Born Katherine Mathilda Swinton on November 5, 1960 in London, England, Tilda Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn after Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in The Deep End. She won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton.
Swinton was born to Australian mother Judith Swinton and Major General John Swinton, former member of the Scots Guard and head of the Queens Household Division. Her paternal great-grandfather was Scottish politician and officer-of-arms George Swinton, and her maternal great-great-grandfather was Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour. The Swinton family is an ancient Anglo-Scots family that can trace its lineage to the High Middle Ages. Her father post necessitated that Swinton and her three brothers lived in various countries growing up, though they always returned to the family estate in Scotland – an estate that had been in the family since the ninth century.
Tilda was educated at the exclusive West Heath Girls School in Kent, England, where her academic excellence was at odds with the school’s main goal of training privileged young women for a future as the wife of royalty. Classmate and friend Lady Diana Spencer was one example of the school’s success in this regard. However, Swinton was not cut out for the traditional role dictated by her heritage. Instead, her intellectual and artistic instincts first lead her to study writing and literature at Cambridge University, where she graduated in 1983 with a degree in social and political science. In addition to her academic studies, she became involved with the school’s drama department, participating in a number of stage productions. Though not enamored of theater, Swinton was more taken by the idea of filmmaking and felt being onstage was a means to that end.
In 1985, Swinton began her long collaboration with Derek Jarman, both as a friend and fellow artist. She made her screen debut in his Caravaggio (1986) and appeared in every one of the director’s films until his death from AIDS in 1994. It was for her role as the spurned queen in Jarman’s anachronistic, controversial Edward II (1992) that Swinton earned her first dose of recognition, becoming a familiar face to arthouse audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and earning a Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival for her work in the film. The acclaim and recognition Swinton garnered was amplified the same year with her title role in Sally Potter’s adaptation of -Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s classic tale of an Elizabethan courtier who experiences drastic changes in both gender and lifestyle over the course of 400 years.
Recent years have seen Swinton move towards more mainstream projects, including the leading role in the American film The Deep End (2001), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. She appeared as a supporting character in films such as The Beach (2000), featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Vanilla Sky (2001) with Tom Cruise and, as the archangel Gabriel in Constantine (2005) with Keanu Reeves. Swinton has also appeared in the British films The Statement (2003) and Young Adam (2003), and sat on the jury of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2005, Swinton performed as the White Witch Jadis, in the film version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and as Audrey Cobb in the Mike Mills film adaptation of the novel Thumbsucker. Swinton later had cameos in Narnia’s sequels,The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Her work opposite George Clooney in 2007’s Michael Clayton earned the actress an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She was cast for the role of Elizabeth Abbott in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, alongside Burn After Reading co-star Brad Pitt. She had a starring role as the irresponsible eponymous character in Erick Zonca’s Julia, which premiered at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival and later saw a limited U.S. release in May 2009. She stars in the new film adaptation of We Need to Talk about Kevin released in October 2011.
Swinton lives in Nairn, in the Highland region of Scotland, near Scottish painter John Byrne and their twin children: a son, Xavier, and a daughter, Honor. She travels with her partner Sandro Kopp, a German/New Zealand painter. She has been with Kopp since 2004 and the relationship has Byrne’s blessing.
Tilda Swinton Photo Gallery
