31 Facts About Mark Strong

Mark Strong's father left the family soon after Strong's birth, and Strong was brought up by his mother while she worked as an au pair.

When Mark Strong was young, his mother legally changed his name to help him fit in with his English peers.

Mark Strong had ambitions to become a lawyer but returned to London after one year of studying German law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Mark Strong subsequently studied English and drama at Royal Holloway, University of London before attending the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Mark Strong appeared in two Prime Suspect serials for ITV as Inspector Larry Hall, in Prime Suspect 3 and Prime Suspect 6.

Mark Strong had starring roles in two BBC Two drama serials, Our Friends in the North and The Long Firm, earning a BAFTA nomination for the latter.

Mark Strong played the villainous Colonel Brand in Sharpe's Mission.

Mark Strong portrayed the romantic lead, Mr Knightley, in the 1996 ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma.

Mark Strong then played the role of Steve in the 1997 film adaptation of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch.

At the beginning of the 2000s, Mark Strong appeared in Heartlands and in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Donmar Warehouse, for which he was nominated for the 2003 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role.

Mark Strong was later featured in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist, played Mussawi in the film Syriana, and played an assassin named Sorter in Revolver.

In 2009, Mark Strong played a lead part in the Channel 4 film Endgame, and he played Lord Blackwood, the main villain, in Sherlock Holmes, who has somehow returned after his execution with a plot to take over the British Empire using an arsenal of dark arts and new technologies.

Mark Strong went on to work with Ridley Scott a second time in the 2010 epic adventure film Robin Hood, portraying antagonist Sir Godfrey.

Mark Strong says he is drawn to playing antagonists, trying to "understand the purpose of the character" and building a believable individual.

In 2011, Mark Strong played Thaal Sinestro, a Green Lantern and Hal Jordan's mentor, in the superhero film Green Lantern.

Mark Strong revealed that the outfit and other aspects of the character closely follow his early comic history.

Mark Strong played Clive Cornell in The Guard, which is the most successful independent Irish film of all time in terms of Irish box-office receipts, overtaking The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

Mark Strong next portrayed the role of Jacob Sternwood in the British thriller Welcome to the Punch.

Mark Strong played Matai Shang, the leader of the Therns in John Carter, and starred in the action thriller film Zero Dark Thirty.

In November 2012, Mark Strong was cast in Mindscape, a film in which a man with the ability to enter people's memories begins working on the case of a brilliant but problematic teenager to determine whether she is a sociopath or the victim of trauma.

That same year, Mark Strong co-starred in the historical drama film The Imitation Game as MI6 chief Stewart Menzies.

In 2015, Mark Strong won the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his role in A View from the Bridge, which he starred in as Eddie Carbone at the Young Vic.

When Mark Strong went over to perform the play on Broadway in New York, he received similar levels of acclaim, and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance.

Since 2017, Mark Strong has narrated the pre-show etiquette clips presented before films at Vue Cinemas.

In March 2020, Mark Strong narrated public information films for the UK government which outlined how the British public should approach daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2021, Mark Strong was the castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

Mark Strong has named David Bowie as his style icon.

Mark Strong is married to television producer Liza Marshall, with whom he has two sons: Gabriel and Roman.

Mark Strong is a lifelong fan of Arsenal FC and started attending games when he was seven years old.

Mark Strong has named Ace in the Hole, Blade Runner, His Girl Friday, The Night of the Hunter, This Is Spinal Tap, and the work of the Coen brothers as his favourite films.

Mark Strong speaks fluent German and some Italian, and provided the German dubbing for Daniel Craig's voice in Obsession when "German with an English accent" was required.