Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Kenneth keyed up for award
Belfast actor set to be honoured with freedom of his childhood city
KENNETH Branagh is set to add the keys to his childhood city to a cabinet of glittering accolades.
The 56-year-old grew up in the Tiger’s Bay area of North Belfast and attended Grove Primary School before his family moved to England.
However, the actor and director has always regarded Northern Ireland as his home.
Former Lord Mayor Brian Kingston put
Branagh forward for the honour in April in “recognition of outstanding achievements and international status in drama and cinema”.
And Belfast City Council’s policy and resources committee will tonight record the Dunkirk star would be honoured to accept it. Since studying drama at RADA, Branagh went on to become the youngest actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company to ever play the lead in Henry V, at just 23.
He went on to form his own company the Renaissance Theatre Company, which now counts Prince Charles as one of its patrons.
Then at 29 he directed Henry V as a movie – winning Best Actor and Best Director nominations at the Oscars. The movie star has a list of titles under his belt, including Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Wild Wild West, Valkyrie and more recently My Week With Marilyn, in which he portrayed Laurence Olivier.
He has worked alongside stars including Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise and has done much to bring the works of Shakespeare to the big screen.
More recently he has played troubled detective Wallander in the BBC series and clinched a role in the Harry Potter Franchise.
The life-long Thor fan brought his hero to the big screen as a director in 2011 before getting behind the camera again for Cinderella in 2015.