Background

Ethnicity: Charlie Hunnam is of English, as well as one eighth Irish, and small amount of Scottish ancestry.

Charlie Hunnam was born on April 10, 1980, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the United Kingdom. His father, William, worked in the scrap metal industry and was an alleged gangster who left the house when Charlie was 2 years old. Hunnam's father died in 2013. His mother Jane, a business owner, raised the actor and his older brother after the couple divorced when Hunnam was a toddler.

After the divorce, his mother remarried and shifted base to Melmerby, Cumbria.

Education

Growing up in Newcastle upon Tyne, he received his formal education from Heaton Manor School. After his mother remarried and shifted base to Melmerby, Cumbria, he went along with her and got himself enrolled at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. Hunnam was diagnosed with dyslexia, which makes it difficult for him to read and write.

During his adolescence, he played rugby and fought with his classmates, so he was expelled from school. Since he was expelled, he gave his exams from home. He then enrolled at the Cumbria College of Art and Design from where he graduated with a degree in theory and history of film.

Career

In 1995, when he was 15, Hunnam was horsing around in a shoe store with his friends, and in a moment of silliness, he asked a perfect stranger what she thought of his shoes. The woman kept looking at him until he grew uncomfortable. She later approached him while he was at the cash register buying the shoes and asked him if he’d ever thought about acting. It turned out she was the production manager for the British teen TV series Byker Grove, and she took Hunnam to meet the director. The teenager landed a role on the long-running series, and his career as an actor began. On the show he played 15-year-old Nathan Maloney, a rebellious school kid who's new to the gay scene but is full of confidence.

Two more recurring roles on different British series followed, and in 1999 he landed a lead role as a confused 15-year-old on the series Queer as Folk. The show garnered him a huge fan following. The series was shown in the United States, and Charlie consequently moved to the U.S. to break into the American market. He quickly landed three guest appearances on a new series called Young Americans (2000), playing an unlikeable character named Gregor Ryder. Soon after, he landed a role on a new TV series called Undeclared, playing a college student.

Turning to film, Hunnam appeared opposite Katie Holmes in the panned psychological thriller Abandon (2002) but had better luck with the Charles Dickens-inspired drama Nicholas Nickleby (2002), in which he played the title role, as well as the Civil War film Cold Mountain (2003). In the latter, he played the psychotic lieutenant Bosie, who duels with the protagonist Inman (Jude Law).

Hunnam's flair for depicting troubled characters continued after Cold Mountain, his follow-ups being a Cockney-accented hooligan in Pete Dunham's indie football drama Green Street (2005) and a corrupt gang member in the dystopian thriller Children of Men (2006).

As he continued to star in bigger projects, his rounds in Hollywood paid off. In 2008 Hunnam was cast in one of his most memorable roles as gang leader Jackson "Jax" Teller in the FX crime drama Sons of Anarchy, a story about an outlaw motorcycle club set in a fictional town in California. The series became one of the highest-rated shows for the network, which ran its course through 2014. Still, Hunnam admittedly had a hard time saying goodbye to the show and his character.

While on Anarchy, Hunnam also starred as the lead role in Guillermo del Toro's blockbuster Pacific Rim (2013), a sci-fi drama about humans operating giant humanoids to battle sea monsters from another dimension. The actor would team up with del Toro again for the gothic horror flick Crimson Peak (2015), which would find a solid audience and generally fared well with critics.

In between these films, it was announced that Hunnam was set to star as Christian Grey in the film version of E.L. James' erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. However, due to multiple scheduling conflicts, Hunnam reluctantly bowed out and later called the ordeal "the worst professional experience of my life."

However, Hunnam bounced back playing British geographer Percy Fawcett in the biographical drama The Lost City of Z (2016). He also collaborated with Guy Ritchie on the film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), although critics generally panned the project. Still, Hunnam had much better reception playing French convicted murderer Henri Charrière in the lauded Papillon (2017), which co-starred Rami Malek.

Achievements

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  Hunnam is known for his roles as Jackson "Jax" Teller in the FX drama series Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014) for which he was twice nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. He also won the CinemaCon Award as the Male Star of the Year in 2017.
  
  He was the face of Emporio Armani's ad campaign in 2005, and also modeled for other well-known designers and brands.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Lost City of Z

    (The Lost City of Z tells the incredible true story of Bri...)

    2016
  • Abandon

    (A senior at an elite college, already under severe pressu...)

    2002
  • Deadfall

    (Two siblings (Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde) fend for themse...)

    2012
  • The Ledge

    (In this race-against-time thriller, the opposing philosop...)

    2011
  • Papillon

    (After being framed and ultimately imprisoned on Devil's I...)

    2017
  • Triple Frontier

    (Loyalties are tested when five friends and former special...)

