Just as we have had some great British actresses over the years the actors that this country has produced have also been reasonably handy!
Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, John Hurt and John Mills have enjoyed huge success while Daniel Craig, Ewan McGregor and James McAvoy have all carried on that trend.
But now there are a new generation of actors who are looking to carry on this great tradition.
- Andrew Garfield - has already enjoyed success both on the big screen as well as TV but the next couple of years look set to be huge for the young actor.
Yes Garfield has seen off tough competition from the likes of Logan Lerman and Jamie Bell to land the role of Peter Parker aka Spider Man in the re-boot of the franchise.
The actor made his name in TV with roles in series such as Sugar Rush, Doctor Who and the critically acclaimed Red Riding.
He went on to star in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus but it’s 2010 that has really seen his star rise.
He has topped the U.S. box office with The Social Network, which follows the creation and the development of Facebook, and is back on the big screen in the New Year with Never Let Me Go.
Never Let Me Go sees him team up with Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan and the movie is already surrounded in Oscar talk.
But he is going to get his first taste of the big budget blockbuster when he starts working on Spider Man next year.
- Tom Hardy - has steadily built put his career over the years moving from TV to movies with the likes of Band of Brothers and Layer Cake in the early years.
But after a string of high profile roles and movies Hardy has seen his star rocket. This breakthrough came in 2008 when he landed a role in Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla.
Then he took on the role of Charles Bronson in the off the wall movie about the notorious prisoner, a role which brought him critical acclaim.
He moved back into television last year when he starred as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. But he enjoyed major box office success this summer with Inception, the latest movie from Christopher Nolan.
And the future looks bright for the actor as he has been working on Warrior, This Means War, which also stars Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Colin Firth and Mark Strong.
- Michael Fassbender - is another actor who has built up his career over the years with TV and movie work.
Having appeared in TV shows Band of Brothers, Hex and Murphy’s Law he moved into movies with the visually stunning 300.
But it’s his roles in more recent years that have grabbed everyone’s attention. It was his part as Bobby Sands in Hunger that was to be the big critical breakthrough for the actor.
Since then he has enjoyed huge success with the likes of Fish Tanks, Inglorious Basterds and Centurion. And the blockbuster once again beckons for Fassbender next year as he is currently filming X-Men: First Class.
He will star as Magneto in the movie, which will look at the early days of some of X-Men’s famous characters. He has also completed work on Jane Eyre, in which he will play Edward Rochester, and Haywire.
And he has a string of projects in the pipeline including Shame, As Swim -Two-Birds and he has also been linked to The Hobbit.
- Aaron Johnson - one of 2010’s best movies was of the course the hilariously funny Kick Ass, which has shown off Johnson’s acting skill.
The young actor was discovered by filmmaker Gurinder Chadha when she cast him in movie Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging in 2008.
Since then the actor has mixed and matched his roles as he has showed off his versatility. Nowhere Boy at the end of last year, in which he took on the role of a young John Lennon, brought him critical acclaim.
From drama he moved onto comedy with Kick Ass, another movie which won over the critics, and a sequel is in the pipeline.
- Eddie Redmayne - like so many British actors Redmayne kicked off his career in television but it wasn’t long before movies came calling,
In recent years has appeared in The Good Shepherd, The Other Boleyn Girl and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
But bigger television roles have come his way in the last eighteen months or so as he took on the role of Angel Clare in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and can currently be seen in the adaptation of Pillars Of The Earth.
This year has also seen him star alongside Sean Bean in Black Death and he is currently working on movie My Week With Marilyn, which also stars Emma Watson, Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh.
Other British actors who are currently enjoying big screen success are Jamie Bell, who will star as Tintin in Steven Spielberg’s movie next year.
Dominic Cooper’s star continues to rise and he will star in Captain American next year while Nichols Hoult has starred in Clash of the Titans and A Single Man this year.
And Ben Barnes is also back on the big screen this winter as he reprises the role of Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Tom Hardy Andrew Garfield