- published: 27 Feb 2016
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Thomas Anthony "Tom" Hollander (born 25 August 1967) is an English actor. He began his career in theatre, winning the Ian Charleson Award in 1992 for his performance as Witwoud in The Way of the World at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. He is known for his roles in comedic films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Pride & Prejudice, and In the Loop, and drama films such as Enigma, Gosford Park, and Hanna. He played the lead role in the sitcom Rev., which won the British Academy Television Award for best sitcom in 2011.
Hollander was born in Bristol, the son of teachers, and was raised in Oxford. His father is descended from Czech Jews who converted to Catholicism, and his mother is of English background. He attended the Dragon School and then Abingdon School, where he was chief chorister. As a youngster, he was a member of the National Youth Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre (then known as the Children's Music Theatre). In 1981, at the age of 14, he won the lead role in a BBC dramatisation of Leon Garfield's John Diamond.
Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Thor: The Dark World (2013). He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), the 2012 BBC series Henry IV, Henry V, and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). In theatre, he has been in the productions of Cymbeline (2007) and Ivanov (2008). In December 2013 he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus which played until February 2014.
He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in Cymbeline while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in Othello. In 2011 he won the Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award for his role in Thor. He won the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight and Best Villain in 2013 for his role in The Avengers. For his role in the 2013 play Coriolanus, he won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor.
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch CBE (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor and film producer who has performed in film, television, theatre and radio. The son of actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, he graduated from the University of Manchester and continued his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, obtaining a Master of Arts in Classical Acting. He first performed at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in Shakespearean productions such as Love's Labour's Lost (2001), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2001), and Romeo and Juliet (2002). He also portrayed George Tesman in Richard Eyre's revival of Hedda Gabler in 2005 and since then has starred in the Royal National Theatre productions After the Dance (2010) and Frankenstein (2011). In 2015, he played William Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre.
Cumberbatch's television work includes appearances in Heartbeat (2000), Silent Witness (2002) and Fortysomething (2003) before starring as Stephen Hawking in the television film Hawking in 2004. He has played Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock since 2010. He has also starred in Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Parade's End (2012), as well as providing the voices of the British Prime Minister and Severus Snape on an episode of the animated series The Simpsons (2013).
Lord Cutler Beckett is a fictional character portrayed by Tom Hollander in the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean films. He makes his debut in Dead Man's Chest as a major supporting villain and has a more central part in the franchise's third installment At World's End. A devious, ruthless, manipulative, elegant, and treacherous mastermind, Beckett is the chairman of the "East India Trading Company", and representative of King George II of Great Britain.
Beckett's backstory wasn't fully revealed until the release of Ann C. Crispin's novel Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom. Cutler Beckett was born and raised in England. At very young age, Beckett took employment in Great Britain's East India Trading Co. While on a mission for the Company, he was captured by pirates led by Christophe-Julien de Rapièr. He was tortured for several weeks, an experience which left him with eternal hatred for all maritime outlaws, before he was ransomed by the Company. Over the years, he became the EITC Director for West Africa. Thirteen years prior to the events of Dead Man's Chest, Beckett provided Jack Sparrow (who was under the employment of the E.I.T.C.) with the Wicked Wench to transport "a certain cargo" to the island of New Avalon in the Bahamas for Beckett's superior Viscount Penwallow. On voyage, Sparrow discovered the cargo was slaves and set them free on the island of Kerma off the west coast of Africa. Beckett became enraged upon learning Sparrow's deed. Beckett ordered the Wicked Wench sunk and branded Sparrow a pirate.