Jude Law
Law at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Born	David Jude Heyworth Law (1972-12-29) 29 December 1972 (age 39) Lewisham, London, UK
Occupation	Actor, producer, director
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Sadie Frost (1997–2003; 3 children)

David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972), known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.^[1][2]

He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989. After starring in films directed by Andrew Niccol, Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1999 for his performance in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. In 2000 he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for his work in the film. In 2003, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in another Minghella film, Cold Mountain.

In 2006, he was one of the top ten most bankable movie stars in Hollywood.^[3] In 2007, he received an Honorary César and he was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.^[4][5] He was a member of the main competition jury at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.^[6]

Early life[link]

Law was born in Lewisham, South London, the second child of comprehensive school teachers Margaret Anne (née Heyworth) and Peter Robert Law; his father later became, according to Law, "the youngest headmaster in London".^[1][7] He has a sister, Natasha.^[7] Law was named after a "bit of both" the book Jude the Obscure and the song Hey Jude.^[7] He grew up in Blackheath, an area in the Borough of Lewisham,^[8] and was educated at John Ball Primary School in Blackheath and Kidbrooke School, before attending the Alleyn's School.^[7]

Career[link]

1980s–1990s[link]

In 1987, Law began acting with National Youth Music Theatre.^[9] He played various roles in the Edinburgh Fringe-awarded play The Ragged Child. One of his first major stage roles was Foxtrot Darling in Philip Ridley's The Fastest Clock In The Universe. Law went on to appear as Michael in the West End production of Jean Cocteau's tragicomedy Les Parents terribles, directed by Sean Mathias.^[7] For this play, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Newcomer, and he received the Ian Charleson Award for Outstanding Newcomer.

Following a title change to Indiscretions, the play was reworked and transferred to Broadway in 1995, where Law acted opposite Kathleen Turner, Roger Rees, and Cynthia Nixon.^[10][11] This role earned him a Tony Award nomination^[12] and the Theatre World Award.^[13] In 1989, Law got his first television role, in a movie based on the Beatrix Potter children's book, The Tailor of Gloucester. After minor roles in British television, including a two-year stint in the Granada TV soap opera Families and the leading role in the BFI /Channel 4 short The Crane, Law had his breakthrough with the British crime drama Shopping, which also featured his future wife, Sadie Frost.

In 1997, he became more widely known with his role in the Oscar Wilde bio-pic Wilde.^[7] Law won the "Most Promising Newcomer" award from the Evening Standard British Film Awards for his role as Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the glamorous lover of Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde.^[14] In Andrew Niccol's science fiction film Gattaca, Law played the role of a disabled former swimming star living in a eugenics-obsessed dystopia.^[7] In Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, he played the role of the ill-fated hustler murdered by an art dealer, played by Kevin Spacey.

For The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999, he learned to play saxophone and earned a MTV Movie Award nomination with Matt Damon and Fiorello for performing the song "Tu vuò fà l'americano" by Renato Carosone and Nicola Salerno.

2000s[link]

In 2001, Law starred as Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev in the film Enemy At The Gates, and learned ballet dancing for the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).^[15] In 2002, he played a mob hitman in Sam Mendes's 1930s period drama Road to Perdition. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999, and then again for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Cold Mountain in 2003. Both films were directed by Anthony Minghella.^[7]

Law at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

Law, an admirer of Laurence Olivier, used the actor's image in the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Using computer graphics, footage of the young Olivier was merged into the film, playing Dr. Totenkopf, a mysterious scientific genius and supervillain.^[16][17] Also in 2004, he portrayed the title character in Alfie, the remake of Bill Naughton's 1966 film, playing the role originated by Michael Caine.^[7] Law was one of the Top Ten 2006 A-list of the most bankable movie stars in Hollywood, following the criteria of James Ulmer in the Ulmer Scale.^[3] On 1 March 2007, he was honoured with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres conferred by the French government, in recognition of his contribution to World Cinema Arts. He was named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.^[4]

