Here's what we know...

[TheBlondeKB]

The incredibly talented and devilishly handsome British actor Mark Strong, the man director Danny Boyle confirmed to Empire On-Line was, in fact, a “being of pure awesome”, was born sometime in August 1963, (the exact date seems to be a closely guarded secret) as Marco Giuseppe Salussolia, in London, to a teen aged au pair from Austria and a second generation Italian father that he has never known. His single mother then legally changed his name, with the hope it would help him better fit in with his peers.

As an only child, his early years were marked by not only a closeness with his hard working young mother, but a penchant for getting into trouble. At the tender age of five, Mark was sent to a publicly funded home for “wayward” boys. He has said that he doesn’t have particularly bad memories of that time, that “it was what it was.” On his own a great deal, he became proficient at “watching” other people, searching for character traits that he thought he could use for himself, a habit that would later serve him well as an actor. He found the punk movement that hit Britain during the late 70’s and early 80’s a good match for his rebellious nature and while at school he was the singer, complete with wardrobe made of garbage bags and safety pins, in punk rock bands called The Electric Hoax and Private Party.

Mark briefly attended Wymondham College in Norfolk, but left to join his mother in Germany. He dallied briefly with the idea of becoming a German Constitutional lawyer, but after studying for a year at the University of Munich, (he’s fluent in the language,) he was too bored and restless to sit for his exams and decided to change his direction in life. He returned to London and enrolled in a joint English and Drama degree at Royal Holloway and later attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

After treading the boards for more than nine years, progressing from local repertory productions to the Royal Shakespeare Company, he finally got his first big break in “Richard III”, with Sir Ian McKellan and the National Theater. He played (prophetically?) “First Murderer.” He was nominated in 2003 for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for his work in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the Donmar Warehouse, which he later reprised for director Sam Mendes on Broadway.

Along the way, Mark also became a familiar face on British television, starting with brief appearances in some of their popular staples such as “The Bill.” He appeared in a slew of drama series’ including two Prime Suspect entries as Inspector (and then later Detective Chief Superintendent) Larry Hall in Prime Suspect 3 (1993) and Prime Suspect 6 (2003), with Helen Mirren. He spent a year playing wannabe rocker Tosker Cox in the popular “Our Friends in the North” (1996) for the BBC (alongside Daniel Craig, who would become a close friend and godfather to Mark’s first son), which served to further raise his profile.

Although one of his early villains was Colonel Brand in “Sharpe's Mission” (1996), this was followed by the adaptation of Jane Austen's novel “Emma”, with Kate Beckinsale in the title role. The director had the foresight, vision and good taste to cast him as the romantic lead, Mr. Knightley. Would that others saw what we see and he is offered more parts in this vein, even though Mark himself has said, perhaps due to his extensive work in classical theater playing “fops and poets”, that it is much more fun and rewarding to play the bad guy. Luckily for us he manages to exude not only menace, but sex appeal while doing so.

In 2002, he appeared in director Pete Travis’ mini-series “The Jury” with a then also relatively unknown Gerard Butler, (with whom he would later co-star in Guy Ritchie’s 2008 return to form, “RocknRolla”) and in 2003 played Norfolk to the great Ray Winstone’s title character in “Henry VIII.”

After “The Long Firm” (2004) (for which he earned a BAFTA nomination) an agent advised him that if he wanted to do more film, he should stop doing television. He took that advice and hasn’t stopped working since.

While there was a brief period in his mid-twenties when he mourned the loss of his hair, he’s since come to embrace it. In most of his films he's virtually unrecognizable because his look changes for each character with the simple addition of a wig. As the nefarious Septimus in Stardust and the scheming Wictred in “Tristan + Isolde,” he has long hair. In “The Long Firm” and “RocknRolla” he sports a receding hairline, while in “Body of Lies” as the disarmingly suave head of the Jordanian Secret Service, Hani Salaam and in “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” as the volatile Nick, he has a full head of hair.

He has said that the size of the role doesn’t matter as long as he can keep working with the best and most creative people in the business. In addition to the notable talents he’s worked with on the stage and the small screen, he continues to work with actors of a high caliber and continuously higher profiles in film as well.

One of Strong's first leading roles in film was in the 1997 adaptation of Nick Hornby's “Fever Pitch”, opposite Colin Firth. As Mussawi in “Syriana”, he famously ripped out George Clooney’s fingernails. In 2005’s “Revolver”, playing a nerveless, steely assassin "who never misses", (his first project with Guy Ritchie,) he stole the show from Jason Statham. That same year he appeared (as hilariously ginger-haired Toby Crackit) in Roman Polanski’s big screen version of “Oliver Twist.” In 2006, Strong portrayed the traitorous Wictred in "Tristan + Isolde", opposite Rufus Sewell. The following year he played Pinbacker in the science-fiction film “Sunshine” for (a pre-Slumdog) Danny Boyle. Coincidentally, Strong also appeared in a 1999 film also titled “Sunshine” (with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz.) He and Javier Bardem were the last two considered for the role of Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men”, although, despite the persistence of rumor, he was never actually offered the part.

In 2009, he is currently menacing Emily Blunt as “The Young Victoria” and will do to Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s eagerly awaited version of “Sherlock Holmes” as the dark and dastardly occultist Lord Blackwood. (That gives us shivers just thinking about it.)

2010 will give us the reteaming of Mark and his “Stardust” director, Matthew Vaughn in “Kick-Ass.” As vicious mobster Frank D’Amico, Mark gets to snort coke, drink whiskey and brandish a lot of guns. In a recent interview with the London Telegraph, he revealed that he’d found himself shocked at the previews he’d seen and wondered if “it was even legal.” (Which, of course, intrigues us all the more.) We’ll also get Ridley Scott’s (his “Body of Lies” director), Robin Hood epic, which as of this writing is still called “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe playing the title character. Mark began the project playing Guy of Gisborne, but Scott has since reworked the script and expanded Mark’s role and he is now Sir Godfrey. In any case, he’s the villain and we can’t wait.

In “The Eagle of the Ninth,” currently filming in Hungary and Scotland, directed by Kevin McDonald (The Last King of Scotland,) Mark plays an ex-Roman soldier in 2nd Century Britain called Guern who holds a key to a missing Legion (and we’re betting a black heart.) From there, Mark will begin work on “John Carter of Mars”, not scheduled for release until 2012. His character is that of Matai Shang who is described as a warlord with “God-like” traits. Whatever that means, we’ll be first in line.

June 2011 will give us the summer sure-to-be-blockbuster "Green Lantern", in which Mark plays Sinestro. As fans of the comic book know, this character does not start out as a villain. It will be interesting to see the evolution of the character, as this is the first of a proposed trilogy.

And if that weren’t enough, since 2006, Strong has also lent his dulcet tones to the narration of the BBC genealogy series “Who Do You Think You Are?”

If all of that keeps him busy, his personal life keeps him grounded. He lives in the Queen’s Park section of London with his wife, Liza Marshall, head of drama for BBC4, with whom he has worked many times, and their two young sons Gabriel and Roman.

Aside from acting and his family, his other passion is football. In stark contrast to the domestic stability of his home life, he’s something of a madman on the pitch; his mates on the team he plays for having asked him to seek professional help for his aggression. Perhaps the source of this aggression is the same that allows him to play such hard characters with ease. Whatever it is, we’ll probably never know, but we’re thankful for it.

What we also don't know (aside from his exact date of birth) is when the rest of the world is gonna wise up, to what we do know… but we're here to help.


Thanks to FlashFookersSqueeze for putting this together.