JIM BROADBENT
Jim Broadbent has been a London legend for years. But it is only in the past decade that he has reached a worldwide audience, and fans in Hong Kong are in for a double whammy of his immense talent, first in Bridget Jones's Dairy (opening today), and then in Moulin Rouge (which opens on September 13).
Born in Lincolnshire, England in 1949, Broadbent (right) is the son of Roy and Dee Broadbent, who were founding members of the Lindsey Rural Players and put together the Broadbent Theatre in a converted Methodist church. He went to school in Reading near London and later attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, from where he graduated in 1972.
His professional career kicked off with a job as acting assistant stage manager at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. But it wasn't long before he was under the spotlight himself with his breakthrough role in Illuminatus in 1976.
He soon moved on to the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, along the way forming a two-man troupe called the National Theatre of Brent. With that background, TV soon came calling where he met up with Mike Newell and Stephen Frears, two directors who would eventually help him make the transition to film. Roles in Birth Of A Nation (with Newell) and Walter (with Frears) established his reputation on the small screen.
Broadbent said early on that he expected to make a name for himself as he aged - and that's what happened. From his start in the disturbing The Shout (1978), he slipped through Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985) and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987) before landing a role in Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet (1991). From there, his career solidified - almost always in a supporting role, but always memorable. First there was Newell's The Crying Game (1992), as the sympathetic bartender, then he added considerable weight to Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994) as a diet-dodging leading man.
He linked again with Leigh in Little Voice (1998) before landing the role of a lifetime - and his first real lead - in that director's acclaimed Topsy-Turvy (1999). His stint as the librettist William S Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan fame) brought him the Volpi Cup for best actor at that year's Venice Film Festival, and the world finally sat up and took notice.