Tilda Swinton

Actor, Producer, Writer

Birthdate: November 5, 1960 (65 Years Old)

Birthplace: London, England, UK

A unique actor with one of the most distinctive and artistically curated careers in her generation, Tilda Swinton (birthname: Katherine Matilda Swinton) has become synonymous with the crème de la crème of international cinema. She has also skillfully transitioned back and forth from experimental and art cinema to commercial movies, the rare actor with a strong following in many camps that often have little crossover. This parallels Swinton’s self-identification as queer and also her distinctive androgynous presence, most dramatically displayed in Sally Potter’s Orlando (1992). She co-stars with Idris Elba in George Miller’s romantic epic, Three Thousand Years of Longing, which premiered at the 2022 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. After quickly joining the Royal Shakespeare Company straight out of Cambridge University in 1984, Tilda Swinton made the crucial decision to collaborate as a performer with the prodigious late experimental British filmmaker, Derek Jarman. Swinton became a major presence in Jarman’s extraordinary movies, including Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), War Requiem (1989, with Sir Laurence Olivier), and her award-winning performance in Edward II (1991), based on Christopher Marlowe’s play. She portrayed Muriel Belcher in John Maybury’s stunning Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), with Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig. A measure of Swinton’s standing in international cinephilia was that, by 1993, she had already served on the juries of the Berlin and Moscow Film Festivals. Tilda Swinton made a sharp swing toward more commercial projects after the turn of the century, appearing with Leonardo Di Caprio in The Beach (2000); Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky (2001), Keanu Reeves in Constantine (2005), with Michael Caine in The Statement (2003), and with Ewan McGregor in Young Adam (2003). This new phase was capped with spectacular success in her supporting role in the acclaimed Tony Gilroy drama starring George Clooney, and Michael Clayton (2007), for which Swinton won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She rejoined Clooney, along with Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, and John Malkovich, for the Coen Brother's Burn After Reading (2008), and then rejoined Pitt, along with Cate Blanchett, for David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Swinton finally reached leading role status in Erick Zonca’s John Cassavetes adaptation, Julia (2008), and earned accolades for her performance in Lynne Ramsay’s devastating We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) with Ezra Miller and John C. Reilly. Tilda Swinton has continued to be cast by the world’s leading filmmakers—her filmography virtually ticks off that prestigious list—with Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), co-starring Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska; Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer (2013), with Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, and Ed Harris; Judd Apatow’s Trainwreck (2015), with Amy Schumer and Bill Hader; Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch (2021), in a head-turning double role; and five films by Luca Guadagnino: The Protagonists (1999); Tilda Swinton: The Love Factory (2002); I Am Love (2009); A Bigger Splash (2015), with Dakota Johnson and Ralph Fiennes; and Suspiria (2018), again with Johnson and Mia Goth. Nothing better illustrates Swinton’s diversity than her presence as The Ancient One in Marvel’s Doctor Strange (2016) with Benedict Cumberbatch and the mega-blockbuster Avengers: Endgame (2019), and then as part of the ensemble of British independent filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II, and as the lead in the first English (and Spanish) language movie by Cannes-winner Thai filmmaker, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, for his acclaimed science fiction/mystery film, Memoria (2021). Swinton continued to work with director Hogg, in The Eternal Daughter (2022); director Anderson, in Asteroid City (2022), with Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, and Jeffrey Wright; filmmaker Julio Torres’ untitled film (2022), with RZA, Isabella Rossellini, Greta Lee; and David Fincher’s highly anticipated thriller, The Killer (2022), with Michael Fassbender. Swinton is slated to star in Joshua Oppenheimer’s post-apocalyptic musical, The End (date to be announced), with George MacKay. Tilda Swinton’s performance art has been presented at the Serpentine Gallery, Rome’s Museo Barracco, Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, and performed in videos by the electronica group, Orbital, and experimental videos by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Floria Sigismondi. Swinton founded the film festival, Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams, and created a multi-year traveling Scottish Highlands cinema program, Pilgrimage: A Scottish Road Move Festival, with filmmaker Mark Cousins, who chronicled the project in his film, Cinema Is Everywhere (2011).

Personal Life
Movies
Facts

Personal life

London-born Tilda Swinton’s parents are the late Judith Balfour and Sir John Swinton, a former British Army major general who held the titles of the Laird of Kimmerghame House and Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire. Her Swinton family lineage is distinguished and extends 35 generations to the 9th century. Though born in London, Tilda Swinton identifies as Scottish. She has three brothers. Swinton attended Queen’s Gate School, West Heath Girls’ School, and Edinburgh’s Fettes College, and then spent two years as a volunteer in Kenyan and South African children’s schools. She graduated from New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) at the University of Cambridge with degrees in social and political sciences, and also studied theater. With her partner, artist-playwright John Byrne, she had twins Xavier and future actor Honor Swinton Byrne (with whom mother and daughter played mother-daughter roles in Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and The Souvenir Part II. She currently lives in the Scottish Highlands with her children and partner, the German painter Sandro Kopp. Swinton commented in early 2022 that she is considering quitting acting to become a palliative carer after suffering from long COVID-19. Her height is 5’ 10½”.

