Table of Contents
Tom Hardy
Full Name
Edward Thomas “Tom” Hardy is his full name.1)
Father
Edward “Chips” Hardy, his father, is a novelist and comic writer.2)
Birth
Hardy was born in the London borough of Hammersmith September 15, 1977.3)
Mother
His mother, Anne, is a painter and artist.4)
Outstanding Newcomer
He received the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his roles in both In Arabia We'd All Be Kings and Blood.5)
Education
He attended Tower House School and Reed's School before attending Richmond Drama School and the Drama Centre London.6)
Great Beginnings
He appeared in the 2007 production of The Man of Mode and garnered great reviews for his performance in the 2010 drama The Long Red Road, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.7)
First Movie
He made his cinematic debut in Black Hawk Down.8)
Laurence Olivier Award
For his performance as Skank in the 2003 production of In Arabia We'd All Be King, he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Most Promising Newcomer.9)
TV Roles
The HBO military drama miniseries Band of Brothers, the BBC historical drama miniseries The Virgin Queen, ITV's Wuthering Heights, the BBC British historical crime drama television series Peaky Blinders, and the Sky 1 drama series The Take are among Hardy's television roles.10)
Find Me a Supermodel
At the age of 21, Hardy won The Big Breakfast's Find Me a Supermodel competition in 1998.11)
Big Movies
His other significant films include Star Trek: Nemesis, RocknRolla, the biographical psychological drama Bronson, the science fiction thriller Inception, the sports drama Warrior, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the crime drama Lawless, the drama Locke, and the gangster flick The Drop.12)
Other Big Films
He also played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, “Mad” Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road, and both Kray brothers in the murder thriller Legend.13)
Drama Centre London
Hardy joined Drama Centre London in September 1998, but was let go soon after after landing the role of US Army Private John Janovec in the award-winning HBO-BBC miniseries Band of Brothers.14)
Sarah Ward
Hardy married Sarah Ward in 1999, but the couple divorced in 2004.15)
A for Andromeda
Hardy appeared in BBC Four's production of the 1960s science fiction series A for Andromeda.16)
Legend
In the crime thriller Legend, he played London thugs Reggie and Ronnie Kray in a dual role.17)
Mad Max
In 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, Hardy portrayed the titular character, Max Rockatansky. Critics loved his portrayal, and the film achieved both critical acclaim and box office success. As of July 2015, it had earned $366 million against a budget of $150 million, making it the highest-grossing picture in the Mad Max franchise.18)
The Virgin Queen
Hardy played Robert Dudley, Elizabeth I's boyhood companion, in the 2005 BBC drama The Virgin Queen. Throughout her reign over England in the 16th century, the miniseries depicts them as enjoying a platonic, yet intensely amorous, romance.19)
RocknRolla
Hardy starred as homosexual mobster Handsome Bob in Guy Ritchie's London gangster flick RocknRolla in September 2008.20)
Louis Thomas
He has a kid, Louis Thomas, with his ex-girlfriend Rachael Speed from 2004 to 2009.21)
Charlotte Riley
Hardy started dating actress Charlotte Riley in 2009. Riley and Hardy met while filming Wuthering Heights. The pair proposed in 2010 and married in July 2014. They have two rescue dogs, one of which Hardy appears in a PETA advertisement to promote pet adoption. The couple had their first child together in October 2015.22)
Bronson
He gained three stone (19 kg/42 pounds) for the film Bronson.23)
GQ
In 2015, Hardy was named one of GQ magazine's 50 best dressed British guys.24)
Addictions
In his early to mid-20s, Hardy battled alcohol and crack cocaine problems. He went to treatment and has been clean and sober since 2003.25)
Patrons Of Bowel Cancer UK
He and Riley became patrons of Bowel Cancer UK in 2012.26)
Star Trek And Batman
He is the only actor to have played a villain in both the Star Trek and Batman franchises (in Star Trek Nemesis) (in The Dark Knight Rises).27)
Michael Fassbender
He was in the same theater class as Michael Fassbender, whom Hardy described as the most gifted actor in the school.28)
Dog
Because he was a fan of the film Mad Max, Hardy called his childhood dog Max.29)
Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman is his acting idol, with whom he has already collaborated three times, in The Dark Knight Rises, Lawless, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.30)