Red Dragon : About The Cast


Anthony Hopkins (Dr Hannibal Lecter) received an Academy Award® for his performance in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and was subsequently nominated in the same category for his performances in The Remains of the Day (1993) and Nixon (1995). He was also given the Best Actor Award by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts for The Remains of the Day. In 1993, he starred in Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands with Debra Winger, winning numerous critics' awards in the U. S. and Britain. In 1998, he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Amistad.

In 1998, he starred in Meet Joe Black, directed by Martin Brest, and Instinct, directed by Jon Turteltaub. He most recently starred in Titus, Julie Taymor's film adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus with Jessica Lange.

In 1992, he appeared in Howards End and Bram Stoker's Dracula before starring in Legends of the Fall and The Road to Wellville. He made his directorial debut in 1995 with August, an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya for which he composed the musical score and also played Vanya. He starred in the title role in Surviving Picasso and with Alec Baldwin in The Edge, a dramatic adventure written by David Mamet and directed by Lee Tamahori. The Mask of Zorro, directed by Martin Campbell and co-starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, was released in July 1998, and Amistad, directed by Stephen Spielberg, was released in December 1997.

Earlier films include 84 Charing Cross Road, The Elephant Man, Magic and A Bridge Too Far. The Bounty and Desperate Hours were his first two collaborations with the Dino De Laurentiis Company. In American television, he received two Emmy Awards for The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976) in which he portrayed Bruno Hauptmann, and The Bunker (1981) in which he portrayed Adolph Hitler.

Born December 31, 1938 in Margum near Port Talbot Wales, he is the only child of Muriel and Richard Hopkins. His father was a banker. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School. At 17, he wandered into a YMCA amateur theatrical production and knew immediately that he was in the right place. With newfound enthusiasm, combined with proficiency at the piano, he won a scholarship to the Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff where he studied for two years (1955-1957).
He entered the British Army in 1958 for mandatory military training, spending most of the two-year tour of duty clerking the Royal Artillery unit at Bulford.

In 1960, he was invited to audition for Sir Laurence Olivier, then director of the National Theatre at the Old Vic. Two years later, Hopkins was Olivier's understudy in Strindberg's Dance of Death. Hopkins made his film debut in 1967, playing Richard the Lionhearted in The Lion in the Winter, starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. He received a British Academy Award nomination and the film received an Academy Award® as Best Picture.

American television viewers discovered Hopkins in the 1973 ABC production of Leon Uris' QBVII, the first American mini-series, in which he played the knighted Polish-born British physician Adam Kleno who is ultimately destroyed by his wartime past. The following year, he starred on Broadway in the National Theatre production of Equus, and later mounted another production of the play in Los Angeles where he lived for 10 years, working extensively in American films and television.

After starring as Captain Bligh in The Bounty (1984), he returned to England and the National Theatre in David Hare's Pravada, for which he received the British Theatre Association's Best Actor Award and The Observer Award for Outstanding achievement at the 1985 Laurence Olivier Awards. During this time at the National, he starred in Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear.

Hopkins recently appeared in the feature adaptation of Stephen King's Hearts In Atlantis for director Scott Hicks and the original comedy Bad Company with Chris Rock. He also recorded the narration for the 2000 holiday season's hit film Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

He will next be seen in the film adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Human Stain, opposite Nicole Kidman and directed by Robert Benton.
Hopkins became a U. S. citizen last year

Edward Norton (Will Graham) has starred in the films Primal Fear, Everyone Says I Love You, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Rounders, American History X, Fight Club, The Score and Death to Smoochy. He made his directorial debut with Keeping the Faith, which he also produced and starred in with Ben Stiller and Jenna Elfman.

Norton received an Academy Award® nomination as Best Actor for his performance in American History X and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Primal Fear. That performance also earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has been recognized for his work by the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics, the Boston Film Critics and the Texas Film Critics Associations. He recently completed production on Spike Lee's crime drama, The 25th Hour.

