Michael Christopher Sheen
February 5, 1969 (Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK)
“Well, I think your successes depend on your failures. In a way, whether something succeeds or fails doesn’t matter at all–the point is that you strive, that you take risks, and that you challenge yourself. By doing so, inevitably some of those risks are going to pay off, and some of them are going to turn into what would be considered failures. But when you look back it’s very hard to disentangle the successes from the failures. It’s all a process.”
Today is 44th birthday of my absolute favorite actor - Michael Sheen. I saw almost all of his films, other than for few indie ones from last few years including Beautiful Boy which I really need to see soon. Even if you only saw him in one or two movies I'm sure you can see that this is an actor of immense talent. He can be the sweetest guy (Heartlands, Wilde, Frost/Nixon) and the manipulative and evil villain (Twilight Saga, Tron - Legacy, Underworld). But it's his nuanced performances that are most memorable - it's hard to categorize some of his characters as purely bad or good. They are so complex and mesmerizing to watch, especially the characters he played in The Damned United, The Deal and Fantabulosa.
There is nothing this man cannot do. He was the white rabbit (Alice in Wonderland), crazy rock star (Laws of Attraction), pompous douche (Midnight in Paris) and a terrorist (Unthinkable).
Soon we will see Michael in new Tina Fey comedy Admission and new Showtime series Masters of Sex. Hopefully there are still many great projects with him in the future which will give Academy a chance to redeem themselves - as they completely dropped the ball when they didn't recognize Sheen for his brilliant work in Frost/Nixon and The Damned United.
10 best performances:
Dirty Filthy Love
The Damned United
Frost/Nixon
The Queen
The Deal
Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!
Music Within
Unthinkable
Heartlands
Bright Young Things
10 best films:
Frost/Nixon
The Queen
Dirty Filthy Love
Tron - Legacy
Midnight in Paris
The Damned United
Unthinkable
The Deal
Wilde
Kingdom of Heaven
10 fun facts:
- Dated Kate Beckinsale and he is currently dating Rachel McAdams. I imagine every guy in the world would high five him.
- Has a daughter, Lily (14 years old) with Kate Beckinsale. She was the reason he took the part of Aro in Twilight - Lily is a fan of the series.
- Shared a flat in London with good friends and fellow Welsh actors Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys.
- Has played both a werewolf (in Underworld series) and a vampire (in Twilight Saga).
- He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2009 Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to Drama.
- His father works as a professional Jack Nicholson look-a-like.
- Brought up in Port Talbot, the Welsh town that famously produced Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins.
- Portrayed British Prime Minister Tony Blair three times. In The Deal (2003) (TV), The Queen (2006) (both directed by Stephen Frears) and in The Special Relationship (2010) (TV).
- Lists Dr. Frank-n-Furter of The Rocky Horror Show as one of the roles he would most like to portray on stage
- In addition to being a wonderful actor he is also a great person - he supports UNICEF and he was a captain of soccer team featuring many actors that played a match in order to raise money for children in Africa.
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| with Rachel McAdams |
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| in The Damned United, Underworld Rise of the Lycans, Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn, part 2, Laws of Attraction and Tron - Legacy. |
RELATED POSTS:
Brilliant tribute! I really like this guy, even in Underworld, ahah. It's cool that he's still friendly w/ his ex Beckinsale, though I wish they were still together. Both are so gorgeous! I didn't know he's Welsh, I thought he's English. Christian Bale is Welsh too, so is my fave seasoned actor Timothy Dalton, it must be the water over there w/ all those gorgeous men!! :D
ReplyDeleteThank you! It seems to me that if you go to United Kingdom and just walk around you are bound to fall in love because the guys there are amazing :D Kinda like Swank in PS: I love you just running into Gerard Butler :P
DeleteAhah yeah, the British guys are gorgeous aren't they?? He..he.. GB is adorable in P.S., that's the only rom-com of his I do like.
DeleteThey really are, but America still has few hotties - they have Lee Pace after all and that's a winner :D
DeleteIt's a shame he didn't do more of films like this one, he was really good there and the movie was so touching.
Michael Sheen is hella-awesome. He fucking rocked in Tron: Legacy. This guy in my opinion, can't suck. He's just cool.
ReplyDeleteI would totally love to see him as a Bond villain.
He is fantastic, I haven't seen a bad performance from him.
DeleteOh he would make an awesome Bond villain! Great call on that!
Awesome post. He's probably one of my favourite actors too, to be honest. Always puts in a performance. I absolutely loved him in The Damned United and I recently watched Midnight in Paris where I absolutely hated his character but that's because he played him so well.
ReplyDeleteThank you! He was so good in Midnight in Paris, I really loved that Allen got him to appear in his movie, he has the best taste in actors.
DeleteGreat post! I haven't seen a lot of Michael Sheen, but he was fantastic in Frost/Nixon and The Queen. Those were both movies I wasn't expecting to enjoy, but I did because of the performances.
ReplyDeleteThank you! You should check out The Deal and Special Relationship - these two are very similar to those.
DeleteWonderful post! I haven't seen as much of his work, but he definitely deserved more recognition for The Queen and Frost/Nixon. Though, I loved his work in Tron: Legacy and 30 Rock too.
ReplyDeleteThank you! He was so funny in 30 Rock, wasn't he? Shame his character didn't return in later seasons.
DeleteLove this. Such a fantastic British actor. Though, I'll admit, I've not seen that much of him. Frost/Nixon, Underworld, Tron Legacy, The Queen are about all I've seen. But you're dead right, whatever he does, he excels. His performance as David Frost really made me take notice of him - holy crap he was amazing! As someone who grew up watching David Frost (thanks DAD!), amazing performance.
ReplyDeleteHis character in Tron Legacy is one of the reasons I love that film so much. I wish there was more of him! He brought the film to life.
Also, dating Rachel McAdams? Holy hell!
It's a shame that he got so few awards for Frost/Nixon - both him and Kevin Bacon are very under appreciated in this movie.
DeleteHe was so fun in Tron: Legacy! He plays such great and memorable villains.