Mads Mikkelsen

Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen (born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor, former gymnast and dancer.

Mikkelsen was born on 22 November 1965 in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of mother Bente (Christiansen) Mikkelsen and father Henning Dittmann Mikkelsen, a cab driver.

He and his older brother, actor Lars Mikkelsen, were raised in the Nørrebro district.

In his youth, he trained as a gymnast, wanting to pursue athletics, but then studied dancing at the Balettakademien (ballet academy) in Gothenburg where he also became fluent in Swedish.

He rose to fame in Denmark as an actor for his roles such as Tonny in the first two films of the Pusher film trilogy (1996, 2004), Detective Sergeant Allan Fischer in the television series Rejseholdet (2000–2004), Niels in Open Hearts (2002), Svend in The Green Butchers (2003), Ivan in Adam's Apples (2005) and Jacob Petersen in After the Wedding (2006).

He was a professional dancer for almost a decade until he left it behind to study drama at the Århus Theatre School in 1996, embarking on a career in acting.

Mikkelsen made his film debut in 1996 as a drug dealer in Nicolas Winding Refn's internationally successful film Pusher, which spawned two sequels.

He played marginalized, often comic roles in popular Danish films.

In 1999, Mikkelsen had a leading role as Lenny, a shy film expert who suffers from avoidant personality disorder, opposite Kim Bodnia in Refn's Bleeder (1999).

During his dancing career, Mikkelsen met choreographer Hanne Jacobsen, whom he married in 2000.

In 2000, Mikkelsen played a gangster opposite Søren Pilmark, Ulrich Thomsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas in Anders Thomas Jensen's Copenhagen gangster film, Flickering Lights.

Mikkelsen's breakthrough and his longest running role was as a sensitive policeman in Niels Arden Oplev's Danish television series Rejseholdet (Unit One) (2000–03), for which he won the 2002 Best Actor Award from TvFestival.dk.

The series' 32 episodes stretched over four years.

The following year, he gained wider popularity when he starred in the gay comedy Shake It All About (2001).

In 2002, Mikkelsen had a starring role as a young doctor who falls in love with the girlfriend of one of his patients in Open Hearts which earned him both Robert and Bodil nominations in 2003 for best actor.

He also won best actor for this performance at the Rouen Nordic Film Festival in 2003.

In 2003, Mikkelsen had a leading role as a man who leaves his wife and child in the short film Nu.

He starred opposite Kaas in The Green Butchers, playing an orphaned butcher's assistant in a small provincial Danish town, where human meat is a specialty.

He won the Fantasporto Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the butcher.

Later in 2003, he starred in Pablo Berger's Spanish film Torremolinos 73, about an exasperated encyclopedia salesman who exports pornographic films to Scandinavian countries under the pretense of being an audiovisual encyclopedia of human reproduction.

Although a critical success in Spain, the film was poorly received in Scandinavian countries.

In 2004, Mikkelsen reprised his role as drug dealer Tonny in the Pusher sequel, Pusher II.

His performance was acclaimed, garnering him the Bodil Award for Best Actor, Zulu Award for Best Actor and Robert Festival Award for Best Actor.

One writer likened his pose in the mirror in the film to Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

He became more widely known internationally for his role as Tristan in Jerry Bruckheimer's production of the movie King Arthur (2004), which was a commercial success despite negative reviews.

In 2005, Mikkelsen portrayed an "unorthodox country vicar" named Ivan who challenges a neo-Nazi (Ulrich Thomsen) who has been sentenced to community service to bake an apple pie in Adam's Apples.

Mikkelsen achieved worldwide recognition for playing the main antagonist Le Chiffre in the twenty-first James Bond film, Casino Royale (2006).

In 2006, Mikkelsen starred opposite Stine Stengade and Jana Plodková in Ole Christian Madsen's award-winning film Prag (Prague).

His role as Christoffer earned him the Zulu Award for Best Actor and Bodil and Robert Festival nominations for Best Actor.

Eddie Cockrell of Variety noted his "rigid countenance" in an "outstanding" performance.

The same year, Mikkelsen achieved his first widely acclaimed international success as Le Chiffre in the twenty-first James Bond film, Casino Royale.

Mikkelsen has said that he so easily won the part that even Daniel Craig asked him if he had slept with someone to be cast.

He said of the casting, "They'd done their homework, seen my stuff, so it was fine, just a bit of anti-climax, because I was so ready to do more for them, but it was … shrugs... you're in."

He also stated that because he was already a big film star in Denmark at the time, that the international role did not really change much.

Roger Ebert noted the suspense during Mikkelsen's scene with Bond during the extended poker game, in which Le Chiffre weeps blood from his left eye.

David Edelstein of New York Magazine said "Mikkelsen clicks his rectangular plaques as if he's a new breed of praying mantis. He's bloodcurdling."

In 2006, Mikkelsen also took the lead role in the Danish drama After the Wedding, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Additionally, he won a European Film Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance and in 2007, won the Palm Springs International Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

His other roles include Igor Stravinsky in Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2008), Johann Friedrich Struensee in A Royal Affair (2012), his Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award-winning performance as Lucas in the Danish film The Hunt (2012), Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the television series Hannibal (2013–2015), Kaecilius in Marvel's Doctor Strange (2016), Galen Erso in Lucasfilm's Rogue One (2016), Cliff Unger in Hideo Kojima's video game Death Stranding (2019), his BAFTA-nominated role as Martin in Another Round (2020), Gellert Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) and Dr Jürgen Voller in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

A. O. Scott of The New York Times remarked that in the Hollywood scene, Mikkelsen has "become a reliable character actor with an intriguing mug" but stated that on the domestic front "he is something else: a star, an axiom, a face of the resurgent Danish cinema".