    2019
  • Cold Mountain

    (A Civil War deserter (Jude Law) undertakes an arduous jou...)

    2003
  • A Million Little Pieces

    (In search of a higher power, James Frey uncovers a commun...)

    2018
  • Nicholas Nickleby

    (After Nicholas' father dies and leaves the family pennile...)

    2002
  • 3, 2, 1...Frankie Go Boom

    (Frank Bartlett has been tortured, embarrassed, and humili...)

    2012
  • Green Street Hooligans

    (A former leader returns to Green Street for revenge after...)

    2005
  • Children of Men

    (The human race has become mysteriously sterile, and no ba...)

    2006
  • King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

    (Robbed of his birthright, Arthur comes up the hard way in...)

    2017
  • Crimson Peak

    (From director Guillermo del Toro comes a supernatural mys...)

    2015
  • Pacific Rim

    (Humanity has long been under attack from the Kaiju. Pilot...)

    2013

• TV series

  • Queer as Folk: Complete Series

    (British television series that chronicles the lives of th...)

  • Sons Of Anarchy: The Complete Series

    (American crime tragedy television series created by Kurt ...)

Religion

Hunnam has stated in the past that he does not associate with any organized religion. However, he does believe in a Unitarian God and a personal expression of faith.

Views

Together with his colleagues in the TV series "Sons of Anarchy" actor attended the event Hogs for Heart Fundraiser, which helps raise money charity One Heart Source, whose mission - to raise the standard of living and education of children in Tanzania and South Africa.

Charlie Hunnam told GQ that he is completely obsessed with sneakers, particularly Nike Air Max 90 shoes. He had a huge collection, but Hunnam decided to give most of his sneakers away to charity.

Quotations: "I always think it's better to take a smaller role in a great film rather than a leading role in something that you don't have complete faith in."

Personality

Hunnam was cast to play the role of a 'stoner' in the independent film Anderson Cross. However, he could not play the role due to scheduling conflicts. Interestingly, director Jerome erased the character from the script instead of offering the role to someone else and said: “no one replaces him.”

Hunnam is a germaphobe insofar as other humans are concerned, but is unfazed by the 'dirt' of the natural environment when he's camping or trekking, for example. He also detests having to do kissing scenes on film.

Hunnam has stated in interviews that on New Year’s Eve, he has an interesting tradition. Specifically, he likes to go to bed early. Then, on New Year’s Day, he gets up while it’s still dark outside and goes for a hike. “I just take a couple hours and have a post-mortem of the year,” he said to Men’s Health.

He is enthusiastic about working out and spends at the gym in his spare time. He said that it helps keep him sane. He also likes playing sports, especially rugby. In 2016, Hunnam began training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Rigan Machado and went on to receive his blue belt in October 2018.

Charlie enjoys listening to folk, blues and bluegrass music. He is also a huge hip-hop fan. He likes to paint, make music and does some photography in his spare time.

Interests

• painting, photography, music

• Writers

  Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

• Sport & Clubs

  Swimming, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, rugby

• Music & Bands

  Van Morrison, Tom Waits, folk, blues, bluegrass, hip-hop

Connections

Charlie met his ex-wife Katharine Towne at an audition for Dawson's Creek in 1998, and they married after knowing each other for three weeks. They divorced in 2002 after three years.

He met his current girlfriend, jewelry designer Morgana McNelis, in 2007, and he wears a ring she gave him that's engraved with the phrase "I love you endlessly."

Father:

William "Billy" Hunnam

Hunnam's father passed away, and the tragedy forced him to reconsider his career decisions. This was one factor that contributed to Hunnam's choice to drop out of the role of Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey, a decision that made everyone wonder what would happen to his career.

Hunnam had a complicated relationship with his dad. His father was a scrap-metal dealer who had a tough reputation in Newcastle, the English town where Hunnam grew up. But his parents divorced when Hunnam was young, and his dad wasn't around often. However, Hunnam is going forward with a project that he hopes will allow him to fully process their relationship and reflect on his dad's life. In 2017, Hunnam said that he was planning a film about his father, in which he hopes to star as the late Mr. Hunnam. He described it as "a biographical family drama about love and conflict between ambition and family," and said that he's been wanting to act in a film like this for a while. 

Mother:

Jane Bell

colleague:

Jessica Chastain

ex-spouse:

Katharine Towne

girlfriend:

Morgana McNelis

Friend:

Anne Hathaway

colleague:

Katie Holmes

colleague:

Renée Zellweger

colleague:

Cillian Murphy

colleague:

Liv Tyler

colleague:

Patrick Wilson

colleague:

Olivia Wilde

colleague:

Robert Pattinson

colleague:

Tom Holland

colleague:

Rami Malek