This tall handsome actor carved his own career on stage and in features despite the long shadow cast by his older brother, actor Ralph Fiennes. The youngest of six (and a fraternal twin), Joseph Fiennes solidified his growing reputation with a string of performances ranging from the classics on stage to contemporary comedy and period fare on screen. Finishing school at 16, he left home the next year and worked as a dresser at the National Theatre before beginning his stage acting career with the Young Vic Youth Theatre. Fiennes received a grant to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and after graduating in 1993, embarked on his career. Early high points included co-starring opposite Helen Mirren in "A Month in the Country" (1994) and Bernard Hill in "A View From the Bridge" (1995), but his two-season stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company proved a mixed blessing. While he earned excellent notices for his performances (particularly as Jesus in Dennis Potter's "Son of Man" in 1995), Fiennes told the London Times (April 26, 1998), "There were times when I was actually losing money. I was paying for my flat in London and being charged another 120 pounds a week by the RSC for their little house. The two rents did not come to my weekly wage." Despite fighting poverty, Fiennes persevered making his TV acting debut in "The Vacillations of Poppy Carew" (ITV, 1995) and his feature debut as a decadent in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty" (1996).
His career gained momentum in 1998 when Fiennes landed leading roles in three high profile features. In the low-budget comedy "The Very Thought of You/Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence", about three friends who fall for an American expatriate, he was cast as the sensitive Laurence, who passes his time teaching elderly women how to play bridge. Fiennes followed as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester opposite Cate Blanchett (who had previously co-starred with Ralph in 1997's "Oscar and Lucinda") in the somewhat controversial biopic "Elizabeth". In this version, directed by Shekhar Kapur, the relationship between the monarch and her favorite is depicted as a carnal one which flies in the face of history. Remaining in Elizabethan times, he was then tapped to portray the Bard in the Tom Stoppard-penned fictional romance "Shakespeare in Love", co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
The rather private actor continued to divide his time between film projects and the stage, finding notable acclaim on the latter for his work in "Real Classy Affair" (1998) and "Edward II" (2001). Fiennes was cast opposite Jude Law and Rachel Weisz to form a triangular romance in the WWII-era drama "Enemy at the Gates" (2001). Playing a Russian soldier adept at propaganda who uses Law's exploits as a marksman to create a hero during the siege of Stalingrad, the actor handled a difficult role with aplomb. He was better served, though, by his role as a mountain climber in the erotically-charged drama of sexual obsession "Killing Me Softly" (also 2001). After strong turns playing a recently released political prisoner in the long-delayed UK film "Leo" (2002) and the German monk and activist Martin Luther in the European production "Luther" (2003), the actor voiced Prince Proteus, the best friend of the legendary sailor in DreamWorks' animated "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" (2003). Then Fiennes made a welcome return to the world of Shakespeare on the big screen, adroitly playing the role of Bassanio opposite Al Pacino's Shylock in director Michael Radford's film adaptation of "The Merchant of Venice" (2004).
After his film career flourished, Fiennes continued to regularly trod the stage, including appearing as Edward II in Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II in 2001 and Berowne in theBArd's "Love's Labour's Lost" for the Royal National Theatre in 2003. He has also reported from war-torn Angola for the BBC's "Breakfast News" broadcast.