Norton serves on the Board of New York's Signature Theater Company, where he first performed in the 1994 premiere of Edward Albee's Fragments. He also serves on the National Board of the Enterprise Foundation; an organization dedicated to providing affordable housing for low-income families.

Ralph Fiennes (Francis Dolarhyde) has emerged as one of the leading actors of his generation with much-lauded screen performances in films such as The English Patient, Quiz Show, Schindler's List, Sunshine, The End of the Affair, Oscar and Lucinda, and Onegin. Fiennes has also received much critical acclaim for his performances in the theater, both here and in the U. K. , for the title roles in such classics as Hamlet, Ivanov, Richard II and Coriolanus. He will be seen on screen this year in two feature film thrillers, Red Dragon and Spider, and the romantic comedy, Maid in Manhattan.

Born in Suffolk, he grew up in England and Ireland and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1985. He began working professionally as an actor in England's open-air theatre in Regents Park, the Theatre Clwyd and the Oldham Coliseum, and became part of Michael Rudman's company at the National Theatre in 1987, barely two years after leaving drama school. In 1988 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where he remained for two seasons, giving notable performances in Henry VI, King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost.

In 1991 Fiennes landed a small, but compelling, role in the award-winning series Prime Suspect. This led to his being cast by David Puttnam as T. E. Lawrence in a special television film about the legendary hero, A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. That same year he made his feature film debut in a dark version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, opposite Juliette Binoche. Fiennes starred next in the BBC's haunting telefilm, The Cormorant.

It was Fiennes' icon-shattering interpretation of Bronte's Heathcliff that compelled Steven Spielberg to cast him as SS Commandant Amon Goeth, opposite Liam Neeson, in Schindler's List in 1993. His extraordinary performance in this film won critical praise worldwide. He received the BAFTA, New York Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics, Boston and Chicago Film Critics Awards as Best Supporting Actor, along with an Academy Award® nomination, a Golden Globe nomination and the London Film Critics Award for Best British Actor of 1994.

He then landed the role of Charles van Doren in Robert Redford's critically acclaimed film, Quiz Show. In 1995, Fiennes starred in Kathryn Bigelow's futuristic thriller, Strange Days, after which he returned to the stage for a much-lauded production of Hamlet, directed by Jonathan Kent for London's Almeida Theatre. A subsequent special Broadway engagement won him Broadway's 1994 Tony Award as Best Actor.

Then in 1996, he starred as the mortally wounded pilot in Anthony Minghella's brilliant and moving adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. The film earned acclaim around the world, won the Academy Award® for Best Picture and for Fiennes his second Oscar® nomination as Best Actor.

Once again he followed film with stage work, returning to London's Almeida Theatre and director Jonathan Kent to portray the title role in Chekhov's tragicomic early play Ivanov. With a striking modern translation by David Hare, and rave reviews all around, the production and cast were granted the singular honor of an invitation to Moscow for a week's special performance.
In 1997, Fiennes starred opposite Cate Blanchett in Oscar and Lucinda, an eccentric love story adapted from Peter Carey's celebrated novel and directed by Australia's Gillian Armstrong.

He then brought to cinematic life a long-sought dream, by starring in and executive producing the feature film version of Pushkin's classic verse novel, Onegin. Directed by his sister, Martha Fiennes, and co-starring Liv Tyler, this visually stunning production was shot partially on location in Russia.

In 1999, Fiennes starred in Neil Jordan's film adaptation of novelist Graham Greene's The End of the Affair opposite Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea, as well as in Sunshine, writer/director Istvan Szabo's epic story of a Jewish family in Hungary. The film spans three generations, from the fall of the Hapsburg Empire to the 1965 Hungarian Revolution, and Fiennes portrays the central character in each of the three linking stories.

