Mark Strong
☼ Born on 5 December 1963, in Islington, London, England, UK
Biography
British actor Mark Strong, who played Jim Prideaux in the 2011 remake of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), is often cast as cold, calculating villains. But before he became a famous actor, he intended to pursue a career in law.
Strong was born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia in London, England, to an Austrian mother and an Italian father. His father left the family not long after he was born, and his mother worked as an au pair to raise the boy on her own. Strong's mother had his name legally changed, by deed poll, when he was young in order to help him better assimilate with his peers. He became Mark Strong.
Strong attended Wymondham College in Norfolk, and studied at the university level in Munich with the intent of becoming a lawyer. After a year, he returned to London to study English and Drama at Royal Holloway. He went on to further master his craft of at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Although Americans are most familiar with Strong's roles as Sinestro in Green Lantern (2011), mob boss Frank D'Amico in Kick-Ass (2010), and Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes (2009), British audiences know him from his long history as a television actor. He also starred in as numerous British stage productions, including plays at the Royal National Theatre and the RSC.
His most prominent television parts include Prime Suspect 3 (1993) and Prime Suspect: The Last Witness (2003) as Inspector Larry Hall, and starring roles in the BBC Two dramas Our Friends in the North (1996) and The Long Firm
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(2004), the latter of which netted Strong a BAFTA nomination. He also played Mr. Knightley in the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's classic tale Emma (1996).
Strong resides in London with his wife Liza Marshall, with whom he has two sons, the younger of which is the godson of his longtime friend Daniel Craig.
In the role of actor
The Critic – TIFF 2023 (16/09/2023)
A veteran theatre critic concocts a blackmail scheme involving a young starlet in The Critic. Jimmy Erskine (Ian McKellen) is the longtime drama critic for The Daily Chronicle, recently inherited by David Brooke (Mark Strong). David wants to restore The Chronicle to being London’s most-read family newspaper and earmarks Jimmy for the chopping block, both […]
Tár (09/02/2023)
An acclaimed conductor’s career is affected by her allegedly predatory behaviour in Tár. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is a highly acclaimed female composer and conductor working with the Berlin Philharmonic on an upcoming live recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. With her busy schedule, Tár relies on her assistant Francesca (Noémie Merlant) and the support of […]
2011 (20/08/2020)
An isolated film editor is tormented by his mysterious neighbour in 2011. The Tenant from 2011 (Émile Schneider) is a young film editor currently working on a feature film The Burning Flesh for independent director Hugo (Hugolin Chevrette). However, the tenant begins to fall into his anxieties through recurring nightmares and the actions of his […]
Shazam! (11/04/2019)
A teenage boy is imbued with magical powers that turns him into a superhero in Shazam!. Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a teenage delinquent, who is sent to a group home run by Victor and Rosa Vazquez (Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans) and is introduced to his new foster siblings Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), […]
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (24/09/2017)
Kingsman teams up with their American cousins to bring down a psychopathic drug lord in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. A year has passed since Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) became of a full agent of the Kingsman spy organization, even though he deeply misses his fallen mentor Harry Hart (Colin Firth). However, a terrorist organization known as the […]
Kingsman: The Secret Service (18/02/2015)
From director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class) comes this adaptation of the spy comic book series “The Secret Service” by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. Harry Hart (Colin Firth), code name Galahad, is a member of an independently operated spy agency known as the Kingsmen. When an agent codenamed Lancelot is killed in the […]
The Imitation Game (25/01/2015)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley star in this biopic about mathematician Alan Turing. During World War II, Turing (Cumberbatch) is hired by the British government to join a top team of code-breakers, fellow members of which include Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode) and Joan Clarke (Knightley), who are tasked by MI6 chief Stewart Menzies (Mark Strong) […]
John Carter (11/03/2012)
Apparently they have been trying to make a film adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars since at least 1931. This was the first of a series of novels about “John Carter of Mars” written in the early twentieth century, which influenced much of the later science fiction works to come out in the […]
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (03/01/2012)
I delayed my list of my favourite films of 2011 as I went out to see some last-minute possible contenders. I saw War Horse on Sunday and I now I went to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy today. The film is an old school Cold War spy thriller in which a British spy named George Smiley (Gary […]
Green Lantern (20/06/2011)
Two days late, but better than never. With Marvel comics getting most of the attention during the last few year, we finally see a new DC comics movie for a character not named Batman or Superman. I am not a big comics reader, so I was only ever had a mild knowledge of the Green Lantern. […]
Robin Hood (16/05/2010)
Ridley Scott’s new film version of Robin Hood received fairly poor reviews from most critics. However, I feel that it might have fared better if it didn’t have the stigma of being attached to the classic story. Let it be said that this is not the traditional Robin Hood story that has been told in […]
RocknRolla (09/10/2008)
Since, the release of Snatch in 2000, Guy Ritchie found difficulty in moving away from the formula the made him famous. 2002 saw the Madonna-staring Swept Away, which loathed by pretty much everyone. Then came Revolver 2005, which took the crime films Ritchie was associated with, removed the comedy, and added a cerebral element that […]
Sunshine (25/07/2007)
Danny Boyle, known for Trainspotting and 28 Days Later enters the Sci-Fi genre with Sunshine. In fact there are quite a few technical similarities between this film and 28 Days Later. They both have the same director (Boyle), screenwriter (Alex Garland), star (Cillian Murphy), and composer (John Murphy). The film even features Rose Byrne (one […]