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Toby Stephens (born 21 April 1969) is an English stage, television and film actor, best known for playing supervillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002) and Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre (2006). Stephens, the son of actors Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, was born in London, England. He was educated at Aldro and Seaford College and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He began his film career with the role of Othello in 1992`s Orlando. He has since made regular appearances on television (including in The Camomile Lawn) and on stage. He has gained acclaim as a stage actor of distinction, notably playing the title role in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Coriolanus shortly after graduation from LAMDA; that same season he played Claudio in Measure for Measure for the RSC. He also played Stanley Kowalski in a West End production of Tennessee Williams` A Streetcar Named Desire, and Hamlet in 2004. He has appeared on Broadway in Ring Round the Moon. He played the lead in the film Photographing Fairies and played Orsino in Trevor Nunn`s film of Twelfth Night. In 2002 he took on the role for which he is most widely known, that of Gustav Graves in the James Bond movie Die Another Day.

On 24 January 2009, the BBC World Service will broadcast a radio drama entitled My Dark Places, starring Stephens as James Ellroy. The drama is based on Ellroy`s autobiographical book of the same name. Over the years, Stephens has continued to prolifically narrate audiobooks and perform in broadcast radio dramas; between November 2007 and January 2009 alone, he gave 10 such performances. Most recently, the Donmar Warehouse in London announced that Stephens will appear in their upcoming production of Ibsen`s A Doll`s House alongside Gillian Anderson and Christopher Eccleston. The play is scheduled to run from mid-May until mid-July 2009.

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