In the Summer of 2000, Fiennes played, in rotating repertory, the title roles of Richard II and Coriolanus for the Almeida Theatre Company in London. Both Shakespearean plays were directed by Jonathan Kent and drew rave reviews for Fiennes. In September of that year, they took the shows to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for 14 performances of Richard II and 12 performances of Coriolanus, to great critical acclaim.
Spider, a psychological thriller about a man (played by Fiennes) trying to piece his life back together after his release from a mental institution, had its world premiere at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and will premiere in the U. S. in December. Shot last year in Canada by famed genre director David Cronenberg, and based on the 1991 novel by Patrick McGrath, the film also stars Gabriel Byrne, Lynn Redgrave, Miranda Richardson and John Neville.

This winter, Fiennes will star at London's National Theatre in The Talking Cure, a new play by Christopher Hampton, directed by Howard Davies, followed by a run with the Royal Shakespeare Company, in the title role of Ibsen's Brand, to be directed by Adrian Noble.

Harvey Keital (Jack Crawford) is well-known for compelling, intense and varied performances. His riveting role as the husband in Jane Campion's Academy Award®- winning The Piano earned him an Australian Best Actor Award. Keitel was also voted Best Supporting Actor by the National Society of Film Critics for his work in Alan Rudolph's Mortal Thoughts, Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise and Barry Levinson's Bugsy, for which he also received an Academy Award® nomination.

Other memorable recent roles include two for Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs (which he co-produced) and Pulp Fiction, as well as Smoke for Wayne Wang (which earned Italy's David di Dontatello Award for Best Foreign Actor, among others) and Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, for which he won an Independent Feature Project Award for Best Actor. He was last seen in Campion's Holy Smoke, in the submarine action drama U-571 and Little Nicky with Adam Sandler. Keitel also recently drew attention for the daring television production of Fail Safe.

Keitel made his debut in Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door and went on to star in Scorsese's classic urban drama of small-time hoods, Mean Streets. Keitel also teamed with Scorsese on Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ.

Among his other film credits are Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Sister Act with Whoopi Goldberg, Jack Nicholson's The Two Jakes, Point of No Return, Rising Sun, Blue in the Face, Imaginary Crimes, The Border, Mother, Jugs and Speed, Spike Lee's Clockers, James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Til Dawn, Fairy Tale: A True Story and Prince of Central Park. Forthcoming for Keitel is Joel Silverman's Nailed, Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone and Juan Gerard's Dreaming of Julia.

Together with his partner Peggy Gormley, Keitel has his own film production company, The Goatsingers, which has a first look deal with Kinowelt USA, the U. S. production arm of Munich-based Kinowelt Medien AG. The Goatsingers served as executive producers on Tony Bui's Three Seasons, winner of the Grand Jury Prize and audience Award at 1999's Sundance Film Festival, and Wayne Wang and Paul Auster's Blue in the Face, both of which Keitel appeared in. Keitel also served as co-producer on Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.

The Goatsingers, working out of their New York office, is currently involved in a number of other projects. Included among those are The Grey Zone by Tim Blake Nelson, which The Goatsingers is executive producing with Christine Vachon producing; Henry and the Second Gunman by Tom Leopold, being co-produced by The Goatsingers and Leopold, and Dreaming of Julia by Juan Gerard and Letvia Arza-Goderich, which The Goatsingers are producing with Letvia Arza-Goderich, Andy Pfeffer and Bonnie Timmerman.

Also on The Goatsingers' slate is Johnny Jump-Up by Tony Kavanaugh, which is being co-produced with Parallel Films in Dublin and Mean by Carla Miles, being co-produced with Ruth Charny.

Keitel is renowned for the support he has provided to young and first-time filmmakers, notably: Quentin Tarantino, Paul Schrader (Blue Collar), Alan Rudolph (Welcome to LA), Ridley Scott (The Duellists), James Toback (Fingers), Susanna Styron (Shadrach), Paul Auster (Lulu on the Bridge) and Tony Bui (Three Seasons). He has also worked with such European directors as Nicholas Roeg (Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession); Bernard Tavernier (Deathwatch); Ettore Scola (La Nuit de Varennes); and Lina Wertmuller (A Complicated Story of Streets, Crime and Women).

