Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is an Irish-born English actor and director. He is known for his film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays.
Kenneth Branagh was born in Belfast, Ireland, on December 10, 1960, to Protestant parents; William Branagh and Frances Branagh. He is of Irish nationality and of white ethnicity.
Due to the religious violence in North Ireland, Kenneth, his family shifted to Reading, London. There he attended the Whiteknights Primary School and then moved to Meadway School. Kenneth graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1981 and soon after his graduation, he debuted his professional stage career. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984.
In 1987, he left RSC to find his own Renaissance Theatre Company, in association with David Parfitt, where he served as actor, writer, and director.
Kenneth has directed many Shakespearean plays into films. In 1989, he directed Henry V for which he was nominated for the Academy Award in the categories of best director and best actor. His other works include Much Ado About Nothing (1993)- also starring Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves- In the Bleak Midwinter (1995), Othello(1995)Hamlet (1996), Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) and As You Like It(2006).
Besides, he has also been the part of Dead Again (1991), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein(1994), The Lady’s Not for Burning (1987), Fortunes of War (1987), Look Back in Anger (1989), Shackleton (2002), Warm Springs (2005), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), Sleuth(2007), Thor(2011), Cinderella(2015), Dunkirk(2017) and Murder on the Orient Express(2017).
He has also appeared in the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets(2002), starring Daniel Radcliffe, a film adapted from the book by the same name, written by J.K. Rowling.
Talking about his love life, Branagh was previously married to actress Emma Thompson. They were married in 1989 but got a divorce in 1995 after meeting his new girlfriend Helena Bonham Carter. After his divorce, he went on a well-publicized relationship with Helena and stayed together for a couple of years. He later in 2003 married film art director Lindsay Brunnock.
Likewise is also an author and has written an autobiography titled Beginning, released in 1989. Well, for his endeavor and his services to Drama, he received a knighthood from Buckingham Palace on 9 November 2012.
Kenneth is currently 57 years of age, has a height of 5 feet and 9 inches. As of 2018, he has an estimated net worth of $60 million.
