David Jude Law (born 29 December 1972, Lewisham) is an award-winning English actor best known for his award-winning role as Dickie Greenleaf in the American film The Talented Mr. Ripley.

He’s 35!

Jude Law was born in Lewisham, South London, England, to teachers Peter and Maggie Law, who named him after Thomas Hardy’s central character in his novel Jude the Obscure.

They now run their own drama school in France. His sister Natasha is a well-regarded illustrator and artist. He was educated at John Ball Primary school in Blackheath and Kidbrooke School in Kidbrooke, before attending the Alleyn’s School in Dulwich.

In 1987 Law began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre. His first major stage role was as Foxtrot Darling in Philip Ridley’s multi-award-winning 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. This role saw Jude nominated for an Laurence Olivier Award as Best Newcomer. Following a title change to Indiscretions, the play transferred as an imaginative re-working to Broadway in 1995, and he played opposite Kathleen Turner, Roger Rees and Cynthia Nixon. This role earned him a Tony Award nomination and the Theatre World Award.

In 1989 he got his first TV role in a movie based on a Beatrix Potter 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 ram-raiding drama Shopping which also featured his future wife Sadie Frost. He shot to fame in Britain upon the release of the biopic Wilde, in which he played Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, the glamorous lover of Stephen Fry’s Oscar Wilde.

He subsequently moved to Hollywood; his performances include Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca, as a frustrated Olympic medalist bound by a wheelchair, in Clint Eastwood’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil as the ill-fated lover of Kevin Spacey’s character, and in Sam Mendes’s Road to Perdition as a sadistic hitman in a critically-praised performance.

He has been nominated for an Academy Award twice; once as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley in 2000, and then again as Best Actor in a Leading Role for Cold Mountain in 2003, both directed by Anthony Minghella.

Personal Life:

Law married Sadie Frost on September 2, 1997. They have four children: Finlay Munro (stepson of Law, born September 20, 1990), son Rafferty (born October 6, 1996), daughter Iris (born October 25, 2000) and son Rudy (born September 10, 2002). They divorced on October 29, 2003.

In 2004 he became engaged to Sienna Miller, his co-star in Alfie. On November 12, 2006 Law and Miller announced publicly that their relationship had ended.

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