Jude Law

• 1. Introduction

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  Jude Law was born David Jude Heyworth Law on the 29th of December 1972, in the London borough of Lewisham, and his first name came from a person none of his fans would recognise: the best friend of his father. The name everyone knows, Jude, was drawn from two very different sources at once. It came from the protagonist of Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure, and from the Beatles' song "Hey Jude". That combination tells you something about the household he grew up in. Both his parents were teachers. His father would go on to become, by Law's own account, the youngest headmaster in London.

  He grew up in Blackheath, in the borough of Greenwich, with his older sister Natasha. He attended John Ball Primary School, then briefly Kidbrooke School, then Alleyn's School. By 17, school had lost him entirely. He dropped out to act. That decision, made by a teenager in South London, would eventually lead to a role in The Talented Mr. Ripley alongside Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cate Blanchett; to a BAFTA win and an Academy Award nomination; to being named by People magazine as the Sexiest Man Alive in November 2004; and to standing on stages from Wyndham's Theatre in London to the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City, playing Hamlet.

  This is the story of how all of that happened, and what it cost.

• 2. The Name and the Roots

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  Peter Robert Law and Margaret Anne Heyworth, both teachers, gave their son three first names: David, Jude, and Heyworth. The maternal grandmother was Welsh, and there was a complication in the family line: Law's mother had been put up for adoption as a child, which meant that grandmother had once been, as Law described her, "long lost" from the family.

  The given name David came with a story. It was chosen in honour of his father's closest friend, a man whose identity never became part of the public record. Jude came from two directions simultaneously: Thomas Hardy's doomed protagonist in Jude the Obscure, and the Beatles' 1968 single. The character Hardy created and the song McCartney wrote share a quality of melancholy hope. It is the name by which the world knows him.

  His sister Natasha would become an illustrator and artist based in London. His parents eventually relocated to Vaudelnay, in France, where they run their own drama school and theatre. His love of Tottenham Hotspur football club dates to 1981, passed down from his grandfather Eric. When asked whether acting on stage or supporting Spurs caused more stress, Law did not hesitate: "Oh, supporting Spurs, undoubtedly!"

• 3. The Breakout Years

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  Law began acting in 1987 with the National Youth Music Theatre, though his interest reached back to a childhood performance in a Saint George and the Dragon rendition when he was five. After dropping out at 17, he played various roles in The Ragged Child, an Edinburgh Fringe-awarded play. His first major stage role was Foxtrot Darling in Philip Ridley's The Fastest Clock in the Universe at the Hampstead Theatre.

  The role that announced him was in Jean Cocteau's tragicomedy Les Parents terribles in 1994, in a West End production directed by Sean Mathias. Law played Michael. The performance earned him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Newcomer, and an Ian Charleson Award nomination in the same category. The production was reworked, retitled Indiscretions, and transferred to Broadway in 1995, where Law acted opposite Kathleen Turner, Roger Rees, and Cynthia Nixon. That Broadway run brought him a Tony Award nomination for best supporting actor and the Theatre World Award.

  His first television role came in 1989, in an adaptation of Beatrix Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester. He took on minor roles in British series, including a two-year stint in the Granada TV-produced ITV soap opera Families. In 1994, he appeared in his first major film lead: the British crime drama Shopping, which also starred Sadie Frost, the woman he would later marry. His first film that attracted serious critical notice came in 1997. Playing Lord Alfred Douglas in the Oscar Wilde biopic Wilde, opposite Stephen Fry, Law won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer and a London Film Critics Circle Award. The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin wrote that Law's "voluptuous beauty and mocking, boyish petulance gives Douglas a rock star's presence."

• 4. Ripley and the Roles That Followed

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  Anthony Minghella's 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley required Law to learn the saxophone. He played Dickie Greenleaf, the wealthy, charismatic American whom Matt Damon's Ripley both envies and schemes against. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote that Law delivered "a very stylish and charismatic performance as the exquisite Dickie, all cruelty and caprice."

  The film earned Law the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, along with nominations for both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award in the same category. Minghella and Law would work together again on Cold Mountain in 2003, a period war film opposite Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger. Cold Mountain brought Law nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.

