Background

Neil Fingleton was born on December 18, 1980, in Durham, England, to the family of Christine and Michael. He had an older brother, Michael, and an older sister, Keely.

Education

After attending a basketball camp in Connecticut when he was 16, Fingleton made the decision to attend high school in the United States. In 1997, he relocated from Durham to Worcester, Massachusetts, United States, and was enrolled in Holy Name Central Catholic High School, from which he graduated in 2000. He studied there under J. P. Ricciardi, who would later get a position general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays team.

Fingleton received a basketball scholarship to the United States first playing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. In August 2000, Fingleton had back surgery and then earned a medical redshirt from North Carolina. Fingleton also once played with North Carolina then shifted to Holy Cross in 2002. In 2004, he obtained a degree in history from Holy Cross.

Career

Fingleton's professional debut was during the 2004–2005 season with the Boston Frenzy of the ABA. The Frenzy waived Fingleton in December 2004. In the 2005 NBA Development League Draft, the Austin Toros selected Fingleton as the eighth pick in the fifth round. On 6 December 2005, Fingleton started playing with the English Basketball League team Tees Valley Mohawks. In November 2006, Fingleton signed with Spanish team CB Illescas and later with Ciudad Real. After an injury forced him to retire in 2007, he returned to his home city of Durham to pursue a career in showbusiness.

Two 2007 British TV documentaries, Britain's Tallest Men and Superhuman: Giants featured Fingleton and covered the difficulties and constant attention, quite often considerable rudeness, that he faces day to day.

Once named as Britain’s tallest man, the 7ft 7in star played Mag the Mighty in the fantasy series Game of Thrones and also took on roles in X-Men: First Class and Jupiter Ascending. He also provided the motion capture for the CGI character Ultron (which was voiced by James Spader) in the Marvel Studios film Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Fingleton appeared in a two-part serial written by Toby Whithouse for the 9th series of Doctor Who, filming in January 2015 in Cardiff. He played the villain "The Fisher King," an alien warlord. The series was transmitted in autumn 2015.

Achievements

• 

  Neil Fingleton was the tallest British-born man and the tallest man in the European Union at 7 ft 7.56 in (232.6 cm) in height and among the 25 tallest men in the world. This allowed him to made a successful career in both basketball and film industries.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • 47 Ronin

    (After a warlord banishes their kind, a band of 47 leaderl...)

    2013
  • Jupiter Ascending

    (From the streets of Chicago to far flung galaxies, Jupite...)

    2015
  • X-men: First Class

    (The uncanny comic book mutants come together for the firs...)

    2011
  • Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron

    (Marvel Studios unleashes the epic follow-up to Marvel's T...)

    2015

• TV series

  • Game of Thrones

    (Nine noble families wage war against each other in order ...)

    2014

Views

Quotations: On the Guinness World Records website, Fingleton says:

"I am one of three siblings – my sister who is 6'3" is the eldest at 30, my brother is 6'8" who is 29 and I am 7'7" at 26 ... my mother is 6 foot and my father was also. My great grandfather was 6'8". I have always been taller than everyone since I can remember. My height really took off when I reached 11 and was touching 7 foot. By the time I was 16 I was 7'5" and stopping growing at 18 when I was 7'7.56."

"I have never been self-conscious about my height. I am more conscious of going bald so that should tell you. I never let my height play a negative part of my life. I always do what I want, some tall people may be restricted as they are constantly stared at or people ask the same questions over and over. This is the only bad thing about being tall – the stupid remarks and questions. Other than that, being tall is great."

"I have been doing acting work since my basketball career finished. I spent eight years in the USA attending High School and College. I graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 2004 with a degree in History. I have played professionally in Greece, Italy, Spain. Now I am concentrating on acting and trying to move to LA soon to jump in with both feet so to speak."

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Height: 232 cm (7 ft 7 in)

Weight: 168 kg (370 lb)

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  Basketball

Connections

Neil Fingleton was not married.

Father:

Michael Fingleton

Mother:

Christine Fingleton

Sister:

Keely Fingleton

Brother:

Michael Fingleton

colleague:

Kit Harington

Kit Harington is an English actor and producer. He is best known for portraying the role of Jon Snow in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

colleague:

Ian Whyte

Ian Stuart Whyte is a Welsh actor, stuntman, former professional basketball player. He is best known for his time with Newcastle Eagles and roles in movies such as Alien vs. Predator (2004, 2007), Game of Thrones (2011), and Star Wars (2015, 2016, 2017).

colleague:

Kristofer Hivju

(born 7 December 1978)

Kristofer Hivju is a Norwegian actor.

colleague:

Iwan Rheon

(born 13 May 1985)

Iwan Rheon is a Welsh actor, singer, and musician.

References

• Focus On: 100 Most Popular Centers (Basketball): Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Neil Fingleton, Kevin Garnett, Tristan Thompson, Pau Gasol, Hafþór ... Manute Bol, Hakeem Olajuwon, etc.