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Keitel turned to acting after having served in the United States Marine Corps, studying with Frank Corsaro, Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler. He is a member of the Actor's Studio and has worked extensively in the New York theater community. He made his off-Broadway debut in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He returned to Broadway in 1984 in David Rabe's Hurlyburly, directed by Mike Nichols. The following year, he appeared in Sam Shepard's A Lie Of The Mind.

Emily Watson's (Reba) remarkable screen debut in Lars Von Trier's Breaking the Waves won her great critical acclaim for her compelling portrayal of obsessive love exalted by idealistic innocence.

Watson won numerous awards for her performance including Academy Award® and Golden Globe nominations, the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, the Los Angeles Film Critics Newcomer of the Year Award, the European Film Academy's Best Actress Award, the London Film Critics Circle Award and British Newcomer of the Year Award.

Watson will soon be seen starring with Adam Sandler in Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love. She was most recently seen in Robert Altman's critically acclaimed ensemble drama Gosford Park.

Watson was also recently seen in the romantic period drama, The Luzhin Defence opposite John Turturro. In 2000, she starred as the title character in Frank McCourt's celebrated book Angela's Ashes, directed by Alan Parker. In addition, she led an ensemble cast including Nick Nolte and Dermott Mulroney in Alan Rudolph's romantic comedy-caper Trixie.

The previous year, Watson received Oscar® and Golden Globe Award nominations for her performance in October Films' Hilary and Jackie, the poignant story of famed classical cellist Jacqueline du Pre, directed by Anand Tucker. Watson's additional credits include The Boxer, opposite Daniel Day Lewis, Philip Saville's Metroland, based on Julian Barne's novel and The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Tim Robbins.

Watson received kudos for her radiant, evocative interpretation of George Elliot's complex heroine 'Maggie Tulliver' in the acclaimed BBC Masterpiece Theatre television production of A The Mill on the Floss.

Additional theater credits include The Three Sisters, The Children's Hour, The Taming of the Shrew, All's Well That End's Well and The Changeling. She has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has also starred in the BBC's television production A Summer Day's Dream. She can currently be seen in repertoire at London's famed Donmar Theatre in Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night under the direction of Academy Award®-winning director Sam Mendes. The plays will also be performed at New York City's Brooklyn Academy of Music starting in January 2003.

Mary-Louise Parker(Molly Graham) was most recently seen on Broadway starring in Proof, for which she received the 2001 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, as well as The Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Obie and New York Magazine Awards. She also earned the 2001 T. Schreiber Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre.

For her role as 'Rita' in the Craig Lucas/Norman Rene Broadway production of Prelude To A Kiss, Parker received a Tony nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, Theatre World Award, The Clarence Derwent Award and a Drama Desk nomination for her performance. She originated the role of 'L'il Bit' in the critically lauded How I Learned To Drive, alongside David Morse, where she received an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Actress and a Best Actress nomination from the Outer Critics Circle.

She followed How I Learned To Drive with the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's play, Communicating Doors. Previously, she appeared on Broadway as 'Cherie' in the Broadway revival of Bus Stop, opposite Billy Crudup, and originated the role of 'Brenda' in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Four Dogs And A Bone.

Other stage credits include Throwing Your Voice at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Babylon Gardens at Circle Repertory Company (of which she was a member), The Importance Of Being Earnest at the Hartford Stage, Up In Saratoga at the Old Globe, The Miser at the Syracuse Stage, Hayfever at the Studio Arena Theatre with Joe Mantello and Peter Hedges, where she performed in The Age Of Pie and The Girl In Pink, among others.

Parker began in film with starring roles in Fried Green Tomatoes and Lawrence Kasden's Grand Canyon. Other film credits include starring roles in Reckless, Boys On The Side, The Client, Naked In New York, Bullets Over Broadway and Norman Rene's highly acclaimed Longtime Companion. She also starred in The Five Senses, for which she was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Actress.

