Background

Ethnicity: Guy Ritchie is of British, Irish and French descent.

Guy Stuart Ritchie was born on September 10, 1968, in the town of Hatfield, located in Hertfordshire, England (near London), to a former British Army personnel and advertising executive, Captain John Vivian Ritchie and Amber Parkinson. John's father was Major Stewart Ritchie, who died in France, in 1940, during World War II. John's mother was Doris Margaretta McLaughlin (b. 1896), daughter of Vivian Guy McLaughlin (b. 1865) and Edith Martineau (b. 1866), the latter by whom she shares close common ancestors with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. The McLaughlins have a pedigree going back to King Edward I of England. Both Richie's parents remarried to prominent individuals. His father's second marriage was to Shireen Ritchie, Baroness Ritchie of Brompton, a former model and later Conservative politician and life peer. From 1973 until 1980, when they divorced, Ritchie's mother was married to Sir Michael Leighton, 11th Baronet of Loton Park. As a divorcée, she is correctly styled as Amber, Lady Leighton.

In addition to his elder sister Tabitha, a dance instructor, Ritchie has a half-brother, Kevin Baynton, who was born to Amber Parkinson when she was a teenager and given up for adoption.

Education

Growing up, Ritchie struggled with dyslexia and attended 10 schools including Stanbridge Earls School, a specialist institution for dyslexics. However, having been caught using drugs, but his father has said that it was because his son was caught "cutting class and entertaining a girl in his room." He was expelled from the Sibford School in Oxfordshire after previously dropping out of Stanbridge Earls School at the age of 15. He completed his formal education armed with a General Certificate of Secondary Education in film studies. Ritchie commented in an interview about taking a filmmaking course at school: "I think I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was at school because I couldn't do anything else. There was a course at my school, which didn't seem to be going on anywhere else, in film studies. I picked up on it and before I knew it I was interested in it."

Career

Growing up in London, England, Ritchie had an interest in film ever since he watched Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid as a child. After tending bar, laying bricks and digging sewer lines, Guy set his sights on the film industry. When he was 25, a friend who directed commercials hired Ritchie as a runner. That position gave Ritchie an entry into the world of directing. He quickly progressed and was directing music promos for bands and commercials by 1995.

Saving every penny from this work, Ritchie soon had enough to invest it into writing and made a twenty-minute short film, The Hard Case (1995). His short movie was well-received, but Ritchie still found it difficult to get backing for a full-length feature. The project gave him the confidence to write and direct the movie that would propel him to fame Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels. On the strength of seeing The Hard Case, Sting's wife, Trudie Styler, invested in the British gangster movie, which was bolstered by a cameo from her husband.

Ritchie produced Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels with his partner Matthew Vaughn after the two formed SKA Films. Once completed, 10 British distributors turned the film down before it eventually was released in the United Kingdom in 1998 and in the United States in 1999; the film put Ritchie on the map as one of the hottest rising filmmakers of the time, and launched the careers of actors Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, and Vinnie Jones, among others. The low budget film was a success with viewers and critics alike. The film, a crime caper, was applauded for breathing new life into that genre and found a wide audience. It received a number of awards and nominations including the British Academy Film Award, British Independent Film Award, Edgar Allen Poe Award, and MTV Movie Awards to name a few. Most of the awards honored Ritchie for his efforts. The successful film was also followed by an exclusive deal with Ginger Productions for a TV series based on the movie called Lock, Stock...

During the MTV Movie Awards, Will Smith arrived on a horse to perform the song from Wild, Wild West (1999) and the horse accidentally stepped on Guy's foot, injuring him.

The popularity of his first film also brought Guy Ritchie to Hollywood's attention. His next film, Snatch (2000), was another darkly humorous look at gangsters in London. However, this time with a bigger budget and a few more familiar faces such as Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro alongside returning actors Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, and Jason Flemyng. Similar to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels the film depicted events from different characters' perspectives: a device that became something of a trademark through many of the director's subsequent films. Snatch was also a critical and commercial success.

In 2001, he was the executive producer for the British comedy-drama film titled, Mean Machine. The film was directed by Barry Skolnick and received negative reviews. Unfortunately for Ritchie, his next feature Swept Away (2002), which starred his then-wife, Madonna, was panned by critics and largely avoided by audiences. It was the nadir of Ritchie's directing career. His next two films, Revolver, a 2005 Vegas-themed heist film, and RocknRolla (2008), were returns to his black comedy roots. RocknRolla was a massive box office hit and reached the number one position at the United Kingdom box office, within the first week of its release. The film earned a whopping $25,739,015. However, they did not achieve the same level of success as his earlier crime capers.

In 2008, Ritchie directed a commercial for Nike called "Take It To The Next Level", about a young Dutch footballer who signs for Arsenal, showing the progression of his career from his viewpoint, until he makes his debut for the Netherlands. The commercial features cameo appearances from some football players with music by Eagles of Death Metal.

Ritchie's career took off once again with his film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (2009). The film was based on the legendary character from the prominent detective series, Sherlock Holmes, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film gained immense commercial success and went on to become the director’s most successful film to that date, grossing more than $523 million worldwide. In 2011, he came out with the sequel of his previous film, Sherlock Holmes. Titled, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the film received huge success at the box office, grossing over $545 million. However, some of the critics panned the flick. Both films, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, were massive successes at the box office, earning more than $1 billion combined worldwide.

