Tom Hardy – biography, photos, personal life, wife and kids, childhood, facts, height and weight 2020

Tom Hardy’s biography

Tom Hardy is a British actor of cinema and theatre. You can find films of any taste in his repertoire: action films, detectives, criminal biopics, mystical stories and military dramas. He has played heroes (“Mad Max: Fury Road”), psychopaths (“Bronson”), antagonists (“The Dark Knight Rises”, “The Revenant”), criminals (“Legend”) or even homeless drug addicts (“Stuart: A Life Backwards”) , but even his negative characters can’t be disliked. He completely changes his personality for each role due to which we forget that a real person is hiding behind the character on the screen.

British actor of cinema and theatre Tom Hardy

Childhood and family

Edward Thomas Hardy was born on 15 September 1977 in a creative and intelligent family. His mother, Irishwoman Elizabeth Barrett was an artist and his father Edward “Chips” Hardy was a writer and scenarist, a Harvard graduate. Tom was the only child in the family living in a bohemian mansion in the suburbs of London in East Sheen. The mother gave her son all her time, the shelves of his room were full of books and records, the parents filled up Edward with presents on every holiday and took out abroad. He first went to a private school.

Seemed like the boy had to grow as pride and support for the parents in such an atmosphere but life settled else. “I was a naughty child. Not even, I was terribly naughty”, - recalled the actor. He felt ashamed in front of his parents, model middle class representatives. As a sociable teenager he made friends with not only classmates but boys from less prosperous families.

Drug addiction

He was eleven when a policeman visited the school and talked to the children on the harm of drugs. Surprisingly his speech produced a negative effect on Hardy. By thirteen he was addicted to beer and had tried drugs. At the age of 15 he was expelled from school and a year after Tom had to admit he had an addiction to crack and alcohol. “I was able to sell my mother for a doze”, - Tom told the journalists. Serious problems with law followed up to an arrest for car theft (not for profit but for fun). He managed to avoid prison just due to his father’s connections.

Despite the addiction the boy had interest in theatrical art from an early age. Yet in school he played in the children’s theatre and at the age of 18 he entered the Richmond Drama School by his mother’s advice where he was later expelled from and entered the Drama Centre London where he was taught to mastery by the pedagogue who once trained Anthony Hopkins. His classmate was Michael Fassbender.

At the age of 21 he became winner at “The Big Breakfast’s Find Me-98” TV show and won a contract with a modeling agency.

Tom Hardy at the Big Breakfast show

In the end of the 90’s he got his first role and played the weak soldier John Janovec in the “Band of Brothers” (2001) TV series. “out of the frying pan into the fire”, - Hardy later described his first experience in front of the cameras despite TV shows. He appeared in two episodes and pronounced just 12 speeches during the entire series.

Tom Hardy in the “Band of Brothers” TV series from the right

Then there were a few major projects though let Hardy’s characters have a few speeches. It was Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning “Black Hawk Down” starring Josh Hartnett, “The Reckoning” starring Paul Bettany and Willem Dafoe, and the actor was left one of the key roles in the “Deserter” military drama.

The next notable work by the actor was the “Star Trek: Nemesis” where the actor played the Reman Praetor Shinzon, the clone of the captain of the “Enterprise” spaceship.

During the whole period Tom Hardey didn’t quit using drugs. According to the actor himself he has experienced much, even homosexual connections during the 15 years of his drug addiction. Soon after finishing on the “Star trek” he had overdone with cocaine and suffered an attack.

– I woke up in a pool of blood and vomit and realized that it’s time to quit. I was disgusted by myself. That was a lesson for me and I was reborn

The actor went to the rehabilitation centre and hasn’t broken since then. He completely transfered his freed energy to professional activity and very soon achieved unprecedented success. On questions about his rapid growth the actor decently jokes that he just wanted his father to be proud of him and acting is the only thing he was good at.

First steps towards success

Back in order in 2003 Tom started playing in theatrical settings. The same year Evening Standard awarded him a prize in the nomination for “Most Perspective Beginner” for the roles in the “In Arabia We'd All Be Kings” and the “Blood” spectacles. .

Tom Hardy in the “In Arabia We'd All Be Kings”

In 2004 he appeared in the “Layer Cake” black comedy crime film alongside Daniel Craig and in 2005 he played one of the key characters in the “The Virgin Queen” series. His character was a real existed statesman, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, companion and lover of Queen Elizabeth I. The same year he appeared in another historical drama film “Marie Antoinette” alongside Kirsten Dunst.

Tom Hardy in “The Virgin Queen” (from the left) and in “Marie Antoinette”

Many critics call Tom Hardy’s role of Stuart Shorter from the “Stuart: A Life Backwards” (2007) drama a breakthrough.The film is based on a book of the same name written by the friend of the real Stuart Shorter, a marginal, drug addict and alcoholic fighting for the homeless’ rights. Initially the film wasn’t intended to be released on large screens so not so large audience have seen Hardy playing Shorter and Benedict Cumberbatch playing his friend and author of the book.

Tom Hardy took characters from his past for the “Stuart”

Soon Tom Hardy was seen in the “RocknRolla” crime comedy film by Guy Ritchie. The actor was given the role of a homosexual mobster, member of the “Wild Gang” criminal group, the leader of which was played by Gerard Butler.Tom’s character falls in love with him.

The bloom of career

In 2008 the audience was amazed by the reincarnation of Hardy in the “Bronson” crime drama film, where he played a real personality again, a remarkably artistic maniac Charles Bronson. The actor was unrecognizable: he had gained over 40 pounds of weight and grew mustache.

