50 facts you missed about actor Hugo Weaving

50 things about Hugo Wallace Weaving, an Australian-British film and stage actor.

1. Hugo Weaving born Hugo Wallace Weaving is an Australian-British film and stage actor.

2. Hugo Weaving is best known for his roles as Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy (1999-2003) and Elrond in The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Hobbit (2012-2014) film trilogy.

3. Hugo Weaving's first major role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, as the English cricket captain Douglas Jardine.

4. Hugo Weaving first rose to prominence for his performance as Martin in the Australian drama Proof (1991).

5. Other notable works include Tick in the comedy-drama The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994); V in the political thriller V for Vendetta (2006); Red Skull in the superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and multiple roles in the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012).

6. Hugo Weaving has also provided the voice Rex in Babe, Noah in Happy Feet and Happy Feet Two and Megatron in the Transformers film series, as well as starred in multiple Australian character dramas.

7. Hugo Weaving has received many accolades in his career, including a Satellite Award, MTV Movie Award and several Australian Film Institute Awards.

8. Hugo Weaving was born at the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital, Nigeria Protectorate, to English parents.

9. Hugo Weaving's mother Anne (née Lennard) was a tour guide and former teacher.

10. Hugo Weaving's father Wallace Weaving was a seismologist.

11. His maternal grandmother was Belgian.

12. A year after his birth, his family returned to England, living in Bedford and Brighton before moving to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia; Johannesburg in South Africa; and then returning to England again.

13. While in England, he attended The Downs School, Wraxall, near Bristol, and Queen Elizabeth's Hospital.

14. His family moved back to Australia in 1976, where he attended Knox Grammar School in Sydney.

15. Hugo Weaving graduated from Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1981.

16. Weaving's first major role was in the 1984 Australian television series Bodyline, as the English cricket captain Douglas Jardine.

17. Hugo Weaving appeared in the Australian miniseries The Dirtwater Dynasty in 1988 and as Geoffrey Chambers in the drama Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way From Home.

18. Hugo Weaving starred opposite Nicole Kidman in the 1989 film Bangkok Hilton.

19. In 1991, Weaving received the Australian Film Institute's "Best Actor" award for his performance in the low-budget Proof.

20. Hugo Weaving appeared as Sir John in the 1993 Yahoo Serious comedy Reckless Kelly, a lampoon of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.

21. Hugo Weaving first received international attention in the hit Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994, and provided the voice of Rex the sheepdog and farm leader in the 1995 family film, Babe.

22. In 1998, he received the "Best Actor" award from the Montreal Film Festival for his performance as a suspected serial killer in The Interview.

23. Hugo Weaving earned further international attention with his performance as the enigmatic Agent Smith in the 1999 blockbuster hit The Matrix.

24. He later reprised that role in the film's 2003 sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

25. Hugo Weaving was a voice actor in the cartoon film The Magic Pudding.

26. He garnered additional acclaim in the role of Elrond in Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, released between 2001 and 2003.

27. Hugo Weaving was the main actor in Andrew Kotatko's award-winning film Everything Goes (2004).

28. Hugo Weaving starred as a heroin-addicted ex-rugby league player in the 2005 Australian indie film Little Fish, opposite Cate Blanchett.

29. Hugo Weaving played the title role as V in the 2006 film V for Vendetta, in which he was reunited with the Wachowskis, creators of The Matrix trilogy, who wrote the adapted screenplay. Actor James Purefoy was originally signed to play the role, but he pulled out four weeks into filming. Weaving reshot most of James Purefoy's scenes as V (even though his face is never seen) apart from a couple of minor dialogue-free scenes early in the film. Stuntman David Leitch performed all of V's stunts.

30. Hugo Weaving reprised his role as Elrond for the video game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II.

31. He regularly appears in productions by the Sydney Theatre Company (STC).

32. In 2006, he worked with Cate Blanchett on a reprise of the STC production of Hedda Gabler in New York City.

33. In a controversial move by director Michael Bay, Weaving was chosen as the Decepticon leader Megatron vocally in the 2007 live-action film Transformers, rather than using the original version of the character's voice created by the voice actor, Frank Welker.

34. Hugo Weaving himself was unaware of the controversy and had accepted the role based on Michael Bay's personal request. In a November 2008 Sun Herald interview, he said he'd never seen Transformers.

35. Though Weaving reprised his role in two sequels, he does not have much personal investment in the Transformers films.

36. In February 2010, Weaving revealed to The Age: "[Director] Michael Bay talks to me on the phone. I've never met him. We were doing the voice for the second one and I still hadn't seen the first one. I still didn't really know who the characters were and I didn't know what anything was. It's a voice job, for sure, and people assume I've spent my life working on it, but I really know so little about it."

37. Weaving played a supporting role in Joe Johnston's 2010 remake of the 1941 film The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro. Immediately after Wolfman wrapped in spring 2008, he returned home to Australia to film a lead role in the film Last Ride, directed by Glendyn Ivin.

38. Weaving spent the summer of 2009 starring in the Melbourne Theatre Company's production of God of Carnage, portraying the caustic lawyer Alain Reille. He returned to the stage in November 2010 in Sydney Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya, costarring Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh.

39. Weaving filmed a guest role on Roxburgh's Australian TV series Rake in May 2010.

40. Hugo Weaving was part of the cast of the Wachowskis' adaptation of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas.[15] The project, co-starring Tom Hanks, Ben Whishaw, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, and Susan Sarandon, began filming in September 2011 and was released in October 2012.

41. 2012 also found Weaving re-focusing on his theatrical career, with a well-received return to the Sydney Theatre Company to star in a new adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play Les Liaisons Dangereuses in March. He portrayed the notorious Vicomte de Valmont, a character he first played onstage in 1987.

42. The busy actor also joined the cast of three forthcoming Australian films in summer 2012. The Western-tinged police thriller Mystery Road, written and directed by Ivan Sen, began filming in June 2012.

43. In the spring of 2013, Weaving reprised the Agent Smith role for a General Electric television commercial for their "Brilliant Machines" innovations in healthcare management technology, which was slated to air during a break from 13 April's edition of Saturday Night Live, and subsequently continued to receive multiple airings on major cable networks

44. When he was 13 years old, Weaving was diagnosed with epilepsy.

45. Hugo Weaving has been with his longtime girlfriend Katrina Greenwood since 1984.

46. Hugo Weaving and Greenwood live in Sydney.

47. The couple has two children together, Harry and Holly.

48. Hugo Weaving has a brother, Simon, and a sister, Anna Jane.

49. His niece, Samara Weaving, portrayed Indigo Walker on the long-running Australian soap, Home and Away, and her younger sister Morgan joined the cast as Lottie Ryan.

50. In 2004, Weaving became an ambassador for Australian animal rights organizations Voiceless, the animal protection institute.