Known For

The Room Next Door

(2024)

The Eternal Daughter

Julie Hart (2022)

Three Thousand Years of Longing

Alithea (2022)

Memoria

Jessica Holland (2021)

The Souvenir: Part II

Rosalind (2021)

Awards

Winner, Best Supporting Actress, Academy Awards (2008); Winner, Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Awards (2008); Winner, British Artist of the Year, BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards (2008); Two-time Winner, Teddy Prize, Berlin Film Festival (1988, 2008); Winner, Best Foreign Actress, David di Donatello Awards (1993); Winner, Best European Actress, European Film Awards (2018); Winner, Robert Altman Award, Independent Spirit Awards (2019); Honoree, Museum of Modern Art Benefit (2013); Five-time Nominee, Best Actress/Supporting Actress/Motion Picture Cast, Screen Actors Guild (2003, 2008-2009, 2012, 2015); Winner, Silver Medallion Award, Telluride Film Festival (2011); Winner, Best Actress Volpi Cup, Venice Film Festival (1991); Winner, Career Golden Lion Award, Venice Film Festival (2020).

Independent Spirit Award

Independent Spirit Award

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Golden Globe

Golden Globe

Golden Globes, USA

Actor

Actor

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Tilda Swinton Movies

Actor

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Previous (36)

2024 |
The Killer
The Killer
2024
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
After being betrayed by her master, a disillusioned assassin takes one final shot with the intention of using the money to help a musician she accidentally blinded regain vision.
2024 |
Problemista
Problemista
2024
Comedy
Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in NY. As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country.
asElizabeth
2022 |
The Eternal Daughter
The Eternal Daughter
2022
Drama, Mystery
Returning to a hotel now haunted by its mysterious past, an artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets in their former family home.
asJulie Hart
2022 |
Three Thousand Years of Longing
Three Thousand Years of Longing
2022
Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A lonely scholar, on a trip to Istanbul, discovers a Djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom.
asAlithea
2021 |
The Souvenir: Part II
The Souvenir: Part II
2021
Drama, Romance
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
More Info
asRosalind
2021 |
Memoria
Memoria
2021
Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A woman from Scotland, while traveling in Colombia, begins to notice strange sounds. Soon she begins to think about their appearance.
asJessica Holland
2021 |
The French Dispatch
The French Dispatch
2021
Comedy, Drama, Romance
A love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional twentieth century French city, that brings to life a collection of stories published in "The French Dispatch Magazine".
More Info
asJ.K.L. Berensen
2021 |
Julia
Julia
2021
Biography, Documentary
Julia tells the story of the legendary cookbook author and television superstar who changed the way Americans think about food, television, and even about women.
2020 |
The Personal History of David Copperfield
The Personal History of David Copperfield
2020
Comedy, Drama
A modern take on Charles Dickens's classic tale of a young orphan who is able to triumph over many obstacles.
More Info
asBetsey Trotwood
2019 |
The Souvenir
The Souvenir
2019
Drama, Romance
A young film student in the early '80s becomes romantically involved with a complicated and untrustworthy man.
More Info
asRosalind
2019 |
The Dead Don't Die
The Dead Don't Die
2019
Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The focus is on the sleepy small town of Centerville where the dead become undead.
More Info
2019 |
The Garden
The Garden
2019
Drama
A nearly wordless visual narrative inter cuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones.
More Info
asMadonna
2018 |
Suspiria
Suspiria
2018
Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
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asDr. Klemperer
2018 |
Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs
2018
Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Set in Japan, Isle of Dogs follows a boy's odyssey in search of his lost dog.
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asOracle
2017 |
Letters from Baghdad
Letters from Baghdad
2017
Biography, Documentary, History
Gertrude Bell, the most powerful woman in the British Empire in her day, shaped the destiny of Iraq after WWI in ways that still reverberate today.
asGertrude Bell
2016 |
Hail, Caesar!
Hail, Caesar!
2016
Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio's stars in line.
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asThora Thacker
2016 |
The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger
The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger
2016
Biography, Documentary
The Seasons in Quincy' is the result of a five-year project by Tilda Swinton, Colin MacCabe and Christopher Roth to produce a portrait of the intellectual and storyteller John Berger. It was produced by the Derek Jarman Lab, an audio-visual hub for graduate filmmaking based at Bi... Read all
asSelf
2016 |
A Bigger Splash
A Bigger Splash
2016
Drama, Music, Thriller
A famous rock star's vacation in Italy with her boyfriend is disrupted by the unexpected visit of an old friend and his daughter.
asMarianne Lane
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as Martha
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as The Ancient One
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as Marianne Lane
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Michael Claytonas Karen Crowder
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as Isabella
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Dreams Rewiredas Narrator
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The Grand Budapest Hotelas Madame D.
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Edward IIas Isabella
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as Dianna
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as Woman
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as Wood Sprite
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as White Witch
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as Woman
-- |
as Mason
-- |
as Lucy Mirando
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as Katie Cox
-- |
as Valerie Thomas
-- |
as Social Services

Self

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Previous (1)

2026 |
Deep Water
Deep Water
2026
Action, Drama, Horror, Thriller
A group of international passengers en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai are forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. Now they must work together in hopes to overcome the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage.
More Info

Facts About Tilda Swinton

Legendary Classmates: When Tilda Swinton attended the boarding school of West Heath, her classmate and friend were Lady Diana Spencer, who was to become the Princess of Wales. Entitlement: Swinton has commented that her parents had expected that she would extend her familial titled legacy by marrying a duke. High Rank: Tilda Swinton was ranked #13 on the New York Times’ list of “The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (so far)”. Performance Art: Tilda Swinton made a sensation as a performance artist in her work, “The Maybe,” at London’s Serpentine Gallery, in which she lay sleeping inside a glass case for a solid week. Protest: Swinton was nearly arrested by Russian authorities in 2013 for waving a rainbow flag in Moscow’s Red Square to protest Russia’s new anti-LGBTQ laws.

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