Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch CBE (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes. In 2014, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2015, he was appointed a CBE for services to performing arts and charity.
Benedict Cumberbatch
British
1998–present
3
- Henry Carlton Cumberbatch (grandfather)
- Henry Alfred Cumberbatch (great-grandfather)
- Robert William Cumberbatch (great-great-grandfather)
Cumberbatch studied drama at the Victoria University of Manchester and obtained a Master of Arts in classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He began acting in Shakespearean theatre productions before making his West End debut in Richard Eyre's revival of Hedda Gabler in 2005. Since then, he has starred in Royal National Theatre productions of After the Dance (2010) and Frankenstein (2011), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for the latter. In 2015, he played the title role in Hamlet at the Barbican Theatre.
Cumberbatch's television work includes his performance as Stephen Hawking in the film Hawking (2004). He gained wide recognition for portraying Sherlock Holmes in the series Sherlock from 2010 to 2017, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor. For playing the title role in the miniseries Patrick Melrose (2018), he won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor.
In films, Cumberbatch received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (2014) and a volatile rancher in The Power of the Dog (2021). He has acted in several period dramas, including Amazing Grace (2006), Atonement (2007), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Current War (2017), 1917 (2019) and The Courier (2020). He has also starred in numerous blockbuster films portraying Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Smaug and Sauron in The Hobbit film series (2012–2014), and Dr. Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including in the films Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
Early life and education
Birth, family and schooling
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born on 19 July 1976[2] at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the London district of Hammersmith,[3] to actors Timothy Carlton (born Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch) and Wanda Ventham.[4] He grew up in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He has a half-sister, Tracy Peacock, from his mother's first marriage.[5]
Cumberbatch attended boarding schools from the age of eight,[6] attending Brambletye, a prep school near East Grinstead, West Sussex.[7] He undertook secondary schooling as an arts scholar at Harrow School.[8][9] He was a member of the Rattigan Society, Harrow's principal club for the dramatic arts, which was named after Old Harrovian and playwright Sir Terence Rattigan.[10] He was involved in numerous Shakespearean works at school and made his acting debut as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Night's Dream when he was 12.[11] His first leading role was as Eliza Doolittle in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, in a production by the Head of Classics, James Morwood, who observed that Cumberbatch "acted everyone else off the stage".[12] Cumberbatch's drama teacher, Martin Tyrell, called him "the best schoolboy actor" he had ever worked with.[13] Despite his abilities, Cumberbatch's drama teacher at Harrow warned him against a career in acting, calling it a "tough business".[14]
Tertiary education
After leaving Harrow, Cumberbatch took a gap year to volunteer as an English teacher at a Tibetan monastery in Darjeeling, India.[15] He then attended the Victoria University of Manchester, where he studied drama.[16] He continued his training as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), graduating with an MA in classical acting.[17] In January 2018, Cumberbatch succeeded Timothy West as president of LAMDA.[18]
Antecedents and family tree
In 1728,[19] Benedict Cumberbatch's 7th-great-grandfather, Abraham Cumberbatch of Saint Andrew, Barbados (died 1753), acquired properties on the island of Barbados in the West Indies,[20] which used enslaved people for labour. St Nicholas Abbey was owned by Cumberbatch's ancestors for at least two hundred years.[21]
These properties were passed down through the generations to Benedict's great-great-great-grandfather, Abraham Parry Cumberbatch[22][23] (died 1840 in Hellingly, Sussex). He was an absentee landlord of two estates, Cleland and Lammings, for which he received £5388 as slave compensation (via the Slave Compensation Act 1837, four years after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 had abolished slavery).[24] The Cleland plantation enslaved 250 people, and was the main source of the Cumberbatch family's considerable wealth at the time;[25] they were one of the richest families in Britain.[19]
There has been media speculation[25][26] that the Barbados National Task Force on Reparations, which, as part of the wider Caribbean's CARICOM Reparations Commission, is as of January 2023[19] seeking reparations from wealthy British MP Richard Drax for his ancestors' involvement in slavery,[27] might also consider seeking reparations from families such as the Cumberbatches. Benedict Cumberbatch has said that by the time of his birth, most of the money had run out, and he grew up "definitely middle class",[19][25][26] or upper middle class.[28] The Drax family still owns a large estate in Barbados, and Richard Drax is said to be worth at least £150 million.[27] Barbados′ officials have since rebuked those speculations and called them a "Campaign of deceptive and misleading British ′yellow journalism′".[29]
Abraham Parry Cumberbatch's son (Benedict's great-great-grandfather) Robert William Cumberbatch, was a British consul in Turkey and the Russian Empire.[30][31] His great-grandfather, Henry Alfred Cumberbatch, was also a diplomat who served as consul in Turkey and Lebanon, and his grandfather, Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, was a submarine officer of both World Wars, and a prominent figure of London high society.[32][33]
Cumberbatch is third cousin 16 times removed of King Richard III, whom he portrayed in The Hollow Crown.[34][35][36] He attended Richard III's 2015 reburial and read a poem.[37][38]
Other activities
Charity
Cumberbatch is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust.[139][140] He is a supporter and patron of organisations focused on using the arts to help disadvantaged young people including Odd Arts, Anno's Africa and Dramatic Need.[141][142][143] Since portraying Stephen Hawking in 2004, he has been an ambassador, and in 2015 patron,[144] for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and in 2014 did the Ice Bucket Challenge for the organisation.[145] He also set up a recovery fund for the benefit of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association.[146][147][148] Cumberbatch has donated artworks for charities and fundraisers including the Willow Foundation, and Thomas Coram Foundation for Children.[149][150]
