Mark Rylance

Early life and education

One grandmother was Irish; both grandfathers were British POWs of the Japanese in World War II. His maternal grandfather, Osmond Skinner, a banker with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, was shot in the stomach during the Battle of Hong Kong and later witnessed the St. Stephen's College massacre. The family moved to the US in 1969, where his parents taught at the University School of Milwaukee; Rylance attended that school until 1978. He has a sister, Susannah, an opera singer and author, and a deceased brother, Jonathan, a sommelier at Chez Panisse. In Milwaukee, acting mentor Dale Gutzman cast him in various roles. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1978 to 1980, where his American accent led him to be treated as an American. He adopted the stage name Mark Rylance because Mark Waters was already registered with Equity.

Career

Rylance made his professional acting debut in 1980 in Desperado Corner at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, where he also organised his own experimental theatre group. In 1982 and 1983 he performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, appearing in The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He received his first Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Arden of Faversham in 1983.

In 1988 he played Hamlet in Ron Daniels' production, which toured Ireland and Britain, then ran in Stratford-upon-Avon and toured the US for two years. In 1990 he and Claire van Kampen founded their own theatre company, Phoebus' Cart, which staged The Tempest on the road the following year. From 1995 to 2005 he served as the first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, directing and acting each season, including an all-male Twelfth Night (playing Olivia) and Richard III in the title role.

Under his directorate, new plays were performed, beginning with Augustine's Oak in 1999 and The Golden Ass or the Curious Man in 2002. He played the lead in the film The Grass Arena (1991), winning the Radio Times Award for Best Newcomer. In 1993 he starred in Much Ado About Nothing at the Queen's Theatre, winning an Olivier Award for Best Actor for his Benedick.

Personal life

Rylance and Claire van Kampen, a composer and playwright, married in 1989 in Oxfordshire after meeting two years earlier during a National Theatre production of The Wandering Jew. He became stepfather to her two daughters from a prior marriage: actress Juliet Rylance and filmmaker Nataasha van Kampen. Nataasha died in July 2012 at age 28, leading Rylance to pull out of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, with Kenneth Branagh stepping in. Claire van Kampen passed away from cancer in 2025.

His brother, Jonathan Waters, died in May 2022 after being hit by a vehicle while cycling. Rylance became a patron of LIFT in 2013 and of the London Bubble Speech Bubbles project in 2015. He has long backed Survival International, an indigenous rights group, and in April 2010 created and directed "We Are One," a fundraiser at the Apollo Theatre featuring tribal prose and poetry. He serves as patron for Peace Direct and the Stop the War Coalition, and is a member of the Peace Pledge Union.

In 2011, he performed the story of Henri, a man from war-torn eastern Congo, during a New York City presentation. He is also patron of The Outside Edge Theatre Company, which uses theatre to support people affected by substance abuse. Following his 2016 Oscar win, Rylance voiced support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Works and accolades

Rylance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies, also winning a BAFTA in the same category. He has received three Tony Awards (2008, 2011, 2014), making him one of only eight actors with two Lead Actor in a Play wins. In 2014 he was nominated for both Richard III and Twelfth Night, one of only six actors nominated in two acting categories the same year. He was included in the Time 100 list in 2016 and was created a Knight Bachelor in the 2017 New Year Honours.