History Creator / KennethBranagh

Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (born December 10, 1960) is a British actor and director.

** His most blatant example of this took place early in his career. In Much Ado About Nothing he has Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves play half-brothers, one of them is the noble Duke that everyone respects and follows. The other is his bastard half-brother who is insulted over how everyone hates him because of his parentage and uses this as a justification to be the villain of the piece. The film is set in 19th century Europe. So who do you think plays the Duke and who plays the bastard? Wrong.

* AbilityOverAppearance: Invoked when he cast Idris Elba as Heimdall (see below). But then again, he already had a reputation of doing this long before Film/{{Thor}} (see his version of Film/MuchAdoAboutNothing1993 with Creator/DenzelWashington as the brother of Creator/KeanuReeves)

* AbilityOverAppearance: Invoked when he cast Idris Elba as Heimdall (see below).

* LargeHam: ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The box-office failure of his return to Shakespeare with ''Love's Labours Lost'' in 2000 sent his directing career into the doldrums for several years. He continued to act, however, taking LargeHam UpToEleven with his portrayal of Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', and playing occasional BritishNazis (''Conspiracy'', ''Valkyrie''). In 2011 he got a CastingGag role as Creator/LaurenceOlivier in ''My Week with Marilyn''--Branagh has often been compared to Olivier, as both of them directed themselves in filmed versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. He got a gig directing the 2011 film ''Thor'', his biggest directing project since ''Hamlet'', and has directed several more films in the years since, including a live-action remake of Creator/{{Disney}}'s beloved ''Film/{{Cinderella|2015}}'' and an AllStarCast adaptation of ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' in which he stars as Hercule Poirot.

* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2020}}'' (2020) (also starring)

* ProductionPosse: Branagh's posse includes Creator/BrianBlessed, Richard Briers, Creator/DerekJacobi, Jimmy Yuill, Gerard Horan, and (while they were married) Creator/EmmaThompson, as well as composer Patrick Doyle and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos.

* ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' (1995)

* ''Film/AllIsTrue'' (2019) (also starred)

The box-office failure of his return to Shakespeare with ''Love's Labours Lost'' in 2000 sent his directing career into the doldrums for several years. He continued to act, however, taking LargeHam UpToEleven with his portrayal of Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'', and playing occasional BritishNazis (''Conspiracy'', ''Valkyrie''). In 2011 he got a CastingGag role as Creator/LaurenceOlivier in ''My Week with Marilyn''--Branagh has often been compared to Olivier, as both of them directed themselves in filmed versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. He got a gig directing the 2011 film ''Thor'', his biggest directing project since ''Hamlet'', and has directed several more films in the years since, including a live-action remake of Creator/{{Disney}}'s beloved ''Film/{{Cinderella|2015}}'' and an AllStarCast adaptation of ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' in which he stars as Hercule Poirot.

* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2020}}'' (2020) (rumoured, also starring)

* ProductionPosse: Branagh's posse includes Creator/BrianBlessed, Richard Briers, Creator/DerekJacobi, Jimmy Yuill, Gerard Horan, and (while they were married) Creator/EmmaThompson, as well as composer Patrick Doyle.

* ''Film/ArtemisFowl'' (2019)

* ''Film/{{Conspiracy}}'' (2001)

* FakeNationality: Plays a Third Reich German in ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'' and ''Film/{{Conspiracy}}''. Other examples:

* ''Film/LovesLaboursLost'' (2000) (also starred)

* CreatorKiller: ''Film/MaryShelleysFrankenstein'' '''nearly''' did this to Branagh's directing career. The film was such a huge bomb it was a while before Hollywood would trust him to helm another blockbuster (and made finding funding for ''Hamlet'' difficult). But he was still easily able to get plenty of acting jobs as well as directing the indie films he usually prefers

The box-office failure of his return to Shakespeare with ''Love's Labours Lost'' in 2000 sent his directing career into the doldrums for several years. He continued to act, however, taking LargeHam UpToEleven with his portrayal of Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'', and playing occasional BritishNazis (''Conspiracy'', ''Valkyrie''). In 2011 he got a CastingGag role as Creator/LaurenceOlivier in ''My Week with Marilyn''--Branagh has often been compared to Oliver, as both of them directed themselves in filmed versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. He got a gig directing the 2011 film ''Thor'', his biggest directing project since ''Hamlet'', and has directed several more films in the years since, including a live-action remake of Creator/{{Disney}}'s beloved ''Film/{{Cinderella|2015}}'' and an AllStarCast adaptation of ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' in which he stars as Hercule Poirot.

* ''Film/AllIsTrue'' (2019)

** Branagh is also a fan of Laurence Olivier, and many have compared the two's career paths (as they both have successfully directed several Shakespeare adaptations). So, this made things humorous when Branagh was cast AS Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. [[Main/CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Olivier is also responsible in part for Branagh's conversion to Christianity.]]

* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2019}}'' (2019) (rumoured, also starring)

* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2019}}'' (2019) (also starring and noteworthy for being his first sequel)

* ''Film/{{Death on the Nile|2019}}'' (2019) (also starring)

* ''Film/Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' (2018) (voiceover cameo)