A typical tape measure with both metric and US units and two US pennies for comparison

Measurement is the process or the result of determining the ratio of a physical quantity, such as a length, time, temperature etc., to a unit of measurement, such as the meter, second or degree Celsius. The science of measurement is called metrology.

The English word measurement originates from the Latin mēnsūra and the verb metiri through the Middle French mesure.^[1]

Standards[link]

With the exception of a few seemingly fundamental quantum constants, units of measurement are essentially arbitrary; in other words, people make them up and then agree to use them. Nothing inherent in nature dictates that an inch has to be a certain length, or that a mile is a better measure of distance than a kilometre. Over the course of human history, however, first for convenience and then for necessity, standards of measurement evolved so that communities would have certain common benchmarks. Laws regulating measurement were originally developed to prevent fraud in commerce.

Today, units of measurement are generally defined on a scientific basis, overseen by governmental or supra-governmental agencies, and established in international treaties, pre-eminent of which is the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), established in 1875 by the Treaty of the metre and which oversees the International System of Units (SI) and which has custody of the International Prototype Kilogram. The metre, for example, was redefined in 1983 by the CGPM as the distance traveled by light in free space in 1⁄299,792,458 of a second while in 1960 the international yard was defined by the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa as being exactly 0.9144 metres.

In the United States, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a division of the United States Department of Commerce, regulates commercial measurements. In the United Kingdom, the role is performed by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), in Australia by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, in South Africa by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and in India the National Physical Laboratory of India.

Units and systems[link]

Four measuring devices having metric calibrations

Imperial system[link]

Before SI units were widely adopted around the world, the British systems of English units and later imperial units were used in Britain, the Commonwealth and the United States. The system came to be known as U.S. customary units in the United States and is still in use there and in a few Caribbean countries. These various systems of measurement have at times been called foot-pound-second systems after the Imperial units for length, weight and time even though the tons, hundredweights, gallons, and nautical miles, for example, are different for the U.S. units. Many Imperial units remain in use in Britain which has officially partially switched to the SI system. Road signs are still in miles, yards, miles per hour; milk, beer and cider are sold by the pint; people measure their height in feet and inches and their weight in stone and pounds, to give just a few examples. Imperial units are used in many other places, for example, in many Commonwealth countries that are considered metricated, land area is measured in acres and floor space in square feet, particularly for commercial transactions (rather than government statistics). Similarly, gasoline is sold by the gallon in many countries that are considered metricated.

Metric system[link]

The metric system is a decimal systems of measurement based on its units for length, the metre and for mass, the kilogram. It exists in several variations, with different choices of base units, though these do not affect its day-to-day use. Since the 1960s, the International System of Units (SI) is the internationally recognized metric system. Metric units of mass, length, and electricity are widely used around the world for both everyday and scientific purposes.

The metric system features a single base unit for many physical quantities. Other quantities are derived from the standard SI units. Multiples and fractions of the units are expressed as Powers of 10 of each unit. Unit conversions are always simple because they are in the ratio of ten, one hundred, one thousand, etc., so that convenient magnitudes for measurements are achieved by simply moving the decimal place: 1.234 metres is 1234 millimetres or 0.001234 kilometres. The use of fractions, such as 2/5 of a metre, is not prohibited, but uncommon. All lengths and distances, for example, are measured in metres, or thousandths of a metre (millimetres), or thousands of metres (kilometres). There is no profusion of different units with different conversion factors as in the Imperial system which uses, for example, inches, feet, yards, fathoms, rods.

International System of Units[link]

The International System of Units (abbreviated as SI from the French language name Système International d'Unités) is the modern revision of the metric system. It is the world's most widely used system of units, both in everyday commerce and in science. The SI was developed in 1960 from the metre-kilogram-second (MKS) system, rather than the centimetre-gram-second (CGS) system, which, in turn, had many variants. During its development the SI also introduced several newly named units that were previously not a part of the metric system. The original SI units for the six basic physical quantities were:^[2]

• metre (m)  :SI unit of length
• second (s)  :SI unit of time
• kilogram (kg)  :SI unit of mass
• ampere (A)  :SI unit of electric current
• degree kelvin (K) :SI unit of thermodynamic temperature
• candela (cd)  :SI unit of luminous intensity

The mole was subsequently added to this list and the degree Kelvin renamed the kelvin.

There are two types of SI units, base units and derived units. Base units are the simple measurements for time, length, mass, temperature, amount of substance, electric current and light intensity. Derived units are constructed from the base units, for example, the watt, i.e. the unit for power, is defined from the base units as m²·kg·s⁻³. Other physical properties may be measured in compound units, such as material density, measured in kg/m³.

Converting prefixes[link]

The SI allows easy multiplication when switching among units having the same base but different prefixes. To convert from metres to centimetres it is only necessary to multiply the number of metres by 100, since there are 100 centimetres in a metre. Inversely, to switch from centimetres to metres one multiplies the number of centimetres by 0.01 or divide centimetres by 100.

Length[link]

A 2-metre carpenter's ruler

A ruler or rule is a tool used in, for example, geometry, technical drawing, engineering, and carpentry, to measure lengths or distances or to draw straight lines. Strictly speaking, the ruler is the instrument used to rule straight lines and the calibrated instrument used for determining length is called a measure, however common usage calls both instruments rulers and the special name straightedge is used for an unmarked rule. The use of the word measure, in the sense of a measuring instrument, only survives in the phrase tape measure, an instrument that can be used to measure but cannot be used to draw straight lines. As can be seen in the photographs on this page, a two-metre carpenter's rule can be folded down to a length of only 20 centimetres, to easily fit in a pocket, and a five-metre-long tape measure easily retracts to fit within a small housing.

Some special names[link]

We also use some special names for some multiples of some units.

• 100 kilograms = 1 quintal; 1000 kilogram = 1 metric tonne;
• 10 years = 1 decade; 100 years = 1 century; 1000 years = 1 millennium

Building trades[link]

The Australian building trades adopted the metric system in 1966 and the units used for measurement of length are metres (m) and millimetres (mm). Centimetres (cm) are avoided as they cause confusion when reading plans. For example, the length two and a half metres is usually recorded as 2500 mm or 2.5 m; it would be considered non-standard to record this length as 250 cm.

Surveyor's Trade[link]

American surveyors use a decimal-based system of measurement devised by Edmund Gunter in 1620. The base unit is Gunter's chain of 66 feet (20 m) which is subdivided into 4 rods, each of 16.5 ft or 100 links of 0.66 feet. A link is abbreviated "lk," and links "lks" in old deeds and Land Surveys done for the government.

Time[link]

Time is an abstract measurement we have invented in order to keep track of elemental changes over a non spatial continuum. It is denoted by numbers and/or named periods such as hours, days, weeks, months and years. It is an apparently irreversible series of occurrences within this non spatial continuum. It is also used to denote an interval between two relative points on this continuum.

Mass[link]

Mass refers to the intrinsic property of all material objects to resist changes in their momentum. Weight, on the other hand, refers to the downward force produced when a mass is in a gravitational field. In free fall, (no net gravitational forces) objects lack weight but retain their mass. The Imperial units of mass include the ounce, pound, and ton. The metric units gram and kilogram are units of mass.

One device for measuring weight or mass is called a weighing scale or, often, simply a scale. A spring scale measures force but not mass, a balance compares weight, both require a gravitational field to operate. Some of the most accurate instruments for measuring weight or mass are based on load cells with a digital read-out, but require a gravitational field to function and would not work in free fall.

Economics[link]

The measures used in economics are physical measures, nominal price value measures and fixed price value measures. These measures differ from one another by the variables they measure and by the variables excluded from measurements. The measurable variables in economics are quantity, quality and distribution. By excluding variables from measurement makes it possible to better focus the measurement on a given variable, yet, this means a narrower approach.

Difficulties[link]

Since accurate measurement is essential in many fields, and since all measurements are necessarily approximations, a great deal of effort must be taken to make measurements as accurate as possible. For example, consider the problem of measuring the time it takes an object to fall a distance of one metre (about 39 in). Using physics, it can be shown that, in the gravitational field of the Earth, it should take any object about 0.45 second to fall one metre. However, the following are just some of the sources of error that arise:

1. This computation used for the acceleration of gravity 9.8 metres per second squared (32 ft/s²). But this measurement is not exact, but only precise to two significant digits.
2. The Earth's gravitational field varies slightly depending on height above sea level and other factors.
3. The computation of .45 seconds involved extracting a square root, a mathematical operation that required rounding off to some number of significant digits, in this case two significant digits.

So far, we have only considered scientific sources of error. In actual practice, dropping an object from a height of a metre stick and using a stopwatch to time its fall, we have other sources of error:

1. Most common, is simple carelessness.
2. Determining the exact time at which the object is released and the exact time it hits the ground. There is also the problem that the measurement of the height and the measurement of the time both involve some error.
3. Air resistance

Scientific experiments must be carried out with great care to eliminate as much error as possible, and to keep error estimates realistic.

Definitions and theories[link]

Classical definition[link]

In the classical definition, which is standard throughout the physical sciences, measurement is the determination or estimation of ratios of quantities.^[3] Quantity and measurement are mutually defined: quantitative attributes are those possible to measure, at least in principle. The classical concept of quantity can be traced back to John Wallis and Isaac Newton, and was foreshadowed in Euclid's Elements.^[4]

Representational theory[link]

In the representational theory, measurement is defined as "the correlation of numbers with entities that are not numbers".^[5] The most technically elaborate form of representational theory is also known as additive conjoint measurement. In this form of representational theory, numbers are assigned based on correspondences or similarities between the structure of number systems and the structure of qualitative systems. A property is quantitative if such structural similarities can be established. In weaker forms of representational theory, such as that implicit within the work of Stanley Smith Stevens,^[6] numbers need only be assigned according to a rule.

The concept of measurement is often misunderstood as merely the assignment of a value, but it is possible to assign a value in a way that is not a measurement in terms of the requirements of additive conjoint measurement. One may assign a value to a person's height, but unless it can be established that there is a correlation between measurements of height and empirical relations, it is not a measurement according to additive conjoint measurement theory. Likewise, computing and assigning arbitrary values, like the "book value" of an asset in accounting, is not a measurement because it does not satisfy the necessary criteria.

Information theory[link]

Information theory recognizes that all data are inexact and statistical in nature. Thus the definition of measurement is: "A set of observations that reduce uncertainty where the result is expressed as a quantity."^[7] This definition is implied in what scientists actually do when they measure something and report both the mean and statistics of the measurements. In practical terms, one begins with an initial guess as to the value of a quantity, and then, using various methods and instruments, reduces the uncertainty in the value. Note that in this view, unlike the positivist representational theory, all measurements are uncertain, so instead of assigning one value, a range of values is assigned to a measurement. This also implies that there is not a clear or neat distinction between estimation and measurement. Ascertaining the degree measurement error is also a basic facet of metrology, and sources of errors are divided into systematic and non-systematic.

Quantum mechanics[link]

In quantum mechanics, a measurement is an action that determines the location of an object, its momentum, its polarity (if it is a photon), etc. Before a measurement is made, the wavefunction of what is to be measured gives the range of probabilities for the outcomes of measurement, but when a measurement is accomplished that results in what is called the collapse of the wavefunction− at which time there is one definite value rather than a range of possible values.^{[citation needed]} The unambiguous meaning of the measurement problem is an unresolved fundamental problem in quantum mechanics.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up measurement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• BIPM International Vocabulary of Measurement (VIM)
• 'Universcale', an application showing the relative sizes of objects
• A Dictionary of Units of Measurement
• Comprehensive Unit Conversion Calculator
• 'Metrology – in short' 3rd edition, July 2008 ISBN 978-87-988154-5-7
• mensuration formulas A collection of important mensuration formulas.

Jason Spezza
Spezza during a pre-game warmup with the Senators.
Born	(1983-06-13) June 13, 1983 (age 29) Mississauga, ON, CAN
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight	216 lb (98 kg; 15 st 6 lb)
Position	Centre
Shoots	Right
NHL team	Ottawa Senators
National team	Canada
NHL Draft	2nd overall, 2001 Ottawa Senators
Playing career	2002–present

Jason Anthony Rocco Spezza (born June 13, 1983) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Spezza plays for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He's an alternate captain for the Senators.

After beginning his major junior career at the early age of 15 in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Spezza was selected second overall in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators. Playing in the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2004–05 due to the NHL lockout, he won the Les Cunningham Award as league MVP with the Binghamton Senators. In 2005–06, Spezza set an Ottawa Senators franchise record with 71 assists, while hitting the 90-point mark for the first of two times in his NHL career.

