Rhys Ifans

Profession: Actor
Place/Date of Birth: Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, 22 July 2020

Rhy’s joins fight to save factory - January 2007
Rhy’s has joined a long list of celebrities, such as Tom Jones, in a bid to save a factory from closure in South Wales.

Clothing company Burberry plans to close its Treorchy plant, just a few miles from where Sir Tom grew up in Pontypridd, with the loss of 300 jobs. The company, which reported a significant increase in sales earlier this month, plans to move production to China at the end of March.

Opera singer Bryn Terfel, entertainer Max Boyce and the Prince of Wales have also given their backing to the campaign. As well as calling for the factory to remain open, campaigners want to see Burberry lose its two Royal warrants from the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

In the House of Commons on Tuesday, Rhondda MP Chris Bryant will call for new procedures to govern the award of the coveted warrants.

Mr Bryant said: "A Royal Warrant is our national seal of approval and it should only go to great British companies that stand by traditional British values. Any company that cannot say how much the workers making its goods overseas are paid - or cannot guarantee that children will not be used in their factories - should lose that seal of approval."

Rhys’ new role - August 04
Rhys Ifans has spoken to press about Danny Deckchair and his newest project. The Welsh actor told reporters that the most enjoyable thing about working on Danny Deckchair, the story of a man who travels by a deckchair airlifted by helium balloons was spending three days hanging from a crane. "I love being up there" he commented "Quiet, no make up people, no costume. It’s a good feeling." He also spoke about his character William Dobbin in the upcoming adaptation of William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair "in a way he’s the only character in the film with any moral fibre".

Fishy business - August 04
Rhys Ifans has had his car stolen by some fishy thieves. The burglars made off with the Notting Hill actor’s top of the range Mini Cooper after using a fishing rod to hook his keys from a sideboard and through the letterbox. Rhys, who was fast asleep upstairs at the time has been given a ticking off by police who say that no-one, not even stars, should leave their keys close to a letterbox and in plain view of thieves.

Biography

Rhys Ifans first hit the big screen in Anthony Hopkins’ directorial debut August (1996), followed by memorable roles in Twin Town (1997) and Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), but reached his widest audience and received the maximum exposure as the unkempt and uninhibited Spike in the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill.

Hailing from Cardiff, the tall, thin, blond actor who has worked with some of film’s biggest names including Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts and John Hurt, got his start on television, with several English and Welsh productions to his credit.

Ifans’ break through role occurred starring alongside his real-life younger brother Llyr Evans (Rhys adopted the Welsh spelling of their surname) as sociopath brothers in Twin Town. Presumably setting out to do for Swansea what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh, the less moralizing Twin Town received mixed reviews, with many finding the subversiveness of the film troubling, while others enjoyed its boundless energy and irreverence.

The following year, his supporting role in the Irish drama Dancing at Lughnasa showcased a different side to the actor. As the dreaming free spirit Chris, father of an illegitimate son, Ifans deftly played a much more likable and inspiring role, the handsome and endearing dreamer whose pure-heartedness sparks the sisters’ sense of independence and abandon.

While his previous performances were strong and compelling, they did not capture public attention on a grand scale. It was his role as the unwashed oddball Spike in the well-received romance Notting Hill that really propelled him into the spotlight.

Ifans played the roommate of an unsuccessful bookshop owner (Hugh Grant) linked to a world famous actress (Julia Roberts). Unwashed, unshaven and just plain unbelievable, Ifans was virtually unrecognisable in the role (for which he prepared by going unkempt in real life).

He cleaned himself up for a starring turn in Rancid Aluminum (also 1999), directed by his friend and fello Welsh-man Ed Thomas, a darkly comic crime caper co-starring Joseph Fiennes, Tara Fitzgerald and Sadie Frost.

In the Twenty-First Century he has gone from strength to strength with roles in Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000), The Replacements (2000), The 51st State (2001) and Vanity Fair (2004). He also played Jed Parry in the film version of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love and the lead role in Danny Deckchair (2003) as Danny Morgan.

In 2005, Ifans picked up a Bafta for his portrayal as Peter Cook in the TV film Not Only But Always. Plus he’s made guest apparences in music videos for both Oasis and Tom Jones.

Updated January 2007
October 2007

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