Goodwin in Love Comes to the Executioner.

Renner had supporting roles in 2007 in the critically acclaimed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as Wood Hite, the cousin of outlaw Jesse James portrayed by Brad Pitt, and as Sergeant Doyle in 28 Weeks Later.^[14] He appeared alongside Minnie Driver in Take and guest starred as a patient in an episode of House as a reckless musician. Renner had a role in the pilot of The Oaks^[15] but the series was not picked up.^[16]

Breakthrough: 2009–present[link]

After starring with Dallas Roberts in the comedy-drama Lightbulb and starring in the short-lived television series The Unusuals, Renner went on to achieve critical success for his portrayal as bomb disposal expert, Sergeant William James in the 2009 Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker (directed by Kathryn Bigelow). The role earned him several awards in the Best Actor category and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor^[17] as well a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.^[18]

In 2010, Renner's performance in Ben Affleck's The Town alongside Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Slaine and Michael Yebba garnered him rave reviews and his second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.^[19] He also gained his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor^[20] and his second Screen Actors Guild nomination.^[21]

In 2011, Renner had an uncredited cameo appearance as Hawkeye in Thor for familiarity with his character for The Avengers, which was released in May 2012.^[22] He starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible series, as a new addition to Ethan Hunt's team. The film was released in December 2011.^[23]

Renner has completed filming for the action horror-comedy Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, in which he and Gemma Arterton star as both Hansel and Gretel. The 3-D film is set 15 years after Hansel and Gretel kill the witch who kidnapped them. The film's release date has been pushed to January 2013 by the Studio.^[24] He is also the star of the fourth film in the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy, written and directed by Tony Gilroy.^[25] Renner plays the new lead character, Aaron Cross, in the place of Jason Bourne who was played by Matt Damon in the first three films. Renner has expressed interest in doing a Bourne film with Damon in the future, stating that "[it] would be kick-ass. I love Matt". In 2012, Renner starred as Hawkeye in the Marvel film, The Avengers.

Other interests[link]

Music[link]

As well as acting, Renner is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist and drummer. Early in his acting career, he performed in the Sons of Ben. For the soundtrack of North Country he performed "I Drink Alone". In the 2006 films Love Comes to the Executioner and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Renner performed the songs "American Pie" and "Good Ole Rebel." He also appeared in music videos like Trouble by P!nk and Scenes on sunset by Brother Sal.

Property developing[link]

He and one of his best friends, Kristoffer Winters, have run a home renovation business since very early on in Renner's acting career, the job "paid his rent when acting didn't".^[4]

Personal life[link]

He is good friends with actors Sam Rockwell, Colin Farrell, Scarlett Johansson and Charlize Theron.^[26]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Peter Howell (September 9, 2008). "Iraq War Movie Put Hurt on Actor". The Toronto Star. http://www.toronto.com/movies/article/623163. Retrieved February 25, 2010. 

External links[link]

• Jeremy Renner at the Internet Movie Database
• Jeremy Lee Renner – fansite

Tom Hiddleston
Hiddleston at the Avengers Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in NY, April 2012
Born	Thomas William Hiddleston (1981-02-09) 9 February 1981 (age 31) Westminster, London, England
Alma mater	Eton College The Dragon School University of Cambridge RADA
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2001–present
Relatives	Emma Hiddleston (sister)

Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981)^[1] is an English film, television, radio, and stage actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and he rose to prominence through a number of TV roles and more recently major film roles. He played Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor, Captain Nicholls in Steven Spielberg's World War I film War Horse (2011), and also Freddie Page in the British drama The Deep Blue Sea, alongside Rachel Weisz. He played author F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris (2011). He returned to his role as Loki in The Avengers (2012) and is set to reprise the character again for Thor 2 (2013).

Early life and education[link]

Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London,^[1] to parents Diana Patricia (née Servaes), a former stage manager and arts administrator, and James Norman Hiddleston, a scientist in physical chemistry who was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company.^[2] His father is from Greenock, Scotland and his mother from Suffolk, England.^[3] He is the middle child with two sisters, Sarah (oldest), a journalist in India,^[4] and Emma (youngest), is also an actor. He was raised in Wimbledon, in his early years, and later in Oxford.^[3] When Hiddleston was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. "I think I started acting because I found being away at school while my parents were divorcing really distressing." He went on to act at The Dragon School^[5] in Oxford, then continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first.^[6] He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2005.

Career[link]

During Hiddleston's second term at Cambridge, he was seen in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire by talent agent Lorraine Hamilton, of Hamilton Hodell. While still doing student plays, he began doing British television, landing parts in Stephen Whittaker’s adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby for ITV^[7] the BBC/HBO co-production Conspiracy, and as Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill, inthe BBC/HBO drama The Gathering Storm.

On graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Hiddleston won his first film role, playing Oakley in Joanna Hogg’s first feature, Unrelated. He also appeared in the leading role of Edward in Joanna Hogg's second feature, Archipelago, and had leading roles in Declan Donnellan's company Cheek by Jowl's productions The Changeling, and Cymbeline. His Donmar Warehouse credits include Cassio in Michael Grandage's production of Shakespeare's Othello alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor to critical acclaim^[8][9][10] and later Lvov in their West End revival of Chekhov's Ivanov.

His TV credits include Magnus Martinsson in the BBC detective drama Wallander, Bill Hazledine in Suburban Shootout, John Plumptre in the BBC costume drama TV film Miss Austen Regrets and William Buxton in the BBC drama series Return to Cranford.

He is best known for his portrayal of Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film, Thor. He was invited to audition by Kenneth Branagh, the film's director, after having previously worked with Branagh on Ivanov and Wallander. "Ken has had a life-changing effect. He was able to say to the executives, 'Trust me on this, you can cast Tom and he will deliver'. It was massive and it's completely changed the course of what is available to me to do. Ken gave me my break."^[11] In the beginning, he originally auditioned for the part of Thor. "I initially auditioned to play Thor. That was what I was being considered for, because I’m tall and blonde and classically trained, and that seemed to be the mold for what Thor was, he was to be a classical character. And it was in my auditions. I owe this entirely to Marvel and their open-mindedness, they saw something that they thought was interesting. They saw some temperament that they liked."^[12] The casting director gave Hiddleston six weeks to bulk up, so he went on a strict diet and gained twenty pounds of muscle. In the end, Branagh decided he was more suitable as the antagonist and cast him as Loki. To prepare for his role as Loki, Hiddleston trained in the Brazilian martial art of capoeira.^[13]

In 2011, he portrayed novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald in writer-director Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. The noble Captain Nicholls in War Horse, a film based on the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo, directed by Steven Spielberg. And Freddie Page, a RAF pilot in the British drama The Deep Blue Sea, alongside Rachel Weisz.

He reprised his role as the supervillain Loki in the 2012 movie The Avengers. While filming a scene with Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, the film's director, Joss Whedon told the fighting duo that the scene didn't look real enough, so Hiddleston told Hemsworth to really hit him for the fight scene. "I said to Chris, 'Dude, just hit me. Just hit me because I'm protected here and it's fine.' He's like, 'Are you sure?' I was like, 'Yeah, it will look great. Just go for it.'"^[14] Hiddleston is scheduled to reprise his Loki role again in Thor 2, which is set to start filming in August 2012.^[15]

In 2012, he will portray Prince Hal in the TV-movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 & 2 and Henry V in Henry V. Other scheduled projects include Jim Jarmusch's film Only Lovers Left Alive, set to shoot in 2012,^[16] and the film adaptation of Elliott Chaze's 1953 crime novel Black Wings Has My Angel, co-starring Anna Paquin and Elijah Wood.^[17]

Hiddleston narrated the audio book The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner,^[18] poetry for iF Poems on iTunes,^[19] for the British Museum on the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, and was the voiceover for BBC's documentary on the Galapagos Island.^[20]

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards:

• 2012 Glamour Awards, Man of the Year ^[21]
• 2012 Jameson Empire Awards, Best Male Newcomer, for, Thor ^[22]
• 2012 Richard Attenborough UK Regional Film Critics' Awards, Rising Star Award, for, War Horse, Thor, The Deep Blue Sea, Midnight in Paris and Archipelago ^[23]
• 2009 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Award, Best Supporting Actor in a Play, for, Othello and Ivanov ^[24]
• 2008 Laurence Olivier Award, Best Newcomer in a Play, for Cymbeline ^[25]
• 2007 Ian Charleson Awards Third Prize, for, Othello ^[26]

Nominations:

• 2012 Saturn Awards, Best Supporting Actor ^[27]
• 2012 London Evening Standard British Film Awards, Best Actor Award ^[28]
• 2012 BAFTA Awards, the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award ^[29]
• 2012 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards, Best Ensemble Acting ^[30]
• 2012 SAG Awards, Best Ensemble Acting ^[31]
• 2011 My Cinema Awards, Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, Action or Horror Award ^[32]
• 2010 ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards, Best Supporting Actor ^[33]

Filmography[link]

Hiddleston at a press conference for Thor in April 2011

Film[link]

Theatre[link]

Radio[link]

Video game[link]

References[link]