Michael Fassbender, German-Irish actor and producer
Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is a German-born Irish actor and racing driver. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
Fassbender made his feature film debut as a Spartan warrior in the fantasy war epic 300 (2007). His earlier roles included various stage productions, as well as starring roles on television such as in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) and the Sky One fantasy drama Hex (2004–05). He first came to prominence for his role as IRA volunteer Bobby Sands in Hunger (2008), for which he won a British Independent Film Award. Subsequent roles include the independent film Fish Tank (2009), as a Royal Marines lieutenant in Inglourious Basterds (2009), as Edward Rochester in the 2011 film adaptation of Jane Eyre, as Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method (2011), as the sentient android, David 8, in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (2012) and its sequel, Alien: Covenant (2017), and in the musical comedy drama Frank (2014) as an eccentric musician loosely inspired by Frank Sidebottom.
Fassbender debuted as the Marvel Comics supervillain Magneto in X-Men: First Class (2011), and went on to share the role with Ian McKellen in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) before reprising it again in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Dark Phoenix (2019). Also in 2011, his performance as a sex addict in Shame earned him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards. His role as slave owner Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave (2013) was similarly praised, earning him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In the same year, Fassbender appeared in another Ridley Scott film, The Counselor. He portrayed the title role in the Danny Boyle-directed biopic Steve Jobs (2015), and played Macbeth in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. For the former, he received Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG nominations. He also produced and starred in the Western Slow West (2015). In 2020, he was listed at number nine on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.Fassbender began competing in auto racing in 2017 with the Ferrari Challenge. He currently races in the European Le Mans Series, driving for Proton Competition.
1977Apr, 2
Michael Fassbender
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Events on 1977
- 23Mar
Watergate scandal
The first of The Nixon Interviews (12 will be recorded over four weeks) are videotaped with British journalist David Frost interviewing former United States President Richard Nixon about the Watergate scandal and the Nixon tapes. - 5Jul
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Military coup in Pakistan: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is overthrown. - 4Aug
Jimmy Carter
U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy. - 15Aug
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project. - 21Nov
God Save the Queen
Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem "God Save the Queen" and "God Defend New Zealand".