Ralph Fiennes has become one of the most successful names in Hollywood during a career that has so far spanned twenty years.
In those two decades he has mixed and matched her roles moving from drama to comedy to biopic pictures, picking up two Oscar nominations along the way
And he is back on the big screen t his week as he reprises the role of Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.
To celebrate the release of the first part of the final instalment in the Potter franchise we take a look at the Ralph Fiennes movies that should be in your collection.
- Schindler’s List
Fiennes may have kicked off his acting career in 1990 but it wasn’t until 1993 and Steven Spielberg’s war epic Schindler’s List that he really made his breakthrough.
He took on the role of the Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth alongside Liam Neeson.
Fiennes’ performance, and the movie as a whole, was a huge critical and commercial success and a string of award came the actor’s way.
He picked up Best Supporting Actor gongs at Bafta and New York Film Critics Circle as well as picking up nods at the Oscars and Golden Globes.
- The English Patient
1996 brought him more critical success as he reunited with Juliette Binoche, whom he had starred alongside in Wuthering Heights in Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient.
The movie follows the story of a Hungarian mapmaker and his dying memories of the romance that tragically alters his life.
Burned horribly in a fiery plane crash while crossing the Sahara Desert during WWII, he is tended to by a Canadian nurse with ghosts of her own and haunted by a thief seeking answers for a crime from his past.
Once again the movie brought Fiennes huge critical success, as well as doing well at the box office.
There was another Oscar nomination for Fiennes for his performance this time for Best Actor, but he lost out to Geoffrey Rush.
- The Constant Gardener
In 2005 he found more success with The Constant Gardener, another book adaptation; this time John le Carre, alongside Rachel Weisz.
When a British diplomat's wife -- a socially-conscious lawyer -- turns up dead in Kenya, he sets out to find the truth surrounding her murder.
In the process, he finds out that his wife had been compiling data against a multinational drug company that uses helpless Africans as guinea pigs to test a tuberculosis remedy with unfortunately fatal side effects.
Therefore, those who may have had the most reason to silence her are closer to home than he ever imagined.
- The Duchess
The Duchess brought him Golden Globe and British Independent Film Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor as he portrayed William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire alongside Keira Knightley.
It was that really does steal the show as the emotionally repressive Duke who is the only man in England not interested in his wife.
Fiennes' performances is perfect for a man of his time as he lives within the confines of what was expected of his in this period, to produce a male heir.
With the role Fiennes showed that he has perfect comic timing and it really is one of his best roles in recent years.
- Harry Potter
For the last ten years Fiennes has played Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, first taking on the role way back in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
So far the movie series have grossed in excess of $5.4 billion at the global box office, yet none of the movies have broke the elusive $1 billion barrier.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 is released 19th November.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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