Jude Law Biography

David Jude Heyworth Law or better known as Jude Law to us is another actor who has made a smooth transition from theatre to films. Though no stranger to controversy Jude has tried to keep his personal life out of tabloid space; but failed. He started his career as a stage performer, and then moved onto television and then films.

His parents were teachers; his father Peter was a primary school teacher and mother Maggie taught English to refugee kids. He has an older sister Natasha. Jude did his schooling from John Ball Primary but later joined Kidbrooke School. His parents were big theatre enthusiasts and took him along to all the great London Theatres. They even encouraged him to join the National Youth Music Theatre.

He starred in a lot of hit plays which were played in some prestigious festivals and created quite a flutter in the theatre world when he won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for newcomer. The award probably got him noticed as he was cast in the TV movie The Tailor of Gloucester. He then landed a role in a soap called Families that was about the lives of people living in Manchester and Australia. He finished two seasons on the show. After a few more TV appearances and plays, Jude made his big screen debut in Shopping. Here he met his future wife Sadie Frost, though nothing happened between them during the shooting. Sadie was then married to Gary Kemp.

Jude’s next role came in Clint Eastwood’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). Jude won rave reviews for his performance as hustler Bill Carl Hanson. That same year, he came out with another movie, I Love You, I Love You Not (1997) opposite Claire Danes and sci-fi film Gattaca (1997) with Ethan Hawke. After a short hiatus, where he married actress Sadie Frost, he came out with The Wisdom of a Crocodile (2000). He next won accolades for his supporting role in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). He played the filthy rich Dickie Greenleaf, who is murdered by Matt Damon, who then takes on his identity. Jude was nominated for an Oscar and even won the prestigious BAFTA Award.

Briefly returning to theatre, Jude came back to the big screen with Enemy at the Gates (2001). Jude then got a chance to work with Steven Spielberg in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). He even trained in Ballet Dancing for three months, for the role of Gigolo Joe. The movie was, like all Spielberg films a huge success. Jude then did a couple of good movies like Road to Perdition (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003).

Things were going great in his professional life, but in his personal life he was having problems. His marriage to Sadie Frost was on the brink of ending. It didn’t help matters when there were reports in the media about Jude having an affair with Nicole Kidman, who was fresh off from her divorce from Tom Cruise. Jude vehemently denied the allegations and Nicole sued the tabloid that carried the news. But nothing could save his marriage from ending, not even his son Rudy who was born during that torrid time. They divorced in 2003. Jude Law’s name kept making tabloid rounds for quite a while, especially after he started a whirlwind romance with Sienna Miller, and got engaged to her in 2004.

Jude was working in the romantic film Alfie (2004) when he met Sienna. He was careful to avoid roles where his looks would be in focus, but he made an exception for this film. Then came another slew of hit films. He did a small role in The Aviator (2004) and played lead in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). Again, just when it seemed all was going well for him professionally; his personal life started falling apart. Jude admitted to having cheated on Sienna with his child’s Nanny, Daisy Wright. Jude and Sienna briefly split, reconciled and split again in 2007.

Through all of this Jude continued to build a good profile for himself doing a lot of quality work. Most of his movies succeeded and did good business. Jude then completed the role left incomplete by Heath Ledger; the movie was The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Heath died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. Jude finished the role along with Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell and donated his fees to Heath’s daughter who had unfortunately had been left with nothing due to an outdated will. Jude then played an important role in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (2009) with Robert Downey Jr.; Jude is currently working on the sequel to Sherlock Holmes and had also patched things up with Sienna.