People | September 14, 2015 03:48 PM EDT
50 Interesting Facts About Mark Strong
Mark Strong is a British film and television actor known for his roles as crime lords and sinister villains, including his characters - Mussawi in “Syriana” (2005), Jim Prideaux in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (2011) and Maj. Gen. Stewart Menzies in “The Imitation Game” (2014).
- Born as Marco Giuseppe Salussodia on Aug 5, 1963 in London.
- He was born to an Italian father and an Austrian mother.
- His mother brought him up working as an Aupair, as his father left them when he was born.
- His name was changed by his mother so that he can jell well his peers.
- He went to Wymondham College and also took part in Punk bands. He sang for bands such as Electric Hoax and Private Party.
- His ambition was to become a lawyer and he studied German constitutional law at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich for a year, before returning to London.
- He studied English and Drama at Royal Holloway. He later went to Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
- During his childhood days he wanted to become like French actor Alain Delon. Even though he didn’t understand a word in French, he thought Delon looked great in TV.
- In 2015, Strong was named in the list of 50 Best Dressed British Men by the GQ magazine.
- His greatest inspiration is Nelson Mandela. He said “his suffering, coupled with his ability to remain tolerant, is staggering.”
- He is a strong supporter of Football Club Arsenal F.C.
- He acted in the British Television serial drama “Prime Suspect” in 1993 and in 2003 as Larry Hall.
- While shooting for the TV series “Our Friends in the North,” Christopher Eccleston disliked Strong and they did not have any conversation for the entire production, outside the scenes.
- He was nominated for BAFTA for his performance as gangster Harry Starks in the TV adaptation of Jake Arnott’s “The Long Firm.”
- He met his wife - then BBC TV executive Liza Marshall in the TV series sets, who believed strongly that he could do the villain roles better.
- Strong said that people at BBC along with the writer believed that he was way too nice and that he can’t plumb the depths of darkness, due to the characters he played till then. However, it seems it was only Marshall, who has seen the evil soul before anybody else.
- Strong and Marshall have two sons – Gabriel and Roman.
- Daniel Craig, his longtime friend is the godfather of his eldest son.
- He has also provided his voice for Craig in the latter’s German movie “Obsession” in 1997.
- Strong, along with his family, resides in London and is very much contented with his life. “I feel like I have a lovely balance. I’m able to keep my head below the parapet. I get on with my work, I have a family and I get on the tube. It just so happens that I’m doing this job,” he once said.
- He acted in the Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night” at the Donmar Warehouse in 2002.
- He was nominated for 2003 Laurence Oliver Awards for Best Performance in a Supporting role, for his performance in the “Twelfth Night.”
- He auditioned for the character “Anton Chigurh in “No Country For Old Men,” and was one of the final two actors chosen.
- He played the character of Pinbacker, who is sent to reignite the sun in the movie “Sunshine” in 2007.
- This is the second movie named “Sunshine” to feature Mark Strong, after the 1999 movie “Sunshine.”
- In the movie, Pinbacker receives disfiguring burns when he venture closure to the Sun. This was influenced by the injuries suffered by Nikki Lauda, F1 driver.
- He played the youngest prince Septimus in 2007 movie “Star Dust.” Septimus is the Latin word for Seven.
- He played the character Hani Salaam, the chief and director of the Jordanian Intelligence agency in the movie “Body of Lies” in 2008.
- In the movie his unit’s interrogation technique is commented as “fingernail factory.” Strong, in his 2005 movie “Syriana” used the same technique to torture George Clooney’s character.
- This marks the first collaboration between Strong and director Ridley Scott. Along with him, Russell Crowe, Oscar Isaac and Simon McBurney from this cast acted in Ridley Scott’s next movie “Robin Hood.”
- He was reluctant to take the role because his wife was pregnant. However, upon persuasion from her, he finally agreed.
- The character Hani Salaam was inspired by the original Jordanian Intelligence chief Saad Kheir (2000-2005). According to the author, David Ignatius, the portrayal was nearly accurate.
- He was nominated for Best British Supporting Actor at the London Critics Circle Film Award for portraying Hani Salaam.
- He played the character Sir Godfrey in the movie “Robin Hood.” According to him Sir Godfrey was originally called as Conrad.
- He likes to work with director Guy Ritchie as he is easy to work with and doesn’t show any ego.
- He played the character Frank D’Amico, the head of a criminal organization in the movie “Kick Ass” in 2009.
- The character was originally John Genovese, but Genovese is a powerful mob and to avoid any trouble the name was changed.
- He played as Sinestro, the Green Lantern of Korugar, an enemy of Green Lantern Corps in the movie “The Green Lantern” in 2010.
- Initially, Hugo Weaving, Jackie Earle Haley and Geoffrey Rush were considered for the role of Sinestro.
- He was cast as Sultan Amar in the movie "Day of the Falcon" in 2011, which was shot in Tunisia and Qatar. It took the crew over four weeks to shoot the various battle scenes in deserts of Qatar.
- He was Jim Prideaux in the spy movie “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” alongside Collin Firth, Gary Oldman, Joh Hurt and Benedict Cumberbatch.
- He along with Cumberbatch appeared in “The Imitation Game” in 2014. He also appeared in another spy movie “Kingsman: The Secret Service” in 2015 along with Collin Firth.
- In the “Kingsman: The Secret Service” film, director Matthew Vaughn wanted the Strong’s character of Merlin to have a Welsh accent. However, Strong who found the Welsh accent quiet challenging insisted on Merlin having a Scottish accent.
- He appeared in “The Guard” an Irish film as Clive Cornell. The movie became the most successful Independent Irish Film of all time.
- He played Matai Shang, the leader of Therns in the movie “John Carter.”
- He was cast as Stewart Menzies, MI6 Chief in the movie “The Imitation Game” in 2014.
- He acted in the movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” based on the killing of Terrorist “Osama Bin Laden” by Navy Seal 6.
- Initially, he was not the first choice to act in the movie, but later he replaced Tom Hardy in the cast.
- In 2014, he was part of the Jaguar Cars advert that featured British actors Ben Kingsley and Tom Hiddleston. The ad had these actors' roles as villains as the theme, with the tag line "It's good to be bad." It was first shown during Super Bowl XLVIII.
- He earned the Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the play "A View from the Bridge" in the year 2015. Including his award, the play won a total of 3 Olivier Awards.
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