Rhys Ifans (Welsh pronunciation:[rs ivans]; produced Rhys Owain Evans; 22 July 1967) is a Welsh actor and musician. He played Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, in “Anonymous”. Ifans also offers a recurring part as Mycroft Holmes on the CBS show “Elementary”. Ifans attained popularity in America as a footballer turned American football player having a gambling habit, Nigel Gruff, in the 2000 movie “The Replacements”.
Since 2007 Ifans has sung with Welsh psychedelic rock group The Peth (peth is Welsh for “matter”), featuring Super Furry Animals’ Dafydd Ieuan, which played several concert dates in South Wales as well as in London in the fall of 2008. The group played its first date outside London or Wales on 28 September 2008 at the Southampton Soul Basement. He played Xenophillius Lovegood, editor of the wizarding magazine “The Quibbler” and dad of the eccentric Luna Lovegood. He played Nemo Nobody’s dad in Mr. Nobody, starring Jared Leto and Diane Kruger. He played a villain in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, which likewise starred Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhaal. On 11 October 2010, the Associated Press affirmed that Ifans would impersonate the villain in the Spider Man reboot film, The Amazing Spider-Man. The villain was shown as the Lizard several days after, as well as the movie premiered in July 2012. In September 2012 Ifans became patron of the recently formed Dwelling Routes Society, to further and develop the Welsh language Wikipedia: Wikipedia Cymraeg.
Notting Hill (1999) was at once a set of wings and a ball and chain.
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[on working with a stellar cast in Anonymous (2011)] You'd think that a cast of that stature would be intimidating, and it was quite the opposite. I felt so safe. And we all know each other. We know what it is to be underpaid and worked to the bone. So it was just a luxury from beginning to end.
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[on whether he has reservations about Shakepeare's genius] I'm a British actor, so of course you suckle on the milk of William Shakespeare from the moment that you decide to act. But no, I'll say the body of evidence to prove that William Shakespeare from Stratford wrote all of these works is flimsy.
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Every time the Tories get a bit of power they rip off all the things I love. The mining industry. Milk.
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'I work hard and I party hard. When I go to work, I know what I am doing and I do it to the best of my abilities. When I party, I take exactly the same rule book with me. Except I might turn up later and outstay my welcome. I really don't know why that interests anybody, given that most of the population behaves in exactly the same way.
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I'm a factory-floor actor. I learn the lines, I get there on time. I don't sit around with other actors and talk about the pain and the magic of acting. I'd rather just go down the pub. That's where the real magic happens. That's often where the ideas take flight. Very underrated, the pub, in terms of the history of creativity.
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Fact
1
He was a self-described "obsessive fan" of the 'Spider-Man' comics as a child and got the chance to play the villain (The Lizard) in the 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).
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Was engaged to Sienna Miller, having been in a relationship with her since June 2007 (March-June 2008).
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Both parents were teachers.
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Won a scholarship to Guildhall School of Music & Drama and graduated in 1997.
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Has appeared in several rock promos: "Hometown Unicorn" and "God Show Me Magic" by the Super Furry Animals (both 1996), "Mulder and Scully" by Catatonia (1998), "Mama Told Me Not To Come" by Tom Jones and the Stereophonics (2000), and "The Importance of Being Idle" by Oasis (2005).
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Was the original lead singer for the band Super Furry Animals, leaving before the band became well known.
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Left Wales at age 18 to study acting in London.
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Name is pronounced Reese Ee-vans.
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Has performed at the National Theatre and the Royal Exchange, Manchester.
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His first language is Welsh, and at one time, he went to the all Welsh speaking school, Maes Garmon.
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Both he and his brother Llyr Ifans are from Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales, UK.
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Welsh-speaker, has starred in many Welsh language dramas, comedies and entertainment programmes (for Welsh-language channel S4C).
$12.5 Million