Soon after the premiere the filming of the “Warrior” sports drama film began, where Hardy had to play a young MMA fighter alongside Joel Edgerton. He had to urgently put himself in shape. For eight weeks his everyday schedule was: 2 hours of boxing, 2 hours of Muay Thai, 2 hours of Jiu Jitsu, 2 hours of dances and 2 hours at the gym.

– Becoming Bronson was way easier. I just ate chocolate and pizza, played console games and carried my friend up and down the stairs and also grew mustache and shaved my head.

2009 was marked by the release of the “The Take” crime drama mini-series, the star of which Hardy became and in 2010 Hardy first collaborated with Leonardo Di Caprio in the “Inception” by Christopher Nolan as one of the members of a team infiltrating the sleep of the son of a large industrialist in order to destroy the career of his father.

Then followed the performance in the “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” thriller starring Gary Oldman – Hardy always admired this coryphaeus of the British scene. ”Oldman is incredible. He’s my hero number one. I want to mean for my generation as much as he meant for his”- he claimed during joint filming. Then the actor became a star of the “Lawless” crime drama film, reincarnated along with Shia LaBeouf and Jason Clarke into three brothers bootleggers. The film was nominated for the “Palme d'Or” (Golden Palm) in Cannes.

Not long before the premiere of the picture the filming of the final part of Nolan’s trilogy on Batman “The Dark Knight Rises” starring Christian Bale began. Hardy played the main Villain – terrorist Bane, hiding his face under the mask. The actor was forced to strenuously gain weight again.

Bane VS Batman (The Dark Knight Rises)

By the way Nolan’s choice was Hardy after the director had watched the “RocknRolla” and Tom accepted the offer without even taking a look at the scenario - he was promised an unlimited access to the trick equipment. It’s true, in order to match the two meter tall Bane low Hardy (175cm) had to wear pads of 10cm for shoes in order to look at least not lower than Batman.

Tom Hardy’s casting for the role of Bane and Bane in the film

The next time Hardy played in an equally cashed project was half a year after the end of the filming of “The Dark Knight”. It was the restart of the series of post-apocalyptic films about Max Rockatansky “Mad Max: Fury Road”, which theoretically had to start yet in 2003 starring Mel Gibson, who played Max in the original trilogy. But this time Gibson was busy in his project “The Passion of The Christ” and the matter stalled. Tom Hardy personally asked his predecessor for blessings for that role and the latter didn’t mind.

So in 2015 the audience again saw Hardy with a grid-mask on his face. But this time he was surrounded not with the streets of Gotham but hostile wastelands, where he had to escape the wrath of the local dictator accompanied by shaved Charlize Theron and carefully made up from head to foot Nicholas Hoult.

The same year Hardy played the Kray twins – two criminal authorities from the sixty’s London in the “Legend” crime thriller film and also appeared on the screens in the “The Revenant” epic film, which brought it’s star Leonardo Di Caprio his first and deserved “Oscar”. Hardy appears in the picture not in the best, playing a greedy and coward person from the frontier John Fitzgerald, who doomed Hugh Glass to certain death. Hardy was also nominated for “Oscar” as “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” but gave up to Mark Rylance from the “Bridge of Spies”.

”The Revenant”: Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald

The whole 2016 the actor was busy on the filming of two large projects: the “Taboo” mystic series (he was also the producer and one of the scenarists) and the new blockbuster by Christopher Nolan the “Dunkirk”. Its noteworthy That in “Dunkirk” just as in the “Dark Knight” the actors face was hidden under the mask of a pilot. The director considers that Hardy is so good that can even express the whole spectre of emotions with only eyes.

Hiding Hardy’s face under a mask is already a tradition

The personal life of Tom Hardy

In 1999 Tom Hardy made a proposal to producer Sarah Ward and their wedding took place just three weeks after they first met. The fasting marriage turned out to be relatively strong: Sarah filed for divorce just in 2004 tired of her husband’s problems with alcohol and drugs though he had passed a rehabilitation course and was “clean” by that time and also constant lack of attention on his part.

Yet before the official divorcement the spouses almost didn’t communicate. In 2003 Hardy had a romance with actress of Korean origin Linda Park. At the “The Virgin Queen” series screenings in 2005 Tom had a fancy for the assistant to the director Rachael Speed. Their son Louis was born in April 2008. He stayed with his mother after they seperated, but regularly sees his father.

Tom Hardy has a son Louis from Rachael Speed

In 2009 Tom Hardy started dating actress Charlotte Riley. They met at the filming of the “Wuthering Heights” drama film by Brontë. According the scenario their characters Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw were madly in love with each other. Charlotte was skeptical about “duty romances” but couldn’t stand Tom’s charm. 5 years later the couple tied themselves with solemn oath and rings.

In the photo: Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley

In October 2015 the actor became a father for the second time – Charlotte Riley gave birth to a child. The spouses decided to post neither the name nor the gender of the child.

The actor is a model husband and a father

Tom Hardey nowadays

In 2018 Hardy replenished the range of actors busy at the Marvel Studios. He played journalist , Eddie Brock, the body of which was inhabited by an alien, turning the man into the main antagonist of Spider-Man – Venom. The film reveals Venom’s background in detail and gives hope that the audience will still see the battle between Tom Hardy and Tom Holland.

”Venom” starring Tom Hardy. Trailer

At the same time the actor worked on the role of gangster Al Capone in the “Fonzo”. Fans were amazed by the filigree of the make-up artist.

The actor continues working on the new season of the “Taboo” series. Hardy is also awaiting the start of the filming of the fifth part of “Mad Max”: he signed the contract even before the release of “Fury Road”. The working title of the film is “Mad Max: The Wasteland”.