British character actor Tom Wilkinson was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
He moved with his family to Canada for several years when he was young
but later returned to the UK, where he graduated from the University
of Kent. Wilkinson landed his first professional job as an actor working
in Camden one day after graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Arts.
He worked on several television series from the mid-'70s, making the
occasional film in supporting roles, often portraying emotionally repressed
men. By the 1990s Wilkinson was starting to make inroads towards an
extensive cinema career. He garnered telling character roles in In the
Name of the Father (1993), Priest (1994) and featured as Mr. Dashwood
in Ang Lee’s Sense
and Sensibility (1995). He gained international notice as a stripper/choreographer
in Peter Cattaneo's comedy The
Full Monty (1997). That success was followed by a portrayal of the
obsessive Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Lord Alfred in the
biopic Wilde
(1997) and a theatre financier in Shakespeare
in Love (1999).
In Hollywood he worked on popular mainstream films such as Rush Hour
(1998) and The Patriot (2000). He was nominated for an Academy Award
for his understated yet penetrating performance as a grieving father
alongside Sissy in In the Bedroom (2001). He portrayed a menacing, licentious
patron of the arts in Girl
with a Pearl Earring (2003).
