Timothy Simon "Tim" Roth is an English actor and film director.
He made his film debut in Made in Britain in 1982 and has since appeared in a number
of Quentin Tarantino films, including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Four Rooms.
Some other notable films include Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and
Rob Roy for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and won
the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
He also starred as Cal Lightman in the TV series Lie to Me.
Early life Tim Roth was born in Dulwich, London, the
son of Ann, a painter and teacher, and Ernie, a Fleet Street journalist, painter, and a
member of the British Communist Party.
His father was born with the surname Smith in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, to
a British immigrant family of Irish ancestry; he changed his surname to Roth in the 1940s,
"partly through solidarity with the victims of the Holocaust, partly because the English
were far from welcome in some of the countries to which his job took him".
Roth attended the Strand School in Tulse Hill.
As a young man, he wanted to be a sculptor and studied at London's Camberwell College
of Art.
Career Roth made his acting debut at the age of 21
playing a white power skinhead in a 1983 TV film titled Made in Britain.
He played an East End character in King of the Ghetto, a controversial drama based on
a novel by Farukh Dhondy set in Brick Lane and broadcast by the BBC in 1986.
In contrast to his Made in Britain role, Roth played a mentally disabled young man in the
1983 Mike Leigh film, Meantime.
In 1985, he appeared in the television film Murder with Mirrors opposite Bette Davis,
John Mills and Helen Hayes.
He played an apprentice hitman in Stephen Frears' The Hit with Terence Stamp and John
Hurt, earning an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
He appeared in several other films towards the end of the decade and in 1989 he had a
supporting role as the buffoonish lackey Mitchell in Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief,
His Wife & Her Lover.
In 1990, he began to enjoy international attention with starring roles as Vincent van Gogh in
Robert Altman's Vincent & Theo and as Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern
Are Dead.
Roth and other young British actors of the time such as Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Daniel
Day-Lewis, Bruce Payne and Paul McGann, were dubbed the 'Brit Pack', a nickname based on
the Brat Pack of the US.
Roth was cast as Mr. Orange in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 ensemble film Reservoir Dogs.
This paved the way for more work in Hollywood.
In 1994, Tarantino cast him as a robber in Pulp Fiction.
They also collaborated in the 1995 film Four Rooms, where he played the role of Ted the
Bellhop.
His role as Archibald Cunningham opposite Liam Neeson in Rob Roy earned him an Academy
Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination and won him a BAFTA
for the same performance.
In 1996 he starred with Drew Barrymore in Woody Allen's musical comedy Everyone Says
I Love You.
He also starred as Danny Boodman T.D.
Lemon 1900 in The Legend of 1900 and in the same year he co-starred with Tupac Shakur
in the film Gridlock'd.
He made his debut as a director in 1999 with The War Zone, a film version of Alexander
Stuart's novel.
In 2001, he portrayed General Thade in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes.
Roth was the original choice for the role of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film
series, but he turned it down for the Planet of the Apes role.
He was considered for the part of Hannibal Lecter in the 2001 film Hannibal before Anthony
Hopkins returned to reclaim the role.
He appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth and Michael Haneke's Funny Games,
then starred opposite Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk as Emil Blonsky.
From 2009 to 2011, he starred in a series on Fox called Lie To Me.
He played Dr. Cal Lightman, an expert on body language who assists local and federal law
organisations in the investigations of crimes.
His character was based on Dr. Paul Ekman, a notable psychologist and expert on body
language and facial expressions.
In 2010, Roth appeared on the cover to Manic Street Preachers' 2010 studio album, Postcards
from a Young Man.
In 2012, he was announced as the President of the Jury for the Un Certain Regard section
at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Roth is to star as FIFA president Sepp Blatter in a film about football's governing body,
which is due for release in 2014 to coincide with FIFA's 110th anniversary and the 2014
FIFA World Cup.
Personal life Tim Roth has a son, Jack, born to Lori Baker
in 1984, who is also an actor.
Roth married Nikki Butler in 1993, and they have two sons, Timothy Hunter and Michael
Cormac.
Roth is a supporter of the Green Party of England and Wales.
Filmography As actor
References
External links The Officially Unofficial Tim Roth Web Page
Tim Roth at the Internet Movie Database Tim Roth at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
Allmovie entry for Tim Roth Audio Interview w/ Rafferty/Mills Connection
Podcast