On television, Parker starred for HBO in John Smith's Sugartime, opposite John Turturro, and in the Hallmark Hall of Fame telefilms, A Place For Annie, Saint Maybe and Cupid And Cate. She also starred in The Simple Truth Of Noah Dearborne opposite Sidney Poitier. Parker will next be seen in the CBS mini-series, Hanssen, co-starring William Hurt.

Parker has completed production on the independent feature Pipe Dream, in which she stars opposite Martin Donovan.

She recently received an Emmy nomination for her role as 'Amy Gardner' on NBC's The West Wing and will soon be seen alongside Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson in the Mike Nichols production of Angels In America on HBO.

Parker is a graduate of the North Carolina School Of The Arts and lives in New York City.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Freddy Lounds) recently wrapped production on the Spike Lee film The 25th Hour with Edward Norton. In addition to Red Dragon, he has three films due for release this year: Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, which debuted at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival; Love Liza, which debuted at Sundance and was written by Hoffman's brother Gordy who won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for his script, and Owning Mahony, co-starring Minnie Driver and based on the true story of the largest one-man band fraud in Canadian history.

Hoffman was most recently seen in David Mamet's State and Main, as Joseph Turner White, and in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, as Lester Bangs, the legendary, extremely influential rock critic who wrote for Creem Magazine.

Prior to that, Hoffman spent six months on Broadway in the latest production of Sam Shepard's True West, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award in dual roles. In 1999, he was seen in three films: starring opposite Robert De Niro in Joel Schumacher's Flawless (for which he received a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role), alongside Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley, and with Tom Cruise and Jason Robards in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. Hoffman received the National Board of Review's Best Supporting Actor Award for his work in both Magnolia and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

He previously appeared in both of Anderson's earlier films, Boogie Nights and Hard Eight.
His other film credits include: Todd Solondz's Happiness (for which he was nominated for an IFP/West Independent Award for Best Supporting Actor), Patch Adams, the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski, Brad Anderson's Next Stop Wonderland, Jan De Bont's Twister, Scent of a Woman, Nobody's Fool, The Getaway and When a Man Loves a Woman.

His stage work includes Defying Gravity at the American Place Theatre, The Merchant of Venice, directed by Peter Sellars and the off-Broadway production of Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking. Hoffman has directed Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train and In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, both written by Stephen Adly Guiregis, for his New York-based theater company LAByrinth. Most recently, Hoffman directed the New York premiere of The Glory of Living at Manhattan Class Company, written by Rebecca Gilman.

Behind The Scenes

Brett Ratner (Director) makes his first foray into the world of suspense thrillers with Red Dragon, his fifth feature film.

In a very short time, Ratner has established himself as one of Hollywood's most successful directors. His first film was the 1997 surprise box office hit Money Talks, a comedy starring Charlie Sheen, Chris Tucker, Paul Sorvino and Heather Locklear. His second film, the 1999 action comedy Rush Hour, starred Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and earned $250 million worldwide. He followed that success with the romantic fantasy drama The Family Man, a critical and box office hit starring Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni in 2000. A year later, Ratner delivered Hong Kong-style action with Chan and Tucker in the hit Rush Hour 2, which grossed more than $342 million worldwide.

Raised in Miami, Ratner had dreamed of being a filmmaker since the age of eight. He enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts at age 16, becoming the department's youngest film major. While attending NYU Film School, he made Whatever Happened to Mason Reese, a short film starring and about the former child actor. The award-winning project received funding from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. Ratner's big break came after he screened his film for hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, launching a successful career in music videos. He has directed more than 100 videos since then, for artists including Madonna, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, Wu Tang Clan, D'Angelo, Heavy D, Mary J. Blige, Foxy Brown, Public Enemy, P Diddy and many others.

In 1999, Ratner won the MTV Award for Best Video for a Film for Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" from the Austin Powers soundtrack. He has also received awards for his short films and commercials. In 2001, he received the Spirit of Chrysalis Award for his dedication and leadership in helping economically-disadvantaged and homeless individuals change their lives through jobs.