Background

Ethnicity: Jude Law is of English descent with some Scottish roots.

Jude Law was born on December 29, 1972, in London, England, the United Kingdom, to Margaret Anne (Heyworth) and Peter Robert Law, both of whom taught at comprehensive schools; his father later became a headmaster. Law has said that he was named after both the book Jude the Obscure and the song Hey Jude. Jude has one sister, Natasha.

Education

Law attended John Ball Primary School and the Kidbrooke School. Later, he was enrolled at the Alleyn's School where he developed an interest in acting. Law joined the National Youth Music Theatre at age 13, where he acted in such productions as Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. He left school at age 16 after winning a part as a teenage runaway on the British television soap opera Families.

Career

Jude Law began acting in 1987 with the National Youth Music Theatre and appeared in the play Bodywork. He then had various roles in the play The Ragged Child in 1988. That year, he also appeared in the play The Little Rats. Soon after this, the actor was cast in the play Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and in the TV film The Tailor of Gloucester in 1989. He had a minor role in the TV soap opera Families in 1990. The following year, he appeared in an episode of the TV series The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

At London's Royal Court he starred in a revival of Live Like Pigs and was nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway production of the National Theatre's Les Parents Terribles in which he co-starred with Kathleen Turner, Eileen Atkins, and Roger Rees.

When he was 17, the offer of a full-time role on British soap Families was enough to make him pack in his A-level studies. The show may have been a flop, but it didn't stop Jude grabbing the attention of casting directors everywhere. Law played the lead in The Crane, a short film made for the British Film Institute which was shown as part of the 1992 London Film Festival.

Over the next several years, Law won parts on stage, in a touring production of Pygmalion and The Fastest Clock in the Universe in London (both 1992), and on TV in both Britain and the United States (a 1990 episode of Sherlock Holmes during the PBS series Mystery!). In 1994, Law made his film debut, in the poorly received British film Shopping; the film also featured Law's future wife, Sadie Frost, an actress best known for her appearance in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

The classically handsome Law initially found a greater measure of success on stage than on screen. He starred in the London production of Les Parents Terribles in 1995 and became the only member of the cast who was invited to reprise his role in the hit Broadway version of the play, Indiscretions. Law earned a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actor for his starring role complete with a much-talked-about nude scene opposite Kathleen Turner, as a son involved in an incestuous relationship with his mother.

By contrast, his first several United States films met with a less than warm reception, both critically and commercially. In 1997, he had important supporting roles in three major American films: in the futuristic thriller Gattaca, co-starring Ethan Hawke, and Uma Thurman, he played a genetically-perfect man crippled in an accident; in both Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, directed by Clint Eastwood and co-starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack, and Wilde, he played dangerously tempting objects of homosexual desire. Though all three films did mediocre business, Law received praise for his magnetic screen presence and, inevitably, his sultry good looks. Several more disappointments followed, including the little-seen I Love You, I Love You Not (1997), co-starring Claire Danes, Music From Another Room (1998), and The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998, released in the United States in 2000).

In 1999, Law's production company, Natural Nylon, which he co-founded with Frost and friends and fellow actors Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor, and Sean Pertwee released its first feature, the unabashedly bizarre eXistenZ, co-starring Law and Jennifer Jason Leigh. In 1999, he also co-starred with Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. As Dickie Greenleaf, Law earned a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

He has proven to be a much-in-demand actor since then, earning up to $10 million per picture, with roles in big-budget Hollywood films such as Enemy at the Gates (2001), Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001) for which he received a second Golden Globe nomination, and Road to Perdition (2002), starring alongside Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. Law received his third Golden Globe nomination and his second Oscar nod for his role in the Civil War drama Cold Mountain (2003), playing Nicole Kidman's shy but honorable sweetheart.

Law also starred in a remake of the romantic comedy Alfie that same year, playing the title role - a part that helped boost Michael Caine's career in the 1960s. Other films during this time include The Aviator (2004) and 2006's All The Kings Men, Breaking and Entering, and The Holiday.

In 2009, Law played another legendary character in Sherlock Holmes. He took on the part of Dr. John Watson, the faithful sidekick to the world's greatest detective (Robert Downey Jr.). The film, directed by Guy Ritchie, proved to be a smash success. The actors teamed up again for the 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. The following year, Law took on another literary role in Anna Karenina. He co-starred as Alexei Karenin, the cuckolded husband of the title character (played by Keira Knightley), in this latest adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy work. Law also lent his voice to the animated film Rise of the Guardians (2012).

