Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (/faɪnz/; born 27 May 1970) is an English film and stage actor.\n', '

He is known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth (1998), Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates (2001), and Monsignor Timothy Howard in the second season of the TV series American Horror Story (2012–2013). His role in the 2017 TV drama series The Handmaid\'s Tale was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.\n', '

Fiennes was born in 1970 in Salisbury, England, the son of Mark Fiennes (1933–2004), a farmer and photographer, and Jennifer Lash (1938–1993), a writer. He has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. His surname comes from the French village of Fiennes, Pas-de-Calais. His grandfathers were industrialist Sir Maurice Fiennes (1907–1994) and Brigadier Henry Alleyne Lash.\n', '

Return to Joseph Fiennes Autograph Profile