"If you think about Shakespeare, you remember Richard III and Macbeth before you remember Ferdinand, whose role is just to fall in love and be a bit of a wimp. I love the baddies. More important, though, is making the baddies somehow, weirdly, understood."
Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia on 5 August 1963 in Islington, London) is a British actor of Italian and Austrian descent.
He is especially known for his villainous performances — such as Prince Septimus in Stardust or Lord Blackwood in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes — though he's been impeccably playing the Knight in Shining Armor, a morally gray hitman, and pretty much everything in between as well.
If Guy Ritchie or Matthew Vaughn is working on a new project, it's safe to say that they will at least consider their friend for a part in it.
Filmography:
- Our Friends in the North (1995) as Tosker
- Emma (1996) as Mr. Knightley
- Fever Pitch (1997) as Steve
- The Man with Rain in his Shoes (1998) as Dave Summers
- Sunshine (1999) as István Sors
- The Long Firm (2004) as Harry Starks
- Revolver (2005) as Sorter
- Oliver Twist (2005) as Toby Crackit
- Syriana (2005) as Mussawi
- Tristan and Isolde (2006) as Wicktred
- Sunshine (2007) as Pinbacker
- Stardust (2007) as Septimus
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008) as Nick Cordorelli
- Flashbacks of a Fool (2008) as Mannie Miesel
- Babylon A.D. (2008) as Finn
- RocknRolla (2008) as Archy
- Body of Lies (2008) as Hani
- The Young Victoria (2009) as Sir John Conroy
- Sherlock Holmes (2009) as Lord Henry Blackwood
- Kick-Ass (2010) as Frank D'Amico
- Robin Hood (2010) as Godfrey
- The Way Back (2010) as Khabarov
- The Eagle (2011) as Guern
- The Secret World of Arrietty (2011) as Pod (UK dub)
- Green Lantern (2011) as Thaal Sinestro
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) as Jim Prideaux
- The Guard (2011) as Clive Cornell
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (2011) as Captain Titus (voice)
- John Carter (2012) as Matai Shang
- Zero Dark Thirty (2012) as George
- Welcome to the Punch (2013) as Jacob Sternwood
- Total War: Rome II (2013) as Silanus (voice)
- Low Winter Sun (2013) - Frank Agnew note
- Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013) as Heraclio (voice)
- The Imitation Game (2014) as Stewart Menzies
- Before I Go to Sleep (2014) as Dr. Nasch
- Kingsman as Merlin
- Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
- Miss Sloane (2016) as Rodolfo Schmidt
- The Catcher Was a Spy (2018) as Werner Heisenberg
- Deep State (2018-) as Max Easton
- SHAZAM! (2019) as Doctor Thaddeus Sivana
- The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) as Ordon (voice)
- 1917 (2019) as Captain Smith
- Cruella (2021) as Boris
- Charlotte (2021) as Alfred Wolfsohn (voice)
- Tár (2022) as Eliot Kaplan
- Nocebo (2022) as Felix
- The End We Start From (2023) as N
- The Penguin (2024) as Carmine Falcone
- Oedipus (Icke) (2024 West End Production) as Oedipus
- Dune: Prophecy (2024) as Emperor Javicco Corrino
- The Legend of Vox Machina (2024) as Assembly Mage (voice)
- The Mighty Nein (2025) as Trent Ikithon (voice)
- Star Wars: Visions (2025) as Shad-Rah / Zero (voice)
- Nine Perfect Strangers (2025) as David (8 episodes)
Tropes associated with his works:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: He's made clear that he loves playing villains, saying they're always the most fun.
- Bald of Evil: He's bald and has played a lot of pretty rotten characters. He's even said going bald improved his career, allowing him to go from the generic leading men to juicier villain roles.
- British Teeth: Strong's teeth are a bit crooked, particularly one of his front incisors, which is put on particular display in the opening scene of Sherlock Holmes. The funniest thing is that he has no British ancestry.
- Death Glare: The man can pull off some truly terrifying stares.
- Evil Brit: He even provides part of the page quote.
- Evil Sounds Deep: By virtue of playing villains and having a very deep voice.
- Faux Affably Evil: Some of his villains can be very charming in a way which only enhances their evil nature.
- Playing Against Type: He's so associated with villains that viewers are often surprised when he plays good or simply neutral characters. Tár (2022) even has him play a fairly wimpy investment banker and composer who gets utterly trounced in a fight by Cate Blanchett while Dune: Prophecy (2024) has him play as an impotent puppet ruler of the Imperium.
- Plays Great Ethnics: This Austro-Italian Englishman has portrayed Jordanian and Lebanese men.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He's very dapper and can really pull off a suit, wheter in character or as himself.
- Smoking Is Cool: A few of his characters fall under here, but particular notice goes to Dr. Neil Barnard from Endgame, who snaps the filters off of his cigarettes before lighting up.
- Star-Making Role: Septimus in Stardust, the role that kick-started his career as a villain actor.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 6'2" and quite ruggedly handsome.
- Those Two Actors: With Colin Firth in Fever Pitch, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Before I Go to Sleep and Kingsman.
- Typecasting: He's almost always cast as villains, antagonists or generally unsavory figures. He's not bothered by it though and has said he loves playing bad guys.
- What Could Have Been: He was approached for the role of Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class before Kevin Bacon was cast.Strong: Matthew Vaughn did ask me to do X-Men: First Class. There was a bad guy in X-Men that Kevin [Bacon] played. Because I speak German it just seemed so logical having worked with him that I would play that part, but I think at that point we both felt... I had just done Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes and it had been just too many bad guys very recently. So that one we didn’t go down the path of that.