In the fall of 2013, Ritchie began filming a big screen adaptation of the spy TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., featuring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer. Filmed in 2013 in London and Italy, the film was not released until August 2015. In January 2014, Warner Bros. set Ritchie to direct King Arthur: Legend of the Sword with Charlie Hunnam playing King Arthur by Ritchie's choice. Initially scheduled to be the first of several in a franchise, the film was released in May 2017 but was a box office bomb, so the sequels were canceled. In October 2016, Disney announced that Ritchie had signed on to direct a live-action adaptation of Aladdin. The film is scheduled for release on May 24, 2019.

Achievements

• The Raindance Film Festival announced in August 2017 that it would be honoring Ritchie with its 2nd annual Auteur Award, describing him as a "prominent figure" who breathed "new life into the British film industry" with his "cult crime comedies".

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Sherlock Holmes

    (Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary inte...)

    2009
  • The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

    (CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin team up to stop an ...)

    2013
  • Snatch

    (A diamond heist gone haywire launches gangsters, bookies,...)

    2000
  • Revolver

    (Revolver is populated with Guy Ritchie's classic breed of...)

    2005
  • Rocknrolla

    (London is ground zero for the changing times with big-tim...)

    2008
  • Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

    (Four Jack-the-lads find themselves heavily - seriously he...)

    1998
  • King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

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

    2017
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

    (Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the r...)

    2011

Religion

Ritchie embraced the Kabbalah faith when he was with Madonna, but he doesn't even comprehend what it's all about. He stated in an interview: "I don't really understand Kabbalah as a religion, I don't think it's a religion as far as I'm aware."

Politics

Guy Ritchie claimed he had no idea who Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were in a BBC interview, stating that he is not really interested in politics. Later he said: "I'm not politically motivated. I used to be - passionately. I used to be very Left wing. Then I went very Right wing, and now I rest somewhere in the middle."

Views

Quotations: "I'm not under too much of an illusion of how smart or un-smart I am because filmmaking ultimately is about teamwork."

"The best thing to do is find one person in your life and try to love them unconditionally. If you've accomplished that, you've accomplished a lot."

"I got too fed up with films that didn't make you think. I liked the idea of one that you'd have to be dancing around with. I like my mind to be engaged when I watch a film."

Personality

Guy Ritchie is dyslexic and says that his struggle with the learning disability was responsible for his negative attitude towards studies as a teenager. He explained: "By the time I found out I was dyslexic, I didn't give a hoot. Even when IQ tests showed that I was bright, I wasn't interested. I found out so early that I couldn't do schoolwork that I was just interested in being disruptive."

Ritchie claims that sugar is his biggest pet peeve. Speaking in an interview in July, he declared: "Sugar is responsible for a lot of deaths, arguably more than crack cocaine."

On 18 May 2000, Ritchie was arrested by the police for an alleged assault on a 20-year-old man outside the Kensington home he shared with American singer Madonna, on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm.

Physical Characteristics: Guy Ritchie has a height of 5 feet 10 inches and weighs around 87kg. He has brown eyes and brown hair.

Interests

• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Shotokan karate, Judo

• Sport & Clubs

  Chelsea FC

Connections

Though he became known as a director, Ritchie's personal life has also brought him into the public eye. In 1998, Sting and Trudie Styler introduced Ritchie to pop star Madonna over lunch at her Elizabethan mansion Lake House, in Wiltshire. Guy says the singer's head "sort of spun round" when the two met, adding the encounter "did knock my socks off". The pair enjoyed a transatlantic relationship throughout 1999, until Guy gave Madonna an ultimatum - move to London or it's off. Madonna crossed the pond and soon became pregnant by her lover. Their son, Rocco John, was born in August 2000. In December of that year, they married in a castle in Scotland. Guy also became a stepfather to Madonna's daughter Lourdes, and the couple adopted a baby boy from Malawi, named David Banda in 2006. The adoption was finalized in the spring of 2008. Unfortunately, the couple split up later that same year; their divorce became final in January 2009. Though Madonna and their children relocated to New York City, Ritchie remains involved in his children's lives. Madonna and Ritchie entered into a custody agreement for Rocco and David, then aged eight and three, respectively, and divided the children's time between Ritchie's London home and Madonna's in New York.

In 2010, Ritchie began seeing model Jacqui Ainsley. They have three children: son Rafael (born 5 September 2011), daughter Rivka, (born 29 November 2012) and son Levi (born 8 June 2014). On July 30, 2015, Ritchie and Ainsley got married.

Father:

John Vivian Ritchie

Mother:

Amber (Née Parkinson) Ritchie

Ritchie's mother was married to Sir Michael Leighton, 11th Baronet of Loton Park. As a divorcée, she is correctly styled as Amber, Lady Leighton.

Spouse:

Jacqui Ainsley

Sister:

Tabitha Ritchie

Half-brother:

Kevin Baynton

Kevin Baynton was born to Amber Parkinson when she was a teenager and was given up for adoption.

ex-wife:

Madonna Ciccone

Although she once said she'd never marry again, in 2000 Madonna Ciccone wed the Englishman who sent her "wobbly bonkers" - director Guy Ritchie. The couple's marriage came to an end eight years later, but they remain friends.

Madonna alluded to gold-digging on Ritchie's part in two songs from her 2012 MDNA album: "Love Spent" and "I Don't Give A".

Son:

Rocco John Ritchie

Son:

Rafael Ritchie

Daughter:

Rivka Ritchie

Son:

Levi Ritchie

adopted son:

David Banda

colleague:

Will Smith

Friend:

Brad Pitt

Friend:

Sting (Gordon Sumner)

Friend:

Trudie Styler

Trudie Styler is the godmother of Ritchie's son Rocco.

Friend:

Matthew Vaughn

Matthew Vaughn was the best man at Ritchie's wedding to Madonna.