Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Actor

• Born: August 22, 1967
• Place of Birth: London, England

Contribution: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is a Screen Actors Guild Award–winning television and film actor best known for his roles in the television series Oz (1997–2003) and Lost (2005–6). He has also appeared in such blockbuster films as The Mummy Returns (2001), The Bourne Identity (2002), and Thor: The Dark World (2013).

Background

Adewale Rotimi O. C. E. Akinnuoye Agbaje was born on August 22, 1967, in London’s Islington district. His parents were Nigerian, descended from the Yoruba tribe, and were studying in London at the time. They gave up the six-week-old Akinnuoye-Agbaje, along with his two sisters, to a White, middle-class foster family in Tilbury. The house was crowded, often containing ten or more African children, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje frequently slept on a sofa and stole food in order to eat. He was also subjected to frequent bullying by the children in the neighborhood.

When Akinnuoye-Agbaje was eight years old, his biological parents returned and took him and his sisters back to Nigeria. However, the young boy, who only knew of life in England, was unable to speak the local language and could not assimilate into the Yoruba culture. After a short period, his parents sent him back to the foster home in Tilbury. There, he was subjected to further prejudice, to which he was now far more sensitive, having spent a year in Africa before returning to a place where he was distinctly among the minority. Akinnuoye-Agbaje initially coped by fighting with those who targeted him. He later decided that he could survive only if he shed his African heritage, so he joined a skinhead gang. As he followed this racist path, he frequently got into violent fights. His foster parents contacted his biological parents, who decided to pay for Akinnuoye-Agbaje to go to boarding school in Surrey.

Having internalized the violence and anger of his life to date, Akinnuoye-Agbaje initially struggled at the boarding school and even attempted suicide. However, away from the influences of Tilbury, he eventually came to appreciate his heritage and settled down into his studies. He later attended King’s College London, where he obtained a law degree. While at university, he was hired as a model, a job that took him all over the world. He appeared in several music videos, including En Vogue’s “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” (1992) and Mary J. Blige’s “Love No Limit” (1993). In 1993, his agent sent his picture to a casting director, earning Akinnuoye-Agbaje an audition for his first acting role: a small part in the film Congo (1995).

Career

During the mid-1990s, Akinnuoye-Agbaje appeared in several television shows and a few major film productions, such as Congo and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995). In 1997, he began the role that would make him famous, that of murderous inmate Simon Adebisi on the HBO prison drama Oz. Adebisi was a recurring character until season 3, when he became a part of the main cast. Akinnuoye-Agbaje was written out of the show in season 4 so he could film The Mummy Returns (2001). His large physique and deep voice would land him more roles on the big screen; in addition to The Mummy Returns, he had a significant part in The Bourne Identity (2002) and a major role in the drama Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005).

In 2005, Akinnuoye-Agbaje began appearing as the mysterious Mr. Eko on the groundbreaking television show Lost. While on the show, he, along with his costars, won a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for best ensemble cast in a drama series. After the death of his foster parents, Akinnuoye-Agbaje asked to be written off the show, wanting to return to London; his last episode aired in November 2006.

Following his departure from Lost, Akinnuoye-Agbaje returned to films, playing the character of Heavy Duty in the 2009 blockbuster GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. He also had major roles in the 2011 films Killer Elite and The Thing, the latter a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 film of the same name, and starred in the 2012 British drama Best Laid Plans, which was loosely based on John Steinbeck’s classic novel Of Mice and Men (1937). Also in 2012, he appeared as Deacon Crane in the British television series Hunted, opposite Melissa George.

Although many of his characters—including his best-known characters, Adebisi and Mr. Eko—have African accents, Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s own speaking voice is British. He has enjoyed opportunities to play against type, adopting an American accent for The Thing and Hunted and using his own British accent in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Killer Elite. In 2013, he starred in the coming-of-age drama The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete and appeared as Algrim in the blockbuster comic-book adaptation Thor: The Dark World.

In 2015 Akinnuoye-Agbaje had a role in the biographical sports drama Concussion, as NFL player Dave Duerson. The following year, he returned to the superhero genre as the supervillain Killer Croc in the blockbuster Suicide Squad. Akinnuoye-Agbaje played Ogunwe in the third season of the British fantasy television series His Dark Materials, which aired in 2022. During the same year, Akinnuoye-Agbaje played the lead in Late in Summer, a film about a Black American GI who falls in love with a farmer's wife near the end of World War II, and the crime thriller Marlowe, alongside Jessica Lange and Liam Neeson. He starred in the thriller The Union, a film starring Mark Wahlberg in 2024.

In addition to his mainstream films and television productions, Akinnuoye-Agbaje took his own turn as director in 2018's Farming, based on his own childhood. The story centers on the 1960s and 1970s practice in which Nigerians would "farm out" their children to England to be raised in foster homes, and explores the experiences of one such child who joins a white skinhead gang, like Akinnuoye-Agbaje did. Starring Damson Idris and Kate Beckinsale, the film was put into wide release in 2019 and though it received mixed reviews, it was regarded as a strong directorial debut.

Impact

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has made a career of playing characters of unparalleled strength, whatever their moral alignment may be. He draws much of this strength from his own personal experiences, and many of his most iconic roles, including Mr. Eko, Simon Adebisi, and Wambosi from The Bourne Identity, are powerful, cunning, and multidimensional figures, with a complexity far beyond that provided by the script.

Personal Life

Akinnuoye-Agbaje maintains homes in both London and Los Angeles. He is fluent in several languages, including Italian, Yoruba, and Swahili. He has said that while he considers both Nigeria and the United States to be home, London will always be closest to his heart.

Bibliography

Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Adewale. “Q&A: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.” Interview by Clay Cane. BET. BET Interactive, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Sept. 2024.

Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Adewale. “‘Farmed’ Out to a White Family, I Became a Skinhead: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on His First Film.” Interview by Tim Adams. The Guardian, 8 Sept. 2019, www.theguardian.com/film/2019/sep/08/adewale-akinnuoye-agbaje-my-life-as-black-skinhead-farming-film. Accessed 17 Sept. 2024.

Anthony, Andrew. “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: ‘I Didn’t Want to Be Black. So I Joined the Skinheads . . .’” Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 12 May 2012. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Bell, Crystal. “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Interview: Actor Talks Strike Back, Playing Bad & The Killer Elite.” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Jennings, Helen. “Welcome to Walewood.” Arise Fall/Winter 2009: 108–13. Print.

Kitchen, Matthew. “Mr. Eko, Hollywood’s Biggest Badass.” Esquire. Hearst Communications, 7 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Lee, Chris. “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Talks Thor Sequel, Bullet to the Head.” Hero Complex. Los Angeles Times, 2 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Lipworth, Elaine. “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: My Bullet to the Head Villain Is More Brains than Brawn.” Metro.co.uk. Associated Newspapers, 1 Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Petski, Denise. "Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Signs with Industry Entertainment." Deadline, 19 July 2022, deadline.com/2022/07/adewale-akinnuoye-agbaje-signs-with-industry-entertainment-1235072024/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2024.