The Fiennes family is full of artists: In addition to Oscar-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes, there’s his director-sister Martha, musician-brother Magnus, producer-sister Sophie, and actor-brother Joseph (recognizable from The Handmaid’s Tale). But all eyes are on Ralph these days, as he continues to expand his on-screen repertoire with recent films like The King’s Man.
As we explored Fiennes’ best roles to date below, some honorable mentions came to mind, such as In Bruges — which features Fiennes’ funniest one-liner delivery of all time (“You’re a f***ing inanimate object!”). There’s also Hail, Caesar! (2016), whose hands-down funniest scene features Fiennes prominently — when he’s trying to teach a young actor (Alden Ehrenreich) how to deliver an eloquent line. See below for our narrowed-down Top 5 when it comes to Fiennes’ finest acting efforts.
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5 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Fiennes first appeared as You Know Who in the fourth Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. But David Yates’ final outing in the Potter book-to-film series showcased Fiennes in peak form as the ultimate villain. He’s awfully good at playing the bad guy, isn’t he? And he certainly puts his heart and soul into the iconic role of Voldemort. They couldn’t have chosen a better actor for this specific role. With some of the most action-packed and heartwarming moments, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 maintains its pulse in Harry’s persistence to avenge his parents and after all this time put a stop to Lord Voldemort once and for all.
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4 The Constant Gardener (2005)
United International Pictures
Sure, he’s great as the villain — which makes it that much more refreshing to see Fiennes as a heroic protagonist every now and then. The Constant Gardener follows a widower determined to get to the bottom of a potentially explosive secret involving the murder of his wife (Rachel Weisz), big business, and corporate corruption. The captivating story effectively alternates with many flashbacks to tell the story of their love. The end result was a critical and box office success and earned four Oscar nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress for a never-better Weisz. But it is Fiennes who carries the film as the quintessential good guy in distress.
3 The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Here’s another Fiennes one-liner for the books: “I’ve had older.” Or how about: “Get your hands off my lobby boy!” Both of which came from The Grand Budapest Hotel, arguably Wes Anderson’s finest film to date. It certainly got some Oscar love that year, after all — and rightfully so. It’s a grand-scale film about the crushing blow of fascism and what it can do to a country. The story-within-a-story-within-a-story is told by a writer (Tom Wilkinson) reflecting on his life, as his younger self (Jude Law) voyages the titular hotel and learns all about the eccentric concierge Monsieur Gustave H. (Fiennes) and how love is the only answer to war. It’s a can’t-miss, particularly for Fiennes fans who know he’s got a knack for humor amid all those serious films. “The environment is set up very precisely, but [Anderson] wants the actors to invent,” Fiennes once told The Washington Post about working on the film. “He creates this ordered world in which the actors can play.”
2 Quiz Show (1994)
Hollywood Pictures
Based on a (wild) true story, Quiz Show follows an idealistic young lawyer working for a Congressional subcommittee in the late 1950s who discovers that TV quiz shows are being fixed. His investigation focuses on two contestants on the show “Twenty-One”: Herbert Stempel (John Turturro), a brash working-class Jew from Queens, and Charles Van Doren (Fiennes), the patrician scion of one of America’s leading literary families. Don’t miss Martin Scorsese in this one as well, in a juicy supporting character. However, it’s Fiennes who steals the show as a “genius” in distress, caught in the middle of a scam.
1 Schinder’s List (1993)
Amblin Entertainment
Only someone like Steven Spielberg can make two groundbreaking films at the same time. One was Jurassic Park; the other was Schindler’s List, a heart-wrenching historical drama about a German industrialist who helped save the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. Fiennes portrays the viciously cruel Austrian SS functionary Amon Goeth, who served as the commandant of a concentration camp.
“So many of them wondered how a man who looked at first glance attractive and good could be so brutal,” Fiennes once told The New York Times about his character. “I’m not a psychologist, but I’m convinced the brutality he became addicted to was related to his obesity. He also became an alcoholic and an insomniac. My own pet theory is that he was so steeped in this brutality that unconsciously, as a kind of remedy or palliative, he had to stuff himself with food and drink to numb his sensibilities.”
