47 Interesting Facts About Benedict Cumberbatch, The Exceptionally Talented English Actor

Interesting facts about an English actor who thinks he is 'weird-looking'

3 June 2015, 2:03 pm EDT By Kamal

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English actor and film producer who born and raised in London. Here are 47 interesting facts about him:

Benedict Cumberbatch was born on 19 July 1976 and is the Son of famous TV actor Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton.
He agreed to sign up for Star Trek Into Darkness before he'd even been told who he'd be playing and discovered his role a week after he'd been cast.
He thinks he is weird-looking. In an interview he joked: "If you put me in a room with Brad and George and all of them, you do kind of go, 'Lovely, yes. Handsome, yes. Oh, strange-looking guy.'"
While on location in South Africa in 2005, he experienced a terrible carjacking in which he was kidnapped, but talked his way into getting released. He subsequently wrote about the shocking moment in an article for The Prince's Trust.
Benedict is really good with impersonation of especially Alan Rickman. He even voiced Rickman (as Snape) for a special Valentine's Day episode of The Simpsons in February 2013. He even does impressions of Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, Owen Wilson and Chewbacca.
He has a Master's degree in "Classical Acting for the Professional Theatre" from the oldest drama school in the United Kingdom, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
One of Cumberbatch's first ever serious acting roles came when he was just 13. He played Titania, Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
His grandfather, Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was a decorated submarine officer of both World Wars, and a prominent figure of London high society. His great-grandfather, Henry Arnold Cumberbatch CMG, was Queen Victoria's consul general in Turkey and Lebanon.
Cumberbatch is, somewhat surprisingly, a fan of extreme sports. In his spare time, he's taken part in skydiving, hot-air ballooning, skiing, high-speed motorcycling and scuba diving.
A day before the filming of The Fifth Estate, Julian Assange emailed to ask him not to participate in it.
The actor took a gap year at a Tibetan monastery, where he taught English to the resident monks.
Cumberbatch lost significant amount of weight for his role as Sherlock Holmes to give the impression that Holmes high intelligence outweighs his physical limitations.
His parents paid for an expensive education for Benedict in the hope that he wouldn't become an actor.
Cumberbatch has repeatedly expressed his affection for radio and has done numerous productions for the BBC like John Mortimer's novel Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders, Cabin Pressure, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen
He has even narrated numerous documentaries for the National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and read for several audiobooks, including Casanova, The Tempest.
Benedict has done voice-overs for several commercials for Jaguar, Sony, Pimms, and Google+. In 2013, Cumberbatch narrated the documentary film Jerusalem and Cristiano Ronaldo: The World at his Feet.
Cumberbatch married opera director Sophie Hunter on 14 February 2015 and they are expecting their first child later this year.
Benedict was in four 2013's Oscars nominated films - August: Osage County, 12 Years a Slave, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Benedict Cumberbatch is scheduled to play Hamlet for an exclusive 12-week run at the 1,156-seat Barbican Theatre beginning in August 2015. It has been called the "Most In-Demand Theatre Production of All Time" after selling out in seven hours when tickets went on sale to the public on 11 August 2014, more than a year before the play is scheduled to open.
Both of his parents made cameo appearances in Sherlock where they played Holmes' parents in a scene in Baker Street.
He thinks his own name sounds like "a fart in a bath" and his mother wasn't keen on keeping it. One day he told someone his real name and they said it's great and it's something Cumberbatch can use to stand out.
After Cumberbatch landed the role of Sherlock, as part of his preparation, he then read every original Arthur Conan Doyle story.
His most embarrassing moment was when he was six and got stung by a wasp in a greek market. A widow pulled down his pants, held him upside down and rubbed an onion on his bum.
Benedict's dad read him The Hobbit as a bed-time story when he was a child.

Cumberbatch is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust and the Motor Neurone Disease Association. He has donated artworks for charities and fundraisers including the Willow Foundation, and Thomas Coram Foundation for Children
Cumberbatch has a condition called heterochromia which means that he has different coloured eyes. Each of his irises has a different combination of blue, gold and green.
In China, Benedict and Martin Freeman are known as "Curly Fu" and "Peanut" respectively
Una Stubbs a.k.a. Mrs Hudson is a friend of his mother's, and has known Cumberbatch since he was a boy.

He in fact almost didn't become an actor, after toying with the idea of training to become a lawyer or a neurosurgoen.
His first trip to Los Angeles was for the Oscars, where he went to a party at Madonna's house and met a rather famous footballer David Beckham at the bar.
He was ranked the fifth 'Most Fascinating Person in Britain' in Tatler magazine in January 2013.
He was once cyber-stalked, with the stalker live-tweeting all of his actions within his home.
He replaced Leonardo DiCaprio as Alan Turing in

biopic The Imitation Game.
His Star Trek: Into the Darkness audition was shot in a friend's kitchen on an iPhone.
He lives by the rule, "Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I'm possible'."
Steven Spielberg has called him "the best Sherlock on screen".
To prepare for his part in Star Trek: Into the Darkness, he ate 4,000 calories per day which mostly included broccoli, potatoes and chicken.
His favourite comfort movie is Ghostbusters.
He once stepped out of his home holding up a sign to them reading: "Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important".
He once said he looks like Sid the Sloth from Ice Age.

He learned how to play the violin in a week.
Benedict recently created a greetings card to support charity. It was auctioned for £2.6K.
He has appeared on Sesame Street.
He has four god-children.
He keeps a collection of stuffed owls. In his boudoir.
His first acting role as a child was Joseph in his school's nativity play. He pushed Mary off the stage because 'she was taking too long'.
He says his greatest disappointment is not being a dad by the age of 32 and believes that having children would be his greatest achievement.