Rufus Sewell
Rufus Sewell
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Note: This item includes three 8.5" x 14" pages of I'LL FOLLOW YOU DOWN call sheets. Rufus Sewell drew his doodle on the back of one of these sheets.
Rufus Sewell began his film career in the early '90s and soon emerged as one of England's most promising young actors. The son of an Australian animator who died when he was ten, Sewell was born in Twickenham, Middlesex, on October 29, 1967. He trained to become an actor at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, leaving the school after three years.
After making a promising debut on the London stage with an award-winning performance in MAKING IT BETTER, Sewell originated the role of Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA, which earned him a nomination for the prestigious Olivier Award. He also won acclaim on the other side of the Atlantic, winning Broadway's Theatre World Award for his performance in TRANSLATIONS.
In addition to his work on the stage, Sewell had been acting on both the large and small screen, making his film debut in 1991 with TWENTY-ONE, in which he played Patsy Kensit's junkie boyfriend. In 1994 he caught the attention of American art house filmgoers with his role as a sweet-natured bus driver who becomes the object of Albert Finney's affections in A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE; the same year, PBS viewers could see him star in the acclaimed adaptation of MIDDLEMARCH.
His art house recognition increased the following year, when he had starring roles in John Schlesinger's COLD COMFORT FARM and CARRINGTON. The first film cast him as an earthy farmer accustomed to rolls in the hay, while the second cast him as one of Emma Thompson's army of spurned lovers. Both films helped to get him noticed but it was not until 1998 that he was given his first starring role, headlining the cast of DARK CITY.
In 1999, he was again visible to transatlantic audiences, first as a bitter, alcoholic cokehead in THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU, a romantic comedy released in Britain the previous year; and then in John Turturro's ILLUMINATA, a turn-of-the-century romantic farce which cast him as an amorous actor. The latter film -- which also featured Susan Sarandon, Ben Gazzara, and Christopher Walken in its impressive cast -- won a number of good reviews, as did Sewell.
In 2000, he starred with Kim Basinger and Christina Ricci in BLESS THE CHILD, a supernatural thriller. After raising the ire of the noble Heath Ledger in the popular period adventure A KNIGHT'S TALE, he would once again make viewer's skin crawl as an aristocratic creep with more than a few skeletons in the closet in Neil Burger's romantic fantasy THE ILLUSIONIST.
In 2008, Sewell appeared as Alexander Hamilton in the Emmy-winning HBO mini-series JOHN ADAMS, with subsequent roles in ELEVENTH HOUR, THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH, and THE TOURIST preceding a turn as Detective Aurelio Zen in the TV mini-series ZEN, and as an evil bloodsucker with designs on the newly established United States in ABRAHAM LINCOLN VAMPIRE HUNTER.
Next, he'll be seen in BBC's PARADE'S END (premieres on HBO on 26 February 2013) and he has three movies in the pipeline (all currently in post-production): sci-fi mystery I'LL FOLLOW YOU DOWN alongside Gillian Anderson, Haley Joel Osment, and Victor Garber; THE SEA with Ciaran Hinds and Natascha McElhone; THE DEVIL'S RAPTURE with DEXTER's Jennifer Carpenter.
Rufus Sewell at the Internet Movie Database