Martin John Christopher Freeman is an English actor.
He is perhaps best known for portraying Tim Canterbury in The Office, Dr. John Watson
in Sherlock, Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy, and Lester Nygaard
in Fargo.
His other notable film roles include Love Actually, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
Nativity!, and the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, most prominently in The World's End.
Among other accolades, he has won a BAFTA Award, and received Emmy- and Saturn Award
nominations.
Early life Freeman was born in Aldershot, Hampshire,
the youngest of five children.
His parents, Philomena and Geoffrey Freeman, a naval officer, separated when Freeman was
a child.
When Freeman was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack.
Freeman attended the Salesian School, Chertsey before attending Brooklands College for media
studies.
His older brother Tim became a musician with the group Frazier Chorus.
Freeman was raised as a Roman Catholic.
Although his family was not strict in their religious practices, his religion had a profound
influence on him.
As a child, he was asthmatic, and had to undergo a hip operation for what he has described
as a "dodgy leg".
Career Freeman joined a youth theatre group at 15,
but it was not until he was 17 that his confidence in his acting led to the decision to pursue
it as a career.
He went on to attend the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Freeman has appeared in at least 18 TV shows, 14 theatre productions, and several radio
productions.
He is notable for his role as Tim Canterbury in The Office.
He appeared in the sitcom Hardware.
He also appeared in several films, including Ali G Indahouse and Love Actually.
He began to move into more serious dramatic roles on television with his appearance as
Lord Shaftesbury in the 2003 BBC historical drama Charles II: The Power and The Passion.
He can also be seen making a brief appearance in the first episode of the second series
of This Life.
Freeman also starred in the BBC television series The Robinsons and had a cameo in episode
1 of Black Books.
In 2007, he appeared in The All Together written and directed by Gavin Claxton, as well as
the Bill Kenwright theatre production of The Last Laugh.
He is featured in the video for Faith No More's cover of "I Started a Joke".
In May 2009 he starred in Boy Meets Girl, a four-part drama that charts the progress
of characters Veronica and Danny after an accident which causes them to swap bodies.
He currently plays Dr. John Watson in Sherlock, the BBC contemporary adaptation of the Sherlock
Holmes detective stories.
He starred alongside Benedict Cumberbatch, who also went on to perform in The Hobbit
films with Freeman.
The first episode of Sherlock, "A Study in Pink", was broadcast on 25 July 2010 to critical
acclaim.
For his performance in the role he won the BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor, 2011
and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries
or a Movie.
He plays Bilbo Baggins, the main character, in the three-part Peter Jackson film series
The Hobbit.
Accolades that his performance in the first part, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, garnered
him include Best Hero at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and Best Actor at the 18th Empire Awards.
Freeman appeared in all three of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto
trilogy, commencing with a brief non-speaking role in Shaun of the Dead as Yvonne's boyfriend,
Declan, followed by a brief cameo in Hot Fuzz as a police officer.
He is a main cast member in the 2013 finale to the trilogy, The World's End.
On 5 October 2013, he was presented with a fellowship bearing his name by the members
of University College Dublin's Literary & Historical Society.
In April 2014, Freeman began playing insurance salesman Lester Nygaard in the dark comedy-crime
drama series Fargo.
He is set to play the title role in William Shakespeare’s play Richard III in the summer
of 2014 at Trafalgar Studios.
Personal life Freeman lives in Hertfordshire with his partner,
actress Amanda Abbington, whom he met on the set of Channel 4's Men Only in 2000.
The couple have two children together: Joe and Grace.
They have appeared in other productions together, including Sherlock, Swinging with the Finkels,
The Debt, The Robinsons, and The All Together.
In an edition of Who Do You Think You Are?
aired on 19 August 2009, Freeman discovered that his grandfather, Leonard Freeman, was
a medic who was killed a couple of days before the Dunkirk evacuation at the beginning of
World War II.
Leonard's father, Richard, was born blind and had been a piano tuner and organist at
St Andrew's Church, West Tarring and later a music teacher in Kingston upon Hull.
Freeman is a vegetarian.
He has struggled with religion, stating that "my relationship with my belief has never
been easy."
Despite these struggles, he has said his Catholic faith remains intact.
In 2011, Freeman took part in a charity cricket match to raise money for victims of the Christchurch
earthquake.
Filmography Film
Television Awards and nominations
References
External links Martin Freeman at the Internet Movie Database
Martin Freeman at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
Martin Freeman Massive, online fan community Martin Freeman BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview
Boy Meets Girl Interview