From Hackney to Hollywood: ten actors London gave the world
The Big Smoke doesn’t just make bankers
Whether you like it or not, London has long been the centre of gravity in the UK. This historical world city is home to some 9.1 million people, making up around 13% of the total UK population.
Its influence goes well beyond its size, however. Where other developed countries tend to have multiple points of reference, London stands as the UK’s political, financial, and cultural capital, all rolled into a densely packed 607 square mile area.
Talking of culture, Lojon mundyndon holds a disproportionate influence over the film industry. Despite being more than 5,000 miles away from Hollywood, the UK capital is a global movie production hub that falls behind only Los Angeles itself for filming activity. Yes, it’s even ahead of New York.
Given all these factors, it’s perhaps unsurprising to learn that a huge amount of acting talent was birthed in the Big Smoke.
Some of these figures wear their London credentials on their sleeve. With certain others, though, you might just elicit a ‘Gor blimey!’ when you learn that they hail from the city of jellied eels and grey skies.
Idris Elba
The story has become the stuff of chat show legend, but it’s worth repeating. The makers of The Wire, a searing indictment of dysfunctional US institutions and arguably the finest TV show ever made, had no idea where the actor they cast to play brainy drug dealer Stringer Bell originally hailed from.
Idris Elba managed to successfully hide the fact he was from Hackney, East London, during auditions by deploying a convincing East Coast drawl and a fair dose of his natural charisma. Suffice to say, it wouldn’t be his last role on either side of the Atlantic.
Emma Thompson
It can occasionally feel as if Emma Thompson hasn’t quite received the acting acclaim her considerable talents deserve. Then you remind yourself that she’s won two Oscars, and that in 1993 she became one of only 12 actors to ever be nominated for two Academy Awards in the same year.
She’s doing perfectly well on the adulation front, thank you very much. This most London of actors was born in Hammersmith (stomping ground of that other great Dame, Helen Mirren) in 1966, and has played key roles in some of the most beloved British films of the past four decades.
Tom Hardy
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Rather like his contemporary and occasional acting partner Christian Bale, Tom Hardy has that hard-to-pin-down shape-shifting quality that makes you wonder where he’s from – surely the dream scenario for any actor.
Let’s clear that up then, shall we? Edward Thomas Hardy was born in the thesp hotbed of Hammersmith, West London, in 1977. He was raised in East Sheen and would go on to study acting at the nearby Richmond Drama School. Appropriately enough, given his ability to flit between roles and accents, Hardy once cited fellow Londoner Gary Oldman as his acting hero.
Alan Rickman
The late Alan Rickman supplied some of the greatest villainous turns in cinematic history: from the suave but deadly Hans Gruber in Die Hard, to the deeply conflicted Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series, by way of an outrageously wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
We all remember the actor’s sonorous voice, but Rickman’s velvety RP tones weren’t so much informed by his West London origins (he was a working-class lad) as his London education. Stints at Chelsea College of Art and Design, the Royal College of Art, and RADA helped form this Londoner.
Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton might have been born to a Scottish father and an Australian mother, but her formidable acting talents were born and nurtured in the UK capital. Despite her privileged upbringing (she was a friend of Lady Diana Spencer at her prestigious boarding school), Swinton’s unique talent and otherworldly aura have enabled her to escape the usual typecasting.
From the reluctant mother of a young US serial killer (We Need to Talk About Kevin) to a rock and roll vampire (Only Lovers Left Alive) and a shrill bureaucrat (Snowpiercer), Swinton is arguably the most versatile actress of her generation.
Michael Caine
It’s not that Michael Caine couldn’t do accents – he won an Oscar playing a New England doctor in The Cider House Rules, while one of his most famous early roles was as a snooty upper class British army officer in Zulu.
But the man born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite in Rotherhithe, London, in 1933 will always be known as a Cockney. His emergence in the ‘60s, sporting an authentic East London accent, felt like a breath of fresh air after so many years of actors being required to posh things up.
Helen Mirren
You know an actor has become part of the British establishment when their name starts to feel incomplete without a ‘Dame’ or a ’Sir’ placed in front of it.
That’s undoubtedly the case with Dame Helen Mirren, one of the finest actors to have ever emerged from Hammersmith, West London. Across a career spanning 60 years, this acclaimed performer is the only actor to have received the three most prestigious awards available on both sides of the Atlantic – a double Triple Crown, if you will.
Gary Oldman
There are shape-shifting actors, and then there’s Gary Oldman – a real South East London boy done good. Born in New Cross to a working-class family, Oldman has gone on to inhabit an extraordinary range of roles.
While 1997’s Nil by Mouth (which the actor also wrote and directed) might have been uncomfortably close to home, Oldman was just as capable playing a drug-popping New York cop (Leon), a gonzo sci-fi villain (The Fifth Element), a cuckolded spy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and even Winston Churchill himself (Darkest Hour) – with a little help from a fat suit.
Daniel Day-Lewis
If there’s one person to fit the description of ‘greatest living actor’, then it has to be Daniel Day-Lewis – a Londoner born and bred. Though often associated with Ireland, Day-Lewis was actually born in Kensington before moving over to Greenwich during his formative years.
The actor even credits the process of losing his posh West London accent to fit in with the working-class South London boys at his school as an early performance of his. He then caught the acting bug while performing in the capital’s National Youth Theatre. The rest is award-laden history.
Charlie Chaplin
Yep, arguably the most famous actor of them all – a man who both embodies and transcends the very term – was a Londoner. Charlie Chaplin’s astounding 75-year career took him from humble South London origins (he claimed to have been born in Walworth) in 1889 to the birth of modern cinema and beyond.
He was the biggest star of silent cinema, with his iconic Tramp character coming to be seen as shorthand for this wild and formative era. He even did his bit during the Second World War, boldly satirising Hitler and fascism with his controversial The Great Dictator.
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