Internationally, Spezza has represented Team Canada at three World Junior Championships and two World Championships. When he made his World Junior debut in 2000, he became just the third 16-year-old in history to make the team, behind Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros.

Early life[link]

Spezza was born to Italian parents Rino and Donna Spezza in Mississauga, Ontario. He has twin siblings; a sister, Michelle, and a brother, Matthew, an ice hockey goaltender who most recently played for the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League (IHL). Growing up in the Toronto area, he watched the Toronto Maple Leafs, but has cited Mario Lemieux as his favourite player as a child.^[1]

Baby modeling career[link]

At the age of 1, Spezza won a baby contest and began his youth modelling career. The victory resulted in Spezza becoming the poster boy for Baby, a Broadway musical that played at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre in the summer of 1984. At five years old, Spezza was chosen for a Minute Maid commercial. Two years later, he modelled clothing for stores Woolco and Kmart.^[2][3]

Playing career[link]

Junior years[link]

At 15-years-old, Spezza began his major junior career in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Brampton Battalion in 1998–99. He recorded beyond a point-per-game pace as an underaged player with 71 points in 67 games. After one season with the Battalion, he was then required to enter the OHL Priority Draft and was selected by the expansion Mississauga Ice Dogs in the team's inaugural season in 1999–2000. He recorded 61 points in 52 games that season before being traded 15 games into the 2000–01 season to the Windsor Spitfires. Spezza went on to record a career high 116 points in 66 games that season.

Going into the 2001 NHL Entry Draft having been named the Top CHL Prospect,^[4] Spezza was drafted second overall by the Ottawa Senators after Ilya Kovalchuk went to the Atlanta Thrashers. The second overall pick originally belonged to the New York Islanders, but was traded to Ottawa along with Zdeno Chara and Bill Muckalt for Alexei Yashin on draft day.

After one more OHL season split between the Spitfires and the Belleville Bulls, resulting in a 105-point season, Spezza began his professional career in the American Hockey League (AHL).

Ottawa Senators (2002–2005)[link]

Following Spezza's fourth OHL season in 2001–02, he was assigned to the Senators' AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins for the 2002 Calder Cup playoffs, where he made his professional debut, playing in 3 post-season games and recording 1 goal. Spezza made his NHL debut the next season in 2002–03 with Ottawa, playing in 33 games and recording 21 points. He played the majority of the season, however, in the AHL with Ottawa's new affiliate, the Binghamton Senators, and was called up regularly to replace injured Ottawa players. He also competed in three playoff games with Ottawa during his rookie season, helping the team in its 2003 playoff run to the semifinals. The Senators came within one game of the Final, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.

Spezza played his first full NHL season with the Senators in 2003–04 and scored 22 goals and 55 points in 78 games. However, due to the subsequent NHL lockout, Spezza returned to the AHL in 2004–05. Scoring 117 points with Binghamton, he outscored Mike Cammalleri of the Manchester Monarchs by eight points to capture the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the league's leading scorer. Spezza was also awarded the Les Cunningham Award as league MVP.

Ottawa Senators (2005–present)[link]

With NHL play set to resume in 2005–06, Spezza returned to Ottawa. Having traded centres Radek Bonk and Todd White off-season, the Senators started Spezza on the first line between Dany Heatley and rookie Brandon Bochenski, who was Spezza's linemate in Binghamton. After captain Daniel Alfredsson replaced Bochenski on the top line (Bochenski was soon thereafter traded), the trio, nicknamed the 'CASH' and 'Pizza' line,^[5] established themselves as one of the most productive line in the NHL. Wingers Alfredsson and Heatley both finished tied for fourth in league scoring with 103 points, while Spezza tallied 90 points despite an injury-shortened 68-game season. His 71 assists established a team single-season record and was second in the league behind Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks (96 assists). In the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Senators defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, but fell to the Buffalo Sabres in five games. Spezza added 14 points in ten post-season games.

During the summer of 2006, Spezza underwent successful back surgery. The following season, he continued on the same pace with Heatley and Alfredsson before suffering another injury. He managed a career-high 34 goals and finished with 87 points in 67 games. On May 19, 2007, he scored a goal and an assist as the Senators defeated the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference final four games to one. They moved to the Stanley Cup Final against the Anaheim Ducks, but lost in five games after the Spezza-Heatley-Alfredsson line failed to perform against Sammy Pahlsson's checking line, backed by star defencemen Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger. Spezza finished the playoffs with a franchise-record 22 post-season points, tied with linemates Alfredsson and Heatley.

Beginning 2007–08 in the last season of his contract, Spezza signed a seven-year contract extension with the Senators worth $49 million on November 2, 2007.^[6] Late that season, on February 9, 2008, Spezza scored his first NHL hat-trick during a 6–1 Senators victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Spezza contributed to all of his team's goals, for a career-high six-point night.^{[citation needed]} He finished tying his career-high in goals with 34 and establishing a new personal mark for points with 92. The Senators, however, failed to advance past the first round following their Stanley Cup run the previous season, falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in four games.

The 2008–09 season was a disappointing one for both Spezza and the Senators. Though he managed to remain injury-free and played in all of his team's 82 games for the first time in his NHL career, his point production decreased. Spezza managed 73 points in 82 games, and while still respectable, the numbers were his lowest totals since his first full NHL season in 2003–04. The team struggled all season long, and would miss the playoffs for the first time since 1995–96.

Despite missing 22 games due to injury in the 2009–10 season, Spezza still managed to score 23 goals and pick up 34 assists for 57 points in 60 games to finish second on the team in scoring. In the first round of the playoffs, the Senators lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins four games to two. Spezza finished with one goal and six assists for seven points in the six games. He also led the team in shots on goal with 24.^[7] However, Spezza's poor defensive play and costly turnovers in that series resulted in him being booed by fans at Scotiabank Place, and the following off-season was rife with speculation that he would be traded.^[8] Spezza himself admitted that he would not object to a trade out of Ottawa.^[9] Ultimately, no trade was forthcoming and Spezza remained an Ottawa Senator.

On Sunday, December 26, 2010, in a 3–1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Spezza was checked from behind into the boards by Penguins defenseman Kris Letang. Letang received a two-minute penalty for boarding and Spezza was expected to miss 4 to 6 weeks due to the shoulder injury he suffered as a result from Letang's hit from behind.^[10]

At the end of the 2010–11 season, Spezza was named on an interim basis as an alternate captain after the trade of Mike Fisher. In 2011–12, Spezza was named as a permanent alternate captain for the Senators. He remained injury-free and finished fourth in league scoring, earning consideration for the Hart Trophy^[11][12][13], though he ultimately was not nominated for the award.

International play[link]

Medal record
Spezza at the 2008 World Championships
Competitor for  Canada
Ice hockey
World Championships
Silver	2009 Switzerland
Silver	2008 Canada
World Junior Championships
Silver	2002 Czech Republic
Bronze	2001 Russia
Bronze	2000 Sweden

As a junior, Spezza represented Canada's national junior team three consecutive years. He made his debut at the 2000 World Junior Championshiops, becoming just the third 16-year-old to make the team in Team Canada history, after Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros (this feat was also accomplished the same year by defenceman Jay Bouwmeester and Sidney Crosby in 2004). Spezza contributed 2 assists in 7 games as Canada captured a bronze medal. He returned in 2001 for a second consecutive bronze medal, while improving to 3 goals and 3 assists. Spezza made it to the gold medal game with Team Canada in his third and final World Junior appearance in 2002, but lost to Russia to earn the silver.

As a member of the Senators, Spezza was made a reserve for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, but did not play. He would make his men's debut for Team Canada at the 2008 World Championships, being named to the team along with Senators linemate Dany Heatley. He earned a silver medal, losing to Russia in the gold medal game. With the Senators failing to make the NHL playoffs the following year, Spezza again represented Canada at the 2009 World Championships. He won another silver medal, losing to Russia in the gold medal game for the second consecutive year. Spezza, along with Finland's Niko Kapanen and fellow Canadian Steven Stamkos, finished the tournament tied for first in goal scoring with 7.^[14]

Despite his success with the national team in the two previous World Championships, as well as being named a reserve for the 2006 Olympic team, Spezza was left off Team Canada's initial summer camp roster in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. However, after veteran Joe Sakic announced his retirement and Ryan Getzlaf declared he required more time to recover from injury, Spezza was invited to fill in one of the vacant spots.^[15]

Off the ice[link]

Community programs[link]

Spezza participates in numerous activities outside of hockey, especially the "Spelling with Spezza" program. Winners receive a poster of Spezza and a pair of tickets to a Senators' home game. The program recognizes the importance of spelling. Spezza visits selected classes registered for the program. Last season over 600 classes in the Ottawa-Gatineau area participated in Spelling with Spezza.^[16] He also contributes to Ronald McDonald House Charities.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Spezza wed his girlfriend, Jennifer Snell, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 2009. The ceremony took place at Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica and the reception was held across the street at the National Gallery of Canada. Many of his current and past teammates were in attendance including Ray Emery, Antoine Vermette, Brendan Bell, Chris Phillips, Chris Neil, and Senators owner Eugene Melnyk. However, close friend and former line-mate Dany Heatley was not in attendance.^[18]

On June 8, 2010, Spezza's wife Jennifer gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter named Sophia Donna Spezza, at St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto.^[19] Their second daughter Nicola Patricia Spezza was born on April 1, 2012.

Endorsements[link]

Spezza was on the cover of the NHL 2K8 video game for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox and the Xbox 360 video game consoles.^[20] He is also a spokesperson for Jubilee Fine Jewellers in Ottawa.^[21]

Career statistics[link]

Regular season and playoffs[link]

International[link]

Awards[link]

• 1998–99: OHL First All-Star Team
• 2000–01: CHL Top Draft Prospect
• 2000–01: OHL Third All-Star Team
• 2001–02: OHL Third All-Star Team
• 2002–03: AHL All-Rookie Team
• 2004–05: AHL Les Cunningham Award (MVP)
• 2004–05: AHL First All-Star Team
• 2004–05: AHL John B. Sollenberger Trophy (Leading scorer)
• 2007–08: Played in 2008 NHL All-Star Game

See also[link]

• List of Ottawa Senators players

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jason Spezza's NHL player profile
• Jason Spezza's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database

Kenneth Branagh
Branagh in July 2009
Born	Kenneth Charles Branagh (1960-12-10) 10 December 1960 (age 51) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation	Actor, film director
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Emma Thompson (1989–95; divorced) Lindsay Brunnock (2003–present)

Kenneth Charles Branagh (/ˈbrænə/ BRAN-ə; born 10 December 1960) is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V (1989) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello, Hamlet (1996) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), and As You Like It (2006).

He has also starred in numerous other films and television series including Fortunes of War (1987), Wild Wild West (1999), The Road to El Dorado (2000), Conspiracy (TV) (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Warm Springs (TV) (2005), Valkyrie (2008), Wallander (TV series) (2008–present), and My Week with Marilyn (2011) as Laurence Olivier (Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); and directed such notable films as Dead Again (1991) (also starring), Swan Song (1992) (Academy Award nominated for Best Live Action Short Film), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) (also starring), The Magic Flute (2006), Sleuth (2007), and the blockbuster action film Thor (2011).

Branagh has been nominated for five Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards, and has won an Emmy Award and three BAFTA Awards.

Early life[link]

Branagh, the middle of three children, was born and brought up in Belfast, the son of working-class Protestant parents Frances (née Harper) and William Branagh, a plumber and joiner who ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings.^[1] At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to Reading, Berkshire to escape the Troubles.^[2][3] He was educated at Grove Primary School,^[4] Whiteknights Primary School, then Meadway School, Tilehurst,^[5][6] where he appeared in school productions such as Toad of Toad Hall"^[7] and Oh, What a Lovely War!.^[8] At school, he acquired an English accent to avoid bullying. On his identity today he has said, "I feel Irish. I don't think you can take Belfast out of the boy," and he attributes his "love of words" to his Irish heritage.^[9][10] He is known to have attended the (Amateur) Reading Cine & Video Society (now called Reading Film & Video Makers)^[11] as a member.

Branagh went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.^[12]

Career[link]

Stage work[link]

Branagh achieved some early measure of success in his native Northern Ireland for his role as the title character in the BBC's Play for Today^[13] trilogy known as the Billy Plays (1982–84), written by Graham Reid and set in Belfast.

He received acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, first winning the 1982 SWET Award for Best Newcomer, for his role as Judd in Julian Mitchell's Another Country, immediately after leaving RADA. Branagh was part of the 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Bruce Payne and Fiona Shaw. In 1984 he appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry V, directed by Adrian Noble. The production played to full houses, especially at the Barbican in London. It was this production that he adapted for the film version of the play in 1989. He and David Parfitt founded the Renaissance Theatre Company in 1987, following success with several productions on the London 'Fringe', including Branagh's full-scale production of Romeo and Juliet at the Lyric Studio, co-starring with Samantha Bond. The first major Renaissance production was Branagh's Christmas 1987 staging of Twelfth Night at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, starring Richard Briers as Malvolio and Frances Barber as Viola, and with an original score by actor, musician and composer Patrick Doyle, who two years later was to compose the music for Branagh's film adaptation of Henry V. This Twelfth Night was later adapted for television.

Branagh became a major presence in the media and on the British stage when Renaissance collaborated with Birmingham Rep for a 1988 touring season of three Shakespeare plays under the umbrella title of Renaissance Shakespeare on the Road, which also played a repertory season at the Phoenix Theatre in London. It featured directorial debuts for Judi Dench with Much Ado About Nothing (starring Branagh and Emma Thompson as Benedick and Beatrice), Geraldine McEwan with As You Like It, and Derek Jacobi directing Branagh in the title role in Hamlet, with Sophie Thompson as Ophelia. Critic Milton Shulman of the London Evening Standard wrote: "On the positive side Branagh has the vitality of Olivier, the passion of Gielgud, the assurance of Guinness, to mention but three famous actors who have essayed the role. On the negative side, he has not got the magnetism of Olivier, nor the mellifluous voice quality of Gielgud nor the intelligence of Guinness."^[14]

A year later in 1989 Branagh co-starred with Emma Thompson in the Renaissance revival of Look Back in Anger. Judi Dench directed both the theatre and television productions, presented first in Belfast then at the London Coliseum and Lyric Theatre.

In 2002, Branagh starred at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield as Richard III. In 2003 he starred in the Royal National Theatre's production of David Mamet's Edmond. Branagh directed The Play What I Wrote in England in 2001^[15] and directed a Broadway production in 2003.^[16][17] From September to November 2008, Branagh appeared at Wyndham's Theatre as the title character in the Donmar West End revival of Anton Chekhov's Ivanov in a new version by Tom Stoppard. His performance was lauded as the "performance of the year" by several critics.^[18] It won him the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Male Performance but did not get him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, to the surprise of critics.^[19]

Branagh in April 2011

Film work[link]

Branagh is known for his film adaptations of William Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V (1989), followed by Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello (1995), Hamlet (1996), Love's Labour's Lost (2000) and As You Like It (2006). As You Like It premiered in theatres in Europe, but was sent directly to television in the U.S., where it aired on HBO in August 2007.

Notable non-Shakespeare films in which Branagh has appeared include Dead Again (1991) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), both of which he also directed, Wild Wild West (1999), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) and Valkyrie (2008). He starred as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). He also played the Minister, Dormandy, (a parody of PMG Tony Benn) in the film The Boat That Rocked (2009).

From 1989 to 1996, Branagh mostly directed his own films, but the commercial and critical failure of Love's Labour's Lost ended his directorial career for a time. In 2006, the same year that Branagh's film version of As You Like It was released, he also directed a film version of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. Branagh has also directed the thriller Sleuth (2007), a remake of the 1972 film. At a film promotion for Valkyrie in 2008, Branagh confirmed that he would be directing Thor, a film based on the Marvel superhero.^[20] Thor, Branagh's return to big-budget directing, released on 6 May 2011.^[21] In 2011, Branagh portrayed Sir Laurence Olivier in My Week with Marilyn.

Television[link]

Branagh has also been involved in several made-for-TV films. Among his most acclaimed portrayals is that of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the film Warm Springs (2005), for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. Though the film received 16 Emmy nominations, winning five (including Best Made-For-Television Film), Branagh did not win the award for his portrayal. He did, though, receive an Emmy for his portrayal of SS leader Reinhard Heydrich in the TV film Conspiracy (2001), a depiction of the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi officials decided on the Final Solution. In 2002 Branagh starred in the two-part television movie Shackleton, a dramatization of the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's battle for survival, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA award and an Emmy.^[22] Branagh also narrated the BBC documentaries Walking With Dinosaurs, World War 1 in Colour, Walking With Beasts and Walking With Monsters, and the BBC miniseries Great Composers.