He took on another of Caine's earlier roles in the 2007 film Sleuth, adapted by Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter, while Caine played the role originated by Sir Laurence Olivier.^[18]

Law is one of three actors who took over the role of actor Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Along with Law, actors Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell portray "three separate dimensions in the film."^[19][20] He appeared opposite Forest Whitaker in the dark science fiction comedy Repo Men and as Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's adaption of Sherlock Holmes, alongside Robert Downey, Jr. and Rachel McAdams, as well as the 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Law starred as a celebrity supermodel in the film Rage,^[21] and blogger and "prophet" Alan Krumwiede in the 2011 medical thriller Contagion.

[edit] Hamlet

In May 2009, Law returned to the London stage to portray the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse West End season at Wyndham's Theatre. The BBC reported "a fine and solid performance" but included other reviews of Law's interpretation that were mixed.^[22] There was a further run of the production at Elsinore Castle in Denmark from 25–30 August 2009.^[23] In September 2009 the production transferred to the Broadhurst Theatre in New York. Again, the critics failed to agree on the merit of Law's interpretation: London's Daily Mail found only positive reviews,^[24] but The Washington Post felt that the much-anticipated performance was "highly disappointing".^[25] Nonetheless, he was nominated for the 2010 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.^[26] In January 2010 at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards ceremony he was presented with the John and Wendy Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for his 2009 Hamlet.^[27]

Other projects[link]

Advertising[link]

Law is the face of the male perfume of Dior, Dior Homme Sport.^[28][29][30] Since 2005, he has represented Dunhill as an "apparel ambassador" in Asia.^[31] In 2008, he became the international face of Dunhill and appears in the worldwide advertising campaigns.^[32]

In 2002, he directed a Respect for Animals anti-fur cinema commercial. The commercial, titled "Fur and Against", used music composed by Gary Kemp, and included appearances by Law, Chrissie Hynde, Moby, George Michael, Danny Goffey, Rhys Ifans, Sadie Frost, Helena Christensen, Sir Paul McCartney, Mel C, and Stella McCartney.^[33]

[edit] Realtime Movie

In early 2007 Law shot the Jason Martin-directed short film "Realtime Movie Trailer" at Borough Market, South London. Instead of promoting a film, this "trailer", which appeared among regular trailers in selected cinemas across London starting 19 November 2007, advertised a live event, Realtime Movie, by Polish artist Paweł Althamer. Hundreds turned up for this–unfilmed–re-enactment in real time of the sequence of events shown in "Realtime Movie Trailer" by the same actors, including Althamer as a Polish laborer, held at Borough Market on 30 November 2007. The performance was commissioned by Tate Modern as part of its "The World as a Stage" exhibition which explored the boundaries between arts and reality.^{[34][35][36][37]}

Charity activities[link]

In 2004, Law launched a campaign to raise £2.5 million towards the Young Vic Theatre's £12.5 million redevelopment project.^[38][39] He is currently Chair of the Young Vic committee and has said that he is proud to help make the Young Vic "a nurturing bed" for young directors.^[40] In 2006, he joined Robbie Williams in the "Soccer Aid" celebrity football match to benefit UNICEF.^[41]

In 2006, he starred in an anthology of Samuel Beckett readings and performances directed by director Anthony Minghella. With the Beckett Gala Evening at the Reading Town Hall, more than £22,000 was donated for the Macmillan Cancer Support.^[42] Also in 2006, Frost and Law directed a Shakespeare play in a South African orphanage. He travelled to Durban with Frost and their children in order to help children who have lost their parents to AIDS. In July 2007, as patron of the charity, he helped kick off the month-long tour of the AIDS-themed musical Thula Sizwe by The Young Zulu Warriors.^[43] Also in 2007, he encouraged the Friends of the Earth/The Big Ask campaign, asking British Government to take action against climate change.^[44][45][46]