Branagh and Thompson

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Description: Kenneth Branagh with Emma Thompson

Kenneth Branagh: Branagh was born in Belfast to working-class Protestant parents Frances (Harper) and William Branagh, a carpenter who ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings.He was educated at Grove Primary School. At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to Reading in England to escape the Troubles between Protestants and Catholics. Branagh achieved some early measure of success in his native Northern Ireland for his role as the title character in the BBC's Play for Today series known as the Billy Plays, written by Graham Reid and set in Belfast. He has worked on both stage and screen. He received initial acclaim in the UK for his stage performances, including the title role in Hamlet. More recently, in 2003, he starred in the Royal National Theatre's production of David Mamet's Edmond. Branagh is probably best known for his film adaptations of the works of William Shakespeare, beginning with Henry V in 1989, Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost, and Hamlet, with As You Like It' following in 2006. As You Like It premiered in theatres in Europe, but was sent directly to television in the U.S., where it had its U.S. premiere on HBO in August of 2007. Although Branagh played the role of Iago on the 1995 Othello, he did not direct the film; it was directed by Oliver Parker. Branagh has also been involved in several made-for-TV films. Among his most acclaimed portrayals is that of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in the 2005 film Warm Springs. Though the film received sixteen Emmy nominations, winning five (including Best Made-For-Television Film), Branagh did not win the award for his portrayal. He did, however, receive an Emmy award for his performance in the 2001 TV Conspiracy, a depiction of the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi officials conceived the Final Solution. Branagh's award winning performance was for the part of Reinhard Heydrich. Branagh has been nominated for four Academy Awards. His first two nominations were for Henry V (one each for directing and acting), then one for the 1992 film short subject Swan Song, and again for his work on the screenplay of Hamlet in 1996. Included amongst his many other accolades is a nomination for “worst” supporting actor Razzie in 1999 for his performance in the film Wild Wild West. Branagh has co-starred several times with actress Emma Thompson, to whom he was married from 1989 to 1995. They appeared together in Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Dead Again, and Peter's Friends. For several years he was in a well-publicised relationship with Helena Bonham Carter, with whom he also starred and directed in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. In 2003 he married film art director Lindsay Brunnock , to whom he was introduced by Bonham Carter in 1997. In 1990, at age 30, Branagh authored an autobiography, which he entitled Beginning, and has narrated several audio books such as The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. In 1994, Branagh declined an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Branagh was the youngest actor to receive the Golden Quill (also known as the Gielgud Award) in 2000.

Emma Thompson: Born April 1959, Paddington London England. After leaving Cambridge Emma first come to fame with Hugh Laurie and Steven Fry, in a comedy sketch show, Alfresco. Since then she has become well known as an Oscar winning actress in such works as Howards End (co-starring Anthony Hopkins). She has also written a screenplay in 1995, Sense and Sensibility in which she won a second Oscar. She currently plays Professor Trelawny in the Harry Potter movies.

Put your friend in the picture with the stars! This is the one gift you can guarantee that no-one else will have. You send, upload or email us a photo of your friend and we will seamlessly merge it into a high-quality A4-sized photo with their heroes. The picture can be mounted in a frame of your choice (16inch x 12inch) with double mounts, in a special Famous Friends presentation box.

Photo Ref: 1475