Branagh is the star of the Wallander television series, adaptations of Henning Mankell's best-selling Wallander crime novels. Branagh plays the eponymous Inspector Kurt Wallander and also serves as the executive producer of the series. The first three films were broadcast on BBC One in November and December 2008.^[23] Branagh won the award for best actor at the 35th Broadcasting Press Guild Television and Radio Awards (2009). It was his first major television award win in the UK.^[24] He received his first BAFTA TV on 26 April 2009 for the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series.^[25] For his performance in the episode One Step Behind, he was nominated in the Outstanding Actor, Miniseries or Movie category of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.^[26] The role also gained him a nomination for Best Actor at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.^[27] The second season of three episodes were filmed in 2009 and aired in January 2010 on the BBC and October/November 2010 on PBS in the US. Plans have been announced for a third season of six episodes—the last three Mankell novels, as well as three original Wallander stories.

Radio[link]

Branagh has also played the title role in BBC radio broadcasts of Hamlet and Cyrano de Bergerac,and the role of Edmund in King Lear.

Other work[link]

Branagh has narrated several audio books, such as The Magician's Nephew by C. S. Lewis.^[28]

Branagh in July 2009 at the Roma Fiction Fest, where he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award

Personal life[link]

Branagh was married from 20 August 1989 until 1995 to actress Emma Thompson, with whom he starred in Fortunes of War among other projects. After their divorce, he was in a well-publicised relationship for several years with actress Helena Bonham Carter, whom he directed and starred with in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In 2003, he married film art director Lindsay Brunnock,^[29] to whom he was introduced by Bonham Carter in 1997.^[30]

He is a lifelong supporter of Belfast football team Linfield, as well as Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers.^[31]

He speaks Italian.^{[citation needed]}

Honours[link]

Branagh has been nominated for five Academy Awards, the first man to be nominated for five different categories. His first two nominations were for Henry V (one each for directing and acting). He also received similar BAFTA Award nominations for his film work, winning one for his direction. His first BAFTA TV award came in April 2009, for Best Drama Series (Wallander). Branagh's two other Academy Award nominations were for the 1992 film short subject Swan Song and for his work on the screenplay of Hamlet in 1996. His most recent is for his portrayal of Lord Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn. Branagh has co-starred several times with actress Emma Thompson, to whom he was married from 1989 to 1995. They appeared together in Look Back in Anger, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Dead Again, and Peter's Friends. More recently, they both appeared in The Boat That Rocked, though with no shared scenes.

He is Honorary President of NICVA (the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action). He received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Queen's University of Belfast in 1990. He is also a patron for the charity Over The Wall.^[32]

In 1994, Branagh declined an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).^[33]

Branagh was the youngest actor to receive the Golden Quill (also known as the Gielgud Award) in 2000.

Alongside Roberto Benigni, he is one of only two non-American actors to be nominated for Oscars for acting, writing, and directing, and one of nine actors to have achieved this honour. The other seven are Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, George Clooney, John Huston and John Cassavetes.

On 10 July 2009, Branagh was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the RomaFictionFest.^[34]

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

Director[link]

Narrator[link]

• Anne Frank Remembered (Documentary) (1995)
• Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (Six-part TV special) (1996)
• Great Composers (TV mini-series) (1997)
• Cold War (CNN TV series) (1998)
• The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs (UK version) (TV series) (1999)
• Walking with Dinosaurs (UK version) (TV series) (1999)
• The Science of Walking with Beasts (Australia) (Two-part TV special) (2001)
• The Ballad of Big Al (UK version) (TV special) (2001)
• Walking with Beasts (UK version) (TV series) (2001)
• The Tramp and the Dictator (Documentary) (2002)
• Walking with Monsters: Life Before Dinosaurs (TV series) (2005)
• Goebbels-Experiment, Das (Documentary) (2005)
• IMAX: Galapagos (Documentary)
• World War 1 in Colour (Documentary) (2005)

Awards and nominations[link]