Rise to Fame
The Long Firm (BBC, 2004) is where the industry actually noticed him. Playing Harry Starks, a Soho crime boss with a taste for theatrics, he won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award and got a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. Guy Ritchie cast him in RocknRolla, Ridley Scott put him in Body of Lies, and Hollywood realized it had found its utility player for menace. The villain pipeline opened: Stardust, Sherlock Holmes, Kick-Ass, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He didn't break through overnight; he arrived as a fully formed character actor who'd spent a decade on stage and in serious British TV.
In the Spotlight
A decade of playing villains didn't type-cast him so much as upgrade him. The role of Merlin in the Kingsman franchise softened the formula a bit, and his 2015 Olivier Award win for A View from the Bridge reminded everyone the villain work wasn't the ceiling. Recent years show him drifting toward prestige: Carmine Falcone in The Penguin (2024), Emperor Javicco Corrino in Dune: Prophecy, Oedipus on Broadway opposite Lesley Manville. The career arc isn't downward. It's quietly getting more interesting.
Side Notes
His real name is Marco Giuseppe Salussolia. His Austrian mother, working as an au pair in London after his Italian father left, had his name legally changed by deed poll so he'd fit in with English schoolmates. He studied German law at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich before pivoting to drama. Reportedly speaks fluent German and played in two punk bands in secondary school. Daniel Craig is the godfather of his younger son, which tracks: they came up together in Our Friends in the North in 1996.