Mads Mikkelsen

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Mikkelsen was born on 22 November 1965 in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of mother Bente Mikkelsen and father Henning Dittmann Mikkelsen, a cab driver. He and his older brother, actor Lars Mikkelsen, were raised in the Nørrebro district. In his youth, he trained as a gymnast, wanting to pursue athletics, but then studied dancing at Balettakademien in Gothenburg where he also became fluent in Swedish. During his dancing career, Mikkelsen met choreographer Hanne Jacