Part of Harry Potter featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, and Maggie Smith.
Rise to Fame
He got his film career from playing someone genuinely horrible. His Amon Goth in Schindler's List (1993), the sadistic Nazi commandant who shot prisoners from his balcony for sport, landed him an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win in his first major film role. He'd already spent years at the RSC and National Theatre, and won a Tony for Hamlet on Broadway in 1995, but none of that registered beyond theater circles. One Steven Spielberg film changed the math entirely.
In the Spotlight
He's managed to straddle prestige cinema and franchise blockbusters without either side holding it against him. He played Voldemort across five Harry Potter films starting in 2005, then M in the Bond series from Skyfall onward. Conclave (2024) gave him his third Oscar nomination, playing a Cardinal overseeing a papal election while privately losing his faith. Three nominations, zero wins, which at this point says more about the Academy than about him.
Side Notes
His name is pronounced 'Rafe,' a battle he's quietly losing to the internet. He comes from a genuinely creative family: brother Joseph Fiennes acts, sister Martha Fiennes directed him in the 1999 film Onegin. He speaks French and Russian, trained at RADA, and has directed two films himself (Coriolanus in 2011, The Invisible Woman in 2013). He directed his first opera production at the Paris Opera, which rounds out a resume that most actors couldn't construct on a bet.