Tim Roth
Timothy Simon Roth (/ˈrɒθ/; born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer.[2] He was among a group of prominent British actors known as the "Brit Pack".
For the metal guitarist, see Tim Roth (musician). For the Canadian football player, see Tim Roth (Canadian football).
Roth was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer in his film debut The Hit (1984). Since then, he gained more attention for his roles in films, including The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), and Vincent & Theo and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (both 1990). Roth has collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on several films, including Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Four Rooms (1995) and The Hateful Eight (2015). For his performance in Rob Roy (1995), Roth won a BAFTA Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award.
Roth made his directorial debut with the film The War Zone (1999). He played Cal Lightman in the Fox series Lie to Me (2009–2011) and Jim Worth/Jack Devlin in the Sky Atlantic series Tin Star (2017–2020). Roth played Emil Blonsky/Abomination in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Incredible Hulk (2008), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022).
Early life[edit]
Roth was born on 14 May 1961 in Dulwich, London. His mother, Ann, was a painter and teacher. His father Ernie, was a Fleet Street journalist and painter.[3][4][5] His father was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, to a family of Irish descent. Although he was not of Jewish background, his father changed his surname from "Smith" to the German/Yiddish "Roth" in the 1940s, as "an act of anti-Nazi solidarity".[6][5][7]
Roth is a survivor of child sexual abuse, committed by his paternal grandfather, whom he has stated sexually abused him from childhood until his early teen years. He first revealed that he was a victim of sexual abuse during press for the 1999 film The War Zone, which dealt with the topics of incest and sexual violence within a family, but declined to name the perpetrator at that time. In December 2016, he gave an interview to The Guardian in which he revealed that his abuser was his grandfather, who had also abused his father when he was a child.[8]
Roth attended school in Lambeth before moving to Croydon Technical School, due to bullying.[7] He attended the Strand School in Tulse Hill. Roth wanted to be a sculptor and studied at London's Camberwell College of Arts.[9]
Personal life[edit]
Roth's son Jack, born to Lori Baker in 1984,[25] is also an actor.[26] Roth married Nikki Butler in 1993. They had two sons, Hunter and Cormac. Cormac, a musician, died aged 25 from germ cell cancer on 16 October 2022.[27]
Roth is a supporter of the Green Party of England and Wales.[28]
He endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President in the 2016 US presidential election.[29] Roth was critical of Donald Trump's victory saying "I hate Trump. I hate everything that he stands for. He should never be forgotten or forgiven for anything he said on the road to the White House".[30]