Ralph Fiennes was born in 1962 in Suffolk, England. He name is pronounced as “Rafe Fines”. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and is the eldest of six children. His father is photographer, Mark Fiennes, and his mother is novelist, Jennifer Lash. One of his brothers, Joseph Fiennes, is also an actor who has participated in such films as Shakespeare in Love.

He also has a sister, Martha, who works as a director. Ralph played the lead role in one of the films she directed, Onegin. Interestingly, Ralph is also the eighth cousin to the Prince of Wales.

Ralph, along with the rest of his siblings, were home schooled for a number of years while the family moved back and forth between Ireland and England. After completing high school, Ralph attended the Chelsea College of Art. Then he went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Following his studies, Ralph joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988 and played the lead in many Shakespearean plays. He was also the only actor ever to win a Tony award for playing Hamlet on Broadway.   

Following a successful career on the stage, Ralph decided to pursue film and made his debut in 1992. Fiennes played the character Heathcliff in the film Wuthering Heightswhich co-starred Juliette Binoche. His next film gave Fiennes international acclaim when he played commandant Amon Goth in Schindler’s List which was directed by Steven Spielberg. His work in the film won him a nomination for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. 

He also signed on to play Lord Voldemort in the young adult book series turned films, Harry Potter and will co-star with Gary Oldman.

After filming The Constant Gardener with Fiennes as the title role and Rachel Weiss as the supporting actress, the entire crew decided to set up The Constant Gardener Trust that works to provide basic education for children in the villages around Kibera and Kenya. Fiennes contributes to the Trust.

Fiennes is best known for being able to express complex human emotions in his films. He has a great way of showing the audience what his characters’ thought processes are and he has also been able to completely avoid being typecast into one specific type of film or role. Fiennes also had a knack for expressing flaws in the characters he plays.

His love life has had several ups and downs over the past. In 1993, he married actress Alex Kingston, who is best known for her role as Dr. Corday on the television series ER. Although the divorce was not finalized until 1997, Fiennes began dating actress Francesca Annis. She was his co-star in Hamlet and 18 years older than Fiennes is.

The couple separated in 2005 after reports that Fiennes was unfaithful to Annis.