Michael Fassbender was born April 2, 1977 (age: 46) in Heidelberg, Germany to Adele and Josef Fassbender. He has one sibling, an older sister named Caroline. His mother was born in Northern Ireland and his father in Germany, so Fassbender is fluent in both English and German — though English was his first language, as his family moved to Killarney when he was 2 years old. According to Fassbender’s ‘family lore,’ he is related to Michael Collins, an Irish leader in the War of Independence.
Before making a name for himself in film, Fassbender appeared on many television shows, both as lead actor and guest star. He played Burton Christenson in the Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg miniseries Band Of Brothers and Azazeal on Sky One’s Hex.
Fassbender dabbled in radio work as well, playing Jonathan Harker on the radio serialization of Dracula and broadcasting during the BBC Radio 4 program Book At Bedtime in late 2003.
Also included in Fassbender’s early work is theater — he made his stage debut as Cinderella’s ugly sister in Fairytales 123. He also produced, directed and acted in the stage version of Resevoir Dogs based on the Quentin Tarantino script; and acted in Three Sisters and Allegiance.
Fassbender was nearly 30 when he made his feature film debut in the blockbuster action hit 300 playing Spartan warrior Stelios. 300, which was filmed in 2006 and released in 2007, launched Fassbender into mainstream success.
In 2008, Fassbender appeared in Steve McQueen‘s Hunger, for which he won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role, as well as the Best Actor Award at the British Independent Film Awards, the Stockholm Film Festival, and the London Critics Cicrcle Film Awards.
In 2009 Fassbender revisited the Tarantino genre when he was cast as Lt. Archie Hicox in the war film Inglourious Basterds alongside Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz. The film won several awards for best cast, which Fassbender shared. Though Fassbender knew German growing up, he admitted that his spoken German was rusty and he had to brush up on it for the film.
That same year Fassbender starred in the independent film Fish Tank, which won him two awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role — one from the London Critics Circle Film Awards, and another from the Chicago International Film Festival.
Fassbender returned to blockbuster films when he was cast as Magneto in X-Men: First Class in 2011, a role he will reprise in the sequel, due out in 2014. In 2011 he also starred in another one of McQueen’s films, Shame. He took on the role of Brandon Sullivan, a man struggling with sex addiction. He co-starred with Carey Mulligan and then-girlfriend Nicole Beharie. The film was highly acclaimed and Fassbender won dozens of awards for his role, including from the British Independent Film Awards, the Venice Film Festival, and the London Critics Circle Film Awards. He was also nominated for dozens of awards he didn’t win, including a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA.
In 2011 Fassbender costarred in Jane Eyre with Mia Wasikowska as Edward Fairfax Rochester. Preparing to play the passionate character, he told uInterview exclusively, required bringing out personality points already in himself. “I think all of us as human beings have all of the traits of our worst sort of examples of human beings and the best examples,” Fassbender said. “So I think, you know whether that be killer or a samaritan, they’re both elements that are in all of us, and I think you just sort of start to exercise them by reading the script over and over by sort of getting to know the character. Then you sort of just develop those elements in yourself and expand something that you don’t have so much of and decrease something else.”
Fassbender was already quite familiar with the book. “Both my sister and my mother were big fans of the book, so I sort of grew up with them talking about it quite a lot, so I thought, you know, I should take it on and see if I can sort of impress my mother and my sister or do justice to the role,” Fassbender told Uinterview exclusively. “Sort of reading it myself I really got into just the sort of the complexity of it. Also, you know, it’s daring, it’s dangerous. You know, just the sort of idea of this history of this guy and what may have gone in this history and the fact that he’s carrying this history around with him all the time. I thought that was really interesting, and what it must have been like to have the woman in the attic with you at all times, in every scene, you know.” He won three awards for his role — the LAFCA Award for Best Actor, the NBR Spotlight Award and the Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actor.
In 2013 Fassbender starred in the film 12 Years A Slave as Edwin Epps, a cruel plantation owner. His acting in the film, as well as the film itself, has received high praise. He also starred in the film The Counselor as The Counselor. He is set to star in the films Macbeth and Assassin’s Creed in 2014 and 2015, respectively. Fassbender was cast in the Danny Boyle film Trance but pulled out due to scheduling conflicts.
Other films Fassbender has starred in include Eden Lake, Jonah Hex, A Dangerous Method, Haywire, The Snowman, The Killer, Prometheus and Centurion. He has also appeared in several television programs such as NCS Manhunt, Sherlock Holmes And The Case Of The Silk Stocking, Murphy’s Law, Wedding Belles and The Devil’s Whore. Fassbender has, additionally, lent his voice to the videogame Fable III.
Fassbender has dated a number of Hollywood starlets, including Leasi Andrews, Zoe Kravitz, Beharie and Louise Hazel. He’s also rumored to have dated Rosario Dawson. In 2017, he married Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, and the couple welcomed a son in 2021.
Fassbender previously suggested that it’s harder to make connections because of his fame. “I remember I was sitting at this table at this thing, and I was talking to this girl,” Fassbender told GQ. “I was like, ‘God, I am so boring right now.’ But she was like, ‘That’s so interesting!’ I was like, ‘You know what? Five years ago, this would not have been interesting.'”
Fassbender is also a fan of Formula 1, having attended several races. He also appeared on Top Gear and discussed his admiration for former racer Michael Schumacher, who he met at the British Grand Prix.
Fassbender currently lives in London, and travels to Los Angeles for career-related trips, alternating between British and American films. He has expressed a desire to act in a German-language theatre or film production one day.
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