Law signed on to play a safe-cracker newly sprung from prison in Dom Hemingway and landed a part in the next Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) with Johnny Depp and Owen Wilson. The following year he was featured in the hit espionage spoof Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy. In 2016, Law starred as writer Thomas Wolfe in Genius, a biopic about famous book editor Max Perkins, played by Colin Firth. Also in 2016, Law began starring in the HBO series The Young Pope. The show earned Emmy consideration the following year, as well as a Golden Globe nomination for its lead actor. Law is set to reprise the role in the upcoming spin-off series, The New Pope.

Then he portrayed roles in the play Obsession and in the movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, both in 2017. In 2018, he played Albus Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018). He then played "The Manager" in Vox Lux (2018) alongside Natalie Portman. He can be seen in Captain Marvel (2019) as Yon-Rogg, leader of the Krees.

Law is confirmed to be returning for a third installment in the Sherlock Holmes franchise, which is planned to be released on December 25, 2020. While Law and Robert Downey Jr. are confirmed, it is not yet known if director Guy Ritchie will return.

Achievements

• 

  Jude Law earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Talented Mr. Ripley with Matt Damon in 1999. Law received another Oscar nod in 2004 for his work in Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman. Jude was selected People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2004. He is the first English-born man to have been given this title by the magazine (David Beckham, in 2015, is the second, and Idris Elba, in 2018, is the third).

Works

More photos

• movie

  • I Heart Huckabees

    (A frustrated young environmentalist who is being exploite...)

    2004
  • The Holiday

    (From writer/director Nancy Meyers comes a romantic comedy...)

    2006
  • Breaking and Entering

    (A story about criminal and emotional theft, "Breaking & E...)

    2006
  • Captain Marvel

    (Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel takes you on a spectacular...)

    2019
  • Repo Men

    (Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star in this ultra-cool acti...)

    2010
  • Sherlock Holmes

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

    2009
  • Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald

    (Newt Scamander is enlisted by Hogwarts Professor Albus Du...)

    2018
  • All The King's Men

    (Sean Penn and Jude Law head an all-star cast in this rive...)

    2006
  • 360

    (A sexy, dramatic thriller about interconnected romantic l...)

    2012
  • Dom Hemingway

    (Jude Law steals the show as Dom Hemingway, a larger-than-...)

    2013
  • Spy

    (Melissa McCarthy is armed and hilarious in this action-pa...)

    2015
  • Black Sea

    (A rogue submarine captain (Jude Law) and a misfit crew go...)

  • Existenz

    (A game designer on the run from assassins must play her l...)

    1999
  • Contagion

    ("Contagion" follows the rapid progress of a lethal airbor...)

    2011
  • Gattaca

    (Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman star in this futuristic sci-f...)

    1997
  • Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

    (A thrilling misadventure involving three ingenious orphan...)

    2004
  • Anna Karenina

    (Keira Knightley and Jude Law dazzle in director Joe Wrigh...)

    2012
  • Genius

    (Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth star in this stirring drama...)

    2016
  • Hugo

    (Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a...)

    2011
  • The Aviator

    (An epic biopic depicting the early years of legendary dir...)

    2004
  • Cold Mountain

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

    2003
  • Vox Lux

    (Natalie Portman leads as a dysfunctional pop-star named C...)

    2018
  • Wilde

    (This lush, historical drama is based on the late Richard ...)

    1997
  • My Blueberry Nights

    (Jude Law plays a big-hearted owner of a small New York di...)

    2007
  • Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

    (The most important party of the Savannah Christmas season...)

    1997
  • Alfie

    (Jude Law turns on the charm as a womanizing New York City...)

    2004
  • Final Cut

    (The film opens with the cast gathering after the funeral ...)

    1998
  • Sleuth

    (Sleuth is a 2007 British-American thriller film directed ...)

    2007
  • Shopping

    (In a decaying British city of the near future, Billy is a...)

    1994
  • I Love You, I Love You Not

    (Hot young stars Claire Danes and Jude Law heat up the scr...)

    1996
  • Closer

    (The lives of four strangers intersect in a complex series...)

    2004
  • Side Effects

    (A young woman's world unravels when a drug prescribed by ...)

  • Road to Perdition

    (Bonds of loyalty are put to the test when a hitman's son ...)

    2002
  • Enemy at the Gates

    (Two Russian and German snipers play a game of cat-and-mou...)

    2001
  • A.I. Artificial Intelligence

    (An advanced prototype robot child named David is programm...)

    2001
  • King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

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

    2017
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley

    (Tom is a young man who believes it's better to be a fake ...)

    1999
  • Music From Another Room

    (A man's search for his one true love, whose birth he assi...)

    1998
  • Bent

    (Max is gay and as such is sent to Dachau concentration ca...)

    1997
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel

    (The Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the adventures of legen...)

    2014
  • The Wisdom Of Crocodiles

    (A vampire in London is searching for the ideal woman to '...)

    1998
  • Rise Of the Guardians

    (An epic adventure of a group of heroes with extraordinary...)

    2012
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

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

    2011
  • The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

    (A fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It t...)

    2009

• TV series

  • The Young Pope

    (Two-time Oscar(R)-nominee Jude Law stars in this 10-episo...)

    2016

Religion

It’s a common misconception that Law is Jewish, being that his first name is the German word for Jew. In actuality, Law isn’t at all religious and his childhood seems rather devoid of spirituality. In fact, Law appears a bit offended by preachers and evangelists. He once said: "I’ve always liked what Thomas More said in Utopia, which is that in Utopia every person is allowed their own lifestyle and religion but no one is allowed to stand on a soapbox and tell others that theirs is right. I thought that was brilliant. Brilliant."

Politics

Law understands that politics is an inherently corrupting force. He has said: "I think what happens is that we think we’re not in charge of it [the politics], and we let the politics be in charge of us… But indeed, politics seems to always fail. We always think that another system may be better, that grass might be greener with another system, but it always fails on us."

He speaks of first becoming involved with political causes during England’s Poll Tax riots because he realized it was an issue that affected him, and really, most Brits. He said: "It’s important for everyone to remember that politics is about how you want to live and the world you want to live in."

Law highly values freedom of speech, which caused him to support and participate in the uprising in Belarus against their oppressive dictatorship - which was charged with suppressing free speech both among artists and intellectuals and the general population and in 2011, participated in street protests against the rule of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. He protested a British PR firm that was encouraging investors to help finance Belarus’ dictatorship.

Views

Law has been active in many charitable activities and supports several different foundations and causes, doing work for organizations including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Make Poverty History, Breast Cancer Care and others. Law is also a peace advocate. Law is also a vegetarian.

In 2002, he directed a Respect for Animals anti-fur cinema commercial. The commercial, titled "Fur and Against", used music composed by Gary Kemp. The commercial included celebrities like Chrissie Hynde, Moby, George Michael, Danny Goffey, Rhys Ifans, Sadie Frost, Helena Christensen, Sir Paul McCartney, Mel C and Stella McCartney.

Documentary filmmaker Jeremy Gilley began a campaign in 1998 to create an official World Peace Day on September 21. Law was his greatest “therapist” and “sounding board,” and he eventually accompanied Gilley on a trip to Afghanistan. Law went to the country to “feel, smell and see” it first-hand. He didn’t get involved to persuade politicians but was more focused on the impact his help could have on the ground. He also wanted to give the world an image of Afghanistan that was filled with hope instead of violence. Ultimately, Gilley’s campaign helped get 1.4 million Afghani children vaccinated and led to a United Nations resolution to support the day of peace. A documentary about the campaign, The Day After Peace, was released at Cannes in 2008.

Quotations: "I honestly have no interest in celebrity whatsoever. If anything, I always cringe at it because it takes away from what I am, which is an actor who wants to be better and do better things."

"I've never been a great believer in relying on good looks to get you through. To me, it's all about the work and what you do in the workplace."

"I don't want to do anything that I'm not passionate about."

Personality

By the time Law was 14, he was skipping school to watch movies. He would take the train from Lewisham (southern London) to Central London and watch three films back-to-back at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Law would then head home and pretend like he was at school all day.

Physical Characteristics: For playing the title role in the 2013 film Dom Hemingway, Jude had to gain 30 pounds. So, he stopped doing exercising and started eating all the wrong stuff (which he was not supposed to eat otherwise) such as red meat, burgers, ice-creams, steaks, etc. He even drank 10 cokes per day.

When the project ended, he breathe a sigh of relief as he wanted to run and do exercising and started working on his body to lose those extra 30 pounds.

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Thomas More

• Writers

  Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, Gabriel García Márquez

• Sport & Clubs

  Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, football, boxing

• Music & Bands

  Radiohead

Connections

Jude was married to actress Sadie Frost from 1997 to 2003. They have three children together. He proposed to Alfie (2004) co-star Sienna Miller on Christmas Day 2004, but the engagement fell through when he cheated on her several months later with his children's nanny. He went on to have a daughter in 2009 with a former girlfriend. Later that same year, Jude reportedly rekindled his relationship with Miller but broke up again in February 2011.

Law became a father for the fourth time, following a brief relationship with American model Samantha Burke in 2008; Burke gave birth to a daughter in September 2009. In October 2014, Jude announced that Catherine Harding was pregnant with his fifth child, but noted that they were "no longer in a relationship." Their daughter Ada was born in March 2015.

On 1 May 2019, Law married his girlfriend Phillipa Coan.

Father:

Peter Robert Law

Mother:

Margaret Anne (Heyworth) Law

Spouse:

Phillipa Coan

In 2015, Jude started dating psychologist Phillipa Coan. In May 2015, the rumors of them dating started surfacing the internet.

colleague:

Laurence Fishburne III

Sister:

Natasha Law

ex-spouse:

Sadie Frost

Law has a tattoo on his left forearm of words from The Beatles song, "Sexy Sadie", which states "You came along to turn on everyone Sexy Sadie", representing his ex-wife, Sadie Frost.

ex-girlfriend:

Samantha Burke

American model Samantha Burke and Jude Law were romantically linked to each other in the summer of 2008. From Samantha, Jude has a child, his fourth, daughter named, Sophia who was born in September 2009.

ex-girlfriend:

Catherine Harding

Daughter:

Iris Law

Son:

Rafferty Law

Daughter:

Sophia Law

Son:

Rudy Law

Daughter:

Ada Law

ex-fiancée:

Sienna Miller

Alfie co-stars, Sienna Miller and Jude started dating in December 2003 and on December 25, 2004, they got engaged. Law started an affair with his children’s nanny while he was still in a relationship with Sienna. Later, it came into notice that Sienna was also dating Daniel Craig at that time. The couple finally called it quits in November 2006. They reconciled again in December 2009. They spent their time together during Christmas 2009 at Barbados along with Jude’s three children. Again, they split in February 2011.

When Law began dating Sienna Miller, paparazzi unsurprisingly developed an even greater interest in him. Aside from camping outside his house, journalists from News International were convicted of hacking into the phones of Law, Miller and their colleagues.

colleague:

Jennifer Tilly

colleague:

Willem Dafoe

colleague:

Gwyneth Paltrow

colleague:

Renée Zellweger

colleague:

Cillian Murphy

colleague:

Leonardo DiCaprio

colleague:

Alec Baldwin

colleague:

Mark Ruffalo

colleague:

Vera Farmiga

colleague:

Guy Ritchie

Law named Guy Ritchie among his favorite directors. Law admires Ritchie’s confidence in directing big-budget movies. Law remarks that some directors find it intimidating, meanwhile Ritchie “eats that stuff for breakfast.”

colleague:

Robert Downey Jr.

Law took the role in Sherlock Holmes because he was a big fan of his costar Robert Downey Jr.

colleague:

Liev Schreiber

colleague:

Charlie Hunnam

colleague:

Selena Gomez

colleague:

Elle Fanning

colleague:

Blake Lively

colleague:

Brie Larson

Friend:

Ewan McGregor

Prior to Hollywood stardom, Law and Ewan McGregor (best known as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars prequel trilogy) were roommates, which made them good friends.

Law and McGregor, along with four others, started a film production company called Natural Nylon in 1997. The purpose of Natural Nylon was to bypass big studios and create "character-driven" films, as opposed to plot-driven.

Due to their schedules, Law and McGregor both stepped down from directorship roles at the company, and it did not last long after their departures. Law made his exit in 2003 and McGregor stepped down one year prior. The other founding members of the company kept it going for a time, with some continued input from Law and McGregor, but it ended up folding about a year after Law left.

References

• Jude Law
  2005