Tom Hardy

Actor

• Born: September 15, 1977
• Place of Birth: London, England

Contribution: Tom Hardy is a veteran stage, television, and film actor who is best known for his roles in the television series Band of Brothers (2001) and Peaky Blinders (2014–22) and the films Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Revenant (2015), and Venom (2018).

Background

Edward Thomas “Tom” Hardy was born on September 15, 1977, in the Hammersmith district of West London. His mother, Elizabeth Anne Barrett, was an artist, and his father, Edward Hardy, was a comedy writer. Hardy was educated at Reed’s School in Cobham, Surrey, and then Tower House School in London. Later, he attended the Richmond Drama School. At the age of twenty-one, he won a modeling competition, earning him a short-term contract with the Models One agency. He then enrolled in the Drama Centre London, though he left the school early when he was cast as Private First Class John Janovec in the HBO (Home Box Office) World War II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001).

Although he was developing into a strong actor, Hardy also struggled as a young man. As a teenager, he landed in legal trouble several times, including an incident in which he was caught in possession of a gun while driving a stolen car. He also struggled with drug addiction and alcohol abuse from a relatively young age and was expelled twice from school for his unruly behavior. In 2004, Hardy’s relapse into drug and alcohol addiction partly contributed to his divorce from Sarah Ward, his wife of five years, and culminated in him collapsing in the street following a crack cocaine binge in 2003. He entered rehab soon after.

After emerging from treatment, Hardy returned to acting, taking to the London stage for several acclaimed roles. He began to focus on maintaining his physical and mental health while continuing to transform himself physically for roles, sometimes losing a large amount of weight to play one role and then quickly gaining a great deal of body mass for another. This ability captured the attention of the film industry, helping him land a number of major roles and increasing demand for his acting abilities.

Career

Following his successful turn on Band of Brothers, Hardy began work on another war epic, Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning Black Hawk Down (2001). He was next cast in his first major film role, playing the villain Shinzon in Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). In 2004, he had a supporting role in the crime thriller Layer Cake, starring Daniel Craig.

In 2004, Hardy turned his attention to the stage, appearing in a number of plays. He also started an underground theater company, Shotgun Theatre Company, which produced several plays, including one penned by Hardy’s father. Over the next few years, Hardy appeared in several BBC television films, including Stuart: A Life Backwards (2007), in which he played a drug-addicted man with muscular dystrophy. He also landed roles in several big-screen productions, among them Minotaur (2006), for which he played the main character, and Marie Antoinette (2006).

Beginning in 2008, Hardy began to come to wider attention. In addition to his turn as Handsome Bob in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla (2008), he appeared in what many consider his breakout role: that of infamous British criminal Michael Peterson, who changed his name to Charles Bronson when he became a bare-knuckle boxer. Hardy’s transformation in Bronson (2008)—he gained over forty pounds for the role—bolstered his growing reputation as an intense and chameleon-like actor.

In 2010, Hardy reemerged as a superstar in Hollywood, appearing in the Christopher Nolan-directed blockbuster Inception. He gained weight again to play a mixed martial arts fighter in Warrior (2011) and also had a significant role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), based on John le Carré’s 1974 novel of the same name. In 2012, Hardy had starring roles in the action-comedy This Means War and the historical drama Lawless. He also reunited with Christopher Nolan to play the muscle-bound villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In 2014, Hardy appeared alongside James Gandolfini in The Drop, which would be Gandolfini's final film performance before his unexpected death. He also joined the cast of the period crime drama series Peaky Blinders as the recurring character Alfie Solomons. Hardy appeared regularly in the show's second season but appeared in only a handful of episodes in the show's later seasons between 2016 and 2022. In 2015, Hardy starred in Child 44 and in the title role of Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury Road, a performance that earned widespread acclaim. The film was also the highest grossing in the Mad Max film franchise. Also in 2015, Hardy appeared as both Reggie and Ronnie Kray in the thriller Legend, a performance for which he won Best Actor from the British Independent Film Awards. His role in another 2015 thriller, The Revenant, awarded Hardy a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the Academy Awards.

In addition to serving as a creator, actor, writer, and producer for the BBC television series Taboo in 2017, he also had a role in the historical war film Dunkirk. In 2018, he became part of the Marvel Comics film universe when he took on the role of the comic-book character Venom in the film of the same name. After starring as infamous gangster Al Capone in the biographical crime drama Capone (2020), Hardy reprised his role as Venom in the 2021 sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage and one last time in 2024 in Venom: The Last Dance. Hardy also appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and co-starred in The Bikeriders (2023) with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Michael Shannon. He portrayed a detective who must go into the criminal underworld to rescue a politician's son in Havoc, scheduled to be released in January 2025.

Impact

Tom Hardy has spent his career fully inhabiting the skin of countless characters. Since completing rehab, he has said in interviews that he takes his mental and physical health very seriously, an important trait for character actors (and the filmmakers who cast them). His versatility and his dedication to his roles have led to his popularity in Hollywood as both a character actor and a leading man. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2018 for his services to drama.

Personal Life

Tom Hardy was married to Sarah Ward from 1999 to 2004. In 2008 he had a son, Louis Thomas Hardy, with then girlfriend Rachael Speed. He became engaged to actor Charlotte Riley in 2010. The couple married in 2014 and welcomed their first child in 2015. Their second child was born in 2018.

Bibliography

Conrad, Peter. “‘Maybe Feeling Alive Is Only Possible in the Presence of Death.’” Observer, 22 Sept. 2007, p. 13.

Hardy, Tom. “Tom Hardy, from East End Gangster to Romantic Hero.” Interview by Serena Davies. The Telegraph, 11 June 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5507365/Interview-Tom-Hardy-from-East-End-gangster-to-romantic-hero.html. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

Hardy, Tom. “Tom Hardy Talks Grown-Up Love.” Interview by Mickey Rapkin. Elle, 19 July 2012, www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a14248/tom-hardy-the-dark-knight-rises. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

Peres, Daniel. "Tom Hardy Lets His Guard Down." GQ, 21 Apr. 2015, www.gq.com/story/tom-hardy-mad-max-interview. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

Stern, Marlow. “Tom Hardy Talks Warrior, Dark Knight Rises, Michael Fassbender, and Drug Abuse.” Daily Beast, 16 Sept. 2011, www.thedailybeast.com/tom-hardy-talks-warrior-dark-knight-rises-michael-fassbender-and-drug-abuse. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

"Tom Hardy." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0362766. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.