  In the years between those two Minghella films, Law played the Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev in Enemy at the Gates, learned ballet for Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence in 2001, and played a mob hitman in Sam Mendes's Road to Perdition in 2002. He also suggested, as an admirer of Laurence Olivier, that the older actor's image be incorporated into the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Computer graphics technology merged footage of the young Olivier into the film as Dr. Totenkopf. That same year, Law took on the title role in Alfie, a remake of Bill Naughton's 1966 film, playing the part Michael Caine had originated. The remake received negative reviews and failed commercially. He later appeared opposite Caine himself in the 2007 film Sleuth, adapted by Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, in which Caine took on the mentor role Olivier had originally played.

• 5. Fame, People Magazine, and Natural Nylon

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  People magazine named Law the Sexiest Man Alive in its November 2004 issue. His I Heart Huckabees co-star Naomi Watts was quoted as saying "He's the most beautiful man who ever walked the earth - an absolutely perfect oil painting." By the end of 2007, he was listed among the top ten of the Ulmer Scale's ranking of the most bankable film stars in Hollywood.

  Law had co-founded the production company Natural Nylon in 1996, alongside other members of the Primrose Hill set, including actor Jonny Lee Miller. The company produced a number of projects before folding. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was its final film. Law left the company in 2003, and Natural Nylon dissolved with the departure of its founding members.

  In 2007, Law received the Honorary César at the 32nd César Awards, and was named a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by Gerard Errera, the French ambassador of France. That same year, he starred alongside Norah Jones in My Blueberry Nights, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

• 6. Hamlet and Television's Pull

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  In May 2009, Law returned to the London stage to play the title role in Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse West End season at Wyndham's Theatre. The BBC described "a fine and solid performance", though other notices were mixed. The production travelled to Elsinore Castle in Denmark for a run from the 25th to the 30th of August 2009, then transferred to the Broadhurst Theatre in New York City in September. The Washington Post found the long-anticipated performance "highly disappointing". He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, and at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards he received the John and Wendy Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance.

  Also in 2009, Law became one of three actors who took over the role of Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, alongside Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell, the three of them portraying what the production described as "three separate dimensions in the film."

  In May 2015, it was announced that Law would play Lenny Belardo, an American cardinal who becomes pope, in the ten-episode series The Young Pope. It was jointly produced by Sky Atlantic and Canal+ with HBO, and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. The series began airing in various countries in October 2016. The Guardian's Rebecca Nicholson praised the "surprising charm" with which Law balanced the qualities of a "vindictive authoritarian and wounded man-child." The New York Times' James Poniewozik described the role as "saddled with stiff dialogue." Law reprised the character in the spin-off The New Pope, which premiered on HBO on the 13th of January 2020. His next major television role came in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, which premiered on Disney+ on the 2nd of December 2024, earning him a Children's and Family Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Performer.

• 7. Activism and Philanthropy

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  In 2002, Law directed an anti-fur cinema commercial for Respect for Animals, titled "Fur and Against", using music composed by Gary Kemp. The commercial featured Chrissie Hynde, Moby, George Michael, Danny Goffey, Rhys Ifans, Helena Christensen, Sir Paul McCartney, Melanie C, and Stella McCartney, among others. In 2013, representing PETA, he wrote a letter to the World Trade Organization in support of maintaining the European Union's restrictions against the seal trade, which the Canadian government was then contesting.

  In 2004, Law launched a campaign to raise £2.5 million towards the Young Vic Theatre's £12.5 million redevelopment project, and the theatre successfully reopened in 2006. By 2007, he was serving as chairman of the Young Vic committee. A 2006 event at the Reading Town Hall, featuring Samuel Beckett readings and performances directed by Anthony Minghella, raised more than £22,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

  In July 2007, Law and Jeremy Gilley travelled to Afghanistan for ten days to document peace commitments for a film tied to the UN International Day of Peace, accompanied by UNICEF Representative Catherine Mbengue. They filmed in dangerous areas of eastern Afghanistan, interviewing children, government ministers, community leaders, and UN officials. The resulting film, The Day After Peace, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival before a gala screening at the Royal Albert Hall on the 21st of September 2008. On the 30th of August 2008, Law and Gilley returned to Afghanistan, meeting President Hamid Karzai and top NATO and UN officials. The film highlights UNICEF and WHO support for the peaceful immunization of 1.4 million children against polio in insecure areas of the country. Law also serves as chairman of the Music For Tomorrow Foundation, which works to rebuild New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.