Background

Peter Hayden Dinklage was born on June 11, 1969, in Morristown, New Jersey, to John Carl Dinklage, an insurance salesman, and Diane Dinklage, an elementary-school music teacher. He was born with achondroplasia, a common form of dwarfism. Dinklage grew up as the only dwarf in his family in the historic Brookside section of Mendham Township, New Jersey, with his parents and older brother, Jonathan. His older brother Jonathan Dinklage graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and is a violinist for the musical Hamilton.

Education

As a child, Dinklage and his brother performed puppet musicals for people in their neighborhood. Dinklage has described his brother Jonathan as being the "real performer of the family," saying that his brother's passion for the violin was the only thing that kept him from pursuing acting.

Dinklage had his first theatrical success in a fifth-grade production of The Velveteen Rabbit. Playing the lead, he was delighted by the audience's response to the show. Dinklage attended Delbarton School, a Catholic preparatory school for boys, where he developed his acting. In 1984, Dinklage was inspired by a production of the play True West, written by American playwright Sam Shepard, to pursue a career in acting.

Dinklage then attended Bennington College, where he studied for a drama degree and also appeared in numerous productions before graduating in 1991.

Career

After graduating in 1991, Dinklage and a Bennington classmate moved to Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighbourhood and founded a theatre group modeled on Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The project failed to take off, however, and Dinklage appeared in Off-Broadway productions while working at a variety of day jobs to support himself. He refused to accept parts that typecast him because of his height, and in his first big-screen role, the independent film Living in Oblivion (1995), Dinklage delivers a scathing indictment of Hollywood’s treatment of dwarfs.

A succession of film and TV roles followed, but Dinklage’s true breakthrough came in 2003 with the movie The Station Agent. The role of Finbar McBride, an introverted man who inherits an abandoned train station in Newfoundland, New Jersey, was created by writer and director Tom McCarthy specifically for Dinklage, and the film was the toast of the festival circuit. Dinklage was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, but critical acclaim did not immediately translate into a flood of opportunities as a leading man. Dinklage starred in the short-lived science-fiction TV series Threshold (2005–06) and had a recurring role in the FX series Nip/Tuck (2006) before moving on to such family-friendly films as Underdog (2007) and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008).

His profile dramatically increased after the success of the television fantasy epic Game of Thrones, which debuted in 2011. The series, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels, depicted a world of graphic sex and violence, in which magic became increasingly prevalent as the story progressed. Within that atmosphere, the political machinations of a handful of characters shaped the fates of entire continents, and though Dinklage as the perceptive and acerbic Tyrion was perhaps the least-likely grandmaster at that game, he excelled at injecting wry humor into the often grim high-stakes setting of Game of Thrones. His nuanced performance garnered accolades from both viewers and critics, and he won a handful of Emmy Awards for best supporting actor in a drama series (2011, 2015, and 2018) as well as a Golden Globe Award (2012). The series ended in 2019.

Later big-screen roles included the villainous Bolivar Trask in the comic-book blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and a supporting part in the Adam Sandler vehicle Pixels (2015). In 2016 he gave voice to the Mighty Eagle in the animated Angry Birds and appeared as Renault in a star-studded cast featuring Melissa McCarthy in The Boss. In the sci-fi mystery Rememory (2017), Dinklage’s character searches for the killer of a man who invented a machine that can extract and record people’s memories. He also had a supporting role in the critically acclaimed drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). Dinklage later portrayed a survivor of the apocalypse who soon befriends a young woman in I Think We’re Alone Now (2018). He then starred as French actor Hervé Villechaize, known for the TV series Fantasy Island (1977–84), in the biopic My Dinner with Hervé (2018), which aired on the cable network HBO.

In August and September 2018, he starred in the title role of a new musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, a role he is scheduled to reprise with the Off-Broadway debut of the production during the 2019-2020 season.

Achievements

• 

  With his natural wit, charm and striking blue eyes, Peter Hayden Dinklage has captivated audiences from all over the world. He has managed to find his mark in the film and entertainment industry despite a non-film background. He is best recognized by his lead role in the film ‘The Station Agent’ and his portrayal of the character of Tyrion Lannister in the popular television series ‘Game of Thrones.’ He has been nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards and 14 Screen Actor Guild Awards, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Screen Actor Guild Award and a Golden Globe Award.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

    (A woman tries to bring her outlaw lover home for a proper...)

    2010
  • The Station Agent

    (Winner of 2003 Sundance Film Festival awards, The Station...)

    2003
  • Death at a Funeral

    (As the mourners and guests at a British country manor str...)

    2007
  • Low Down

    (Jazz pianist Joe Albany (John Hawkes) and his daughter Am...)

    2014
  • 13 Moons

    (Things aren't looking so good for television clown Banana...)

    2002
  • Little Fugitive

    (With his father, Sam (Peter Dinklage), in prison and his ...)

    2006
  • Human Nature

    (From the creators of Being John Malkovich and starring Ti...)

    2001
  • Penelope

    (A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress...)

    2006
  • Jailbait

    (Randy commits a victimless crime that would normally get ...)

    2004
  • Avengers: Infinity War

    (With the powerful Thanos on the verge of raining destruct...)

    2018
  • The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

    (The Pevensie siblings return to Narnia, where they are en...)

    2008
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

    (Award-winning actress Frances McDormand (Fargo) delivers ...)

    2017
  • The Angriest Man In Brooklyn

    (Believing he has only 90 minutes to live, a grumpy middle...)

    2014
  • Find Me Guilty

    (Honor among thieves has never been more evident than in t...)

    2006
  • A Little Bit of Heaven

    (An irreverent young woman (Kate Hudson) who uses her humo...)

    2011
  • Rememory

    (When an inventor turns up dead, a mysterious man (Peter D...)

    2017
  • Pixels

    (An unlikely group of former '80s video game champions ste...)

  • X-Men: Days of Future Past

    (The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effor...)

    2014
  • A Case of You

    (Justin Long and Evan Rachel Wood star in this romantic co...)

    2013
  • The Baxter

    (In the style of a Howard Hawks comedy, Baxter follows the...)

  • I Think We're Alone Now

    (The apocalypse proves a blessing in disguise for one luck...)

    2018
  • The Angry Birds Movie

    (In this clever animated comedy, meet Red, Chuck, and Bomb...)

    2016
  • Death At A Funeral

    (Death at a Funeral is a hilarious day in the life of an A...)

    2010
  • Saint John of Las Vegas

    (The deck is stacked with oddball characters and outrageou...)

    2009
  • Bullet

    (Butch "Bullet" Stein, a Jewish junkie from the mean stree...)

    1996
  • Knights of Badassdom

    (Live-action role players conjure up a demon from Hell by ...)

    2013
  • The Boss

    (Melissa McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell, a titan of in...)

    2016
  • Pete Smalls Is Dead

    (Two old pals attend an old friends funeral and find there...)

    2010
  • Never Again

    (Two people who have pledged never to fall in love again t...)

    2001
  • Elf

    (One Christmas Eve a long time ago, a baby crawled into Sa...)

    2003
  • I Love You Too

    (A commitment-phobe and a New Ager buddy-up to win over th...)

    2010
  • Ice Age: Continental Drift

    (Manny, Diego, and Sid embark upon another adventure after...)

    2012
  • The Angry Birds Movie 2

    (The flightless birds and scheming green pigs take their b...)

    2019
  • Safe Men

    (Two untalented singers are mistaken for major league safe...)

    1998
  • Underdog

    (A beagle finds himself with super powers and the ability ...)

    2007
  • Tiptoes

    (The story of a peculiar love triangle involving two broth...)

    2003
  • Just A Kiss

    (All they wanted was the relationship of their dreams. All...)

    2002
  • Lassie

    ("Faultlessly written and directed...with a first-rate cas...)

    2005
  • Living in Oblivion

    (The film is about filmmaking. It takes place during one d...)

    1995

• TV series

  • Game of Thrones: The Complete Seasons 1-8

    (Nine noble families fight for control over the mythical l...)

  • Nip/Tuck

    (The dark and twisted trials of two plastic surgeons. )

    2006
  • Threshold - The Complete Series

    (A team of experts are assembled after the U.S. Navy disco...)

    2005

Religion

In 2008, Dinklage described himself as a lapsed Catholic.

Politics

In 2017, Dinklage attended the Women's March demonstration in Park City, Utah, to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights and other issues. When asked about the news that President Donald Trump is reportedly ending the funding for national arts and humanities programs, Dinklage responded: "It's always the first to go, isn't it? Art, then education: the two most important things," along with "climate, of course."

Views

Dinklage has been a vegetarian since the age of 16. An advocate for animal rights, he supports Farm Sanctuary and has served as the spokesperson for the organization's Walk for Farm Animals. He also narrated the video Face your Food, a film on behalf of PETA advocating a vegan diet on ethical grounds. He appeared in another PETA campaign, asking Game of Thrones fans to adopt from shelters rather than to buy huskies that might look like dire wolves.

Quotations: "I waited a long time out in the world before I gave myself permission to fail. Please don't even bother asking. Don't bother telling the world you are ready. Show it. Do it."

"I hate that word - 'lucky.' It cheapens a lot of hard work."

"I spend my nights just sitting and reading a book and drinking my tea and walking my dog. That's about as exciting as my life gets."

On his dwarfism: "When I was younger, definitely, I let it get to me. As an adolescent, I was bitter and angry and I definitely put up these walls. But the older you get, you realize you just have to have a sense of humour. You just know that it's not your problem. It's theirs."

"You can say no. You can not be the object of ridicule."

"I was fortunate enough to have an upbringing that made me more accepting of who I am."

"I love animals. All animals. I wouldn't hurt a cat or a dog - or a chicken, or a cow. And I wouldn't ask someone else to hurt them for me. That's why I'm a vegetarian."

"Any swagger is just defense. When you're reminded so much of who you are by people - not a fame thing, but with my size, constantly, growing up - you just either curl up in a corner in the dark or you wear it proudly, like armor or something. You can turn it on its head and use it yourself before anybody else gets a chance."

"Saying I was lucky negates the hard work I put in and spits on that guy who’s freezing his ass off back in Brooklyn."

Personality

Dinklage is considered such a genuinely pleasant and amiable person by his costars on "Game of Thrones", that many of them find it quite difficult to act out scenes with him in which they're mistreating his character Tyrion. He and Lena Headey are such good friends, in fact, they share an apartment whenever they're filming scenes and drive together to the set each day, even though their characters have a mutual hatred of each other. Charles Dance has also expressed disdain for how his character treats Tyrion, stating that he finds it hard to be so mean to a nice man like Dinklage.

He is a smoker.

Dinklage has immense love for all animals and has been a vegetarian since his teenage years. When audiences see him eating meat onscreen, he is actually eating tofu in reality.

He describes himself as "kind of an old luddite when it comes to technology."

Physical Characteristics: Dinklage's face was injured in the early 1990s, when he was in a "punk-funk-rap" band called Whizzy. It gave him a scar that runs from his neck to his eyebrow. The accident happened while he was playing at the nightclub CBGB in New York City, where he was accidentally kneed in the face and then started bleeding on the stage.

Dinklage has a form of dwarfism, achondroplasia, which affects bone growth. As a result, he is 4 feet 5 inches (135 cm) tall, with an average-sized head and torso but shorter than average limbs. While Dinklage has come to accept his condition, he sometimes found it challenging when growing up. In 2003, he said that when he was younger he was often angry and bitter about his condition, but as he got older, he realized that he "just ha(s) to have a sense of humor," to know "that it's not your problem. It's theirs." When asked in 2012 whether he saw himself as "a spokesman for the rights of little people," Dinklage responded: "I don't know what I would say. Everyone's different. Every person my size has a different life, a different history. Different ways of dealing with it. Just because I'm seemingly okay with it, I can't preach how to be okay with it." Despite his own sentiment about the matter, Dinklage has been viewed as a role model for people sharing his condition.

Interests

• Favorite food - sandwich, cereal
  
  Favorite clothes - hooded sweatshirt
  
  Favorite superhero - Batman

• Writers

  To Kill a Mockingbird, novel by Harper Lee

• Artists

  Favorite actor – Gary Oldman

• Sport & Clubs

  Scooter riding

• Music & Bands

  Whizzy

Connections

In 2005, Dinklage married Erica Schmidt, a theater director. The name of their daughter, born in 2011, has not been revealed publicly, and Dinklage has denied media reports that the girl's name is "Zelig." Dinklage and Schmidt had a second child in 2017. The couple never revealed the name or sex of this second child.

Father:

John Carl Dinklage

John worked as an insurance salesman but is famously known as the father of the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) actor. He also served as an Army First Lieutenant in Korea from 1955 to 1957. According to his son, fly-fishing was one thing he loved doing with his then little children. John married Diane in 1966 and in 1969 Peter was born.

Mother:

Diane Hayden Dinklage

Diane taught music at elementary school for several years and is the ever-supportive mother to her two sons.

Spouse:

Erica Schmidt

Erica is a theatre director and actress famous for her role in Miles from Nowhere (2002). She started off with acting but ventured into theatre directing when jobs were not forthcoming as an actress. Her husband sees her as an inspiring woman with a very artistic mind. Dinklage says that unlike other actors who have made film their ultimate goal, his wife considers theatre as sacred; the art not just entertainment.

Schmidt and Dinklage treasure their private loves so much that you would never see them voraciously updating their social media pages with details of themselves other than their professional works. The highly reserved lovers are seen from time to time however exchanging sweet glances at each other at events and have been caught on camera quit a few of these PDA (Public Display of Affection) moments.

Brother:

Jonathan Hayden Dinklage

When Peter was a kid, he and Jonathan would put on puppet musicals for the neighborhood. They puppet shows and even made drum kits out of tuna cans. The Dinklage brothers were indeed the perfect version of two peas in a pod when it came to their taste in entertainment. Now that both sons are grown, we hear only of the more famous one because Jonathan is busy living a quiet life as a violinist. The vegetarian Dinklage stated that his brother’s love for the violin was the only thing that stopped him from pursuing a career in acting as he is the real performer of the family. Jonathan is married to Ta’Rea Campbell.

Friend:

Steve Buscemi

(born December 13, 1957)

Steve Buscemi is an American actor, filmmaker and former firefighter.

Friend:

Lena Headey

(born 3 October 1973)

Lena Headey is an English actress.

colleague:

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is a Danish actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for playing Ser Jaime Lannister in HBO’s hit series ‘Game of Thrones.’ He is also known for appearing in a number of movies, such as ‘Nightwatch,’ ‘A Thousand Times Good Night,’ and ‘Headhunters,’ to name a few.

colleague:

Emilia Clarke

(born 23 October 1986)

Emilia Clarke is an English actress.

colleague:

Kit Harington

(born 26 December 1986)

Kit Harington is an English actor.

colleague:

Maisie Williams

(born 15 April 1997)

Maisie Williams is an English actress.

colleague:

Isaac Hempstead-Wright

(born April 9, 1999)

Isaac Hempstead-Wright is an English actor.

colleague:

Jacob Anderson

(born 18 June 1990)

Jacob Anderson is a British actor, singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer.

colleague:

Kristofer Hivju

(born 7 December 1978)

Kristofer Hivju is a Norwegian actor.

colleague:

Nathalie Emmanuel

(born 2 March 1989)

Nathalie Emmanuel is an English actress.

colleague:

Richard Dormer

(born 11 November 1969)

Richard Dormer is a Northern Irish actor, playwright, and screenwriter.

colleague:

Joseph Dempsie

Joseph Maxwell Dempsie is an English actor. He is known for the roles of Chris Miles in the E4 teen comedy-drama Skins (2007–2008) and Gendry in Game of Thrones.

colleague:

Carice van Houten

Carice van Houten is a Dutch actress and singer. She is known for her role in the HBO’s fantasy TV series Game of Thrones as the Melisandre of Asshai. She also has a leading role in the TV film Suzy and for her role in the film, she won Golden Calf Award for Best Acting in a Television Drama.

colleague:

Daniel Portman

Daniel Porter, known professionally as Daniel Portman, is a Scottish actor. He is best known for his role as Podrick Payne on HBO's Game of Thrones.

colleague:

Conleth Hill

(born 24 November 1964)

He is an actor from Northern Ireland.

colleague:

Sophie Turner

Sophie Belinda Jonas (née Turner) is a British actress and model. She made her professional acting debut in ‘Game of Thrones’, the immensely successful ‘HBO’ fantasy television series based on ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’, a series of fantasy novels authored by George R. R. Martin.

colleague:

Liam Cunningham

Liam Cunningham is an Irish award-winning actor with a long career on TV, stage and film. He has appeared in films such as Clash of the Titans, Hunger, First Knight and Jude, and TV series including Outcasts, Camelot and Northanger Abbey. He is also known for playing Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series Game of Thrones.

colleague:

Iain Glen

Iain Glen is a Scottish film, television, and stage actor. His talents are well portrayed in his roles as Ser Jorah Mormont in the popular HBO TV series - Game of Thrones. Other notable roles include John Hanning Speke in Mountains of the Moon, Sir Richard Carlisle in Downton Abbey, the title role in Jack Taylor, and Jarrod Slade in Cleverman.

References

• Rolling Stone Magazine (May 24, 2012) Game of Thrones: Peter Dinklage Cover
• Entertainment Weekly Magazine March 23, 2012 - Game Of Thrones / Peter Dinklage Cover
• TV Guide Magazine April 1-14 2019 Peter Dinklage Tyrion Lannister Game of Thrones
• Esquire Magazine (March, 2014) Peter Dinklage (The Game of Thrones) Cover
• Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones) l Kyle Chandler l Cinderella l Paula Hawkins l Delilah - Entertainment Weekly Magazine