See also Biography Index (R) :: Filmography Index (R) :: Discography Index (R)

Rory Kinnear (born 17 February 1978) is an English actor. The son of actor Roy Kinnear and actress Carmel Cryan, he has two sisters, Kirsty and Karina, and is the god-son of the late Michael Williams. Educated at Tower House School and St Paul`s School (London), read English at Balliol College, Oxford and then studied acting at LAMDA. Kinnear met with particular acclaim for his performances in Phyllida Lloyd`s production of Mary Stuart and Trevor Nunn`s Hamlet, in which he played Laertes. He also acheived recognition as the outrageous Sir Fopling Flutter in The Man of Mode at the National Theatre, winning a Laurence Olivier Award and Ian Charleson Award. Other notable theatre work includes the lead in Thomas Middleton`s The Revenger`s Tragedy, the role of Pyotr in Gorky`s Philistines and the role of Mitia in a stage adaptation of the Nikita Mikhalkov film Burnt by the Sun, all for the National Theatre. Nicholas Hytner, current artistic director of the National Theatre, is reportedly eager to stage his own Hamlet there in the near future, with Kinnear, this time, in the title role. Further to his theatre work, notable television roles include The Curse of Steptoe (2008), Mansfield Park, Five Days (2007), Silent Witness (2005), Secret Smile, Judas (2004), The Second Coming (2003), Ultimate Force (2002) and Judge John Deed (2001). He received particularly positive reviews for his sympathetic portrayal of Denis Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley (2008), a BBC dramatisation of the early years of Margaret Thatcher`s political career, which also starred Andrea Riseborough and Samuel West. In 2008 he portrayed Bill Tanner in the 22nd Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, though his film credits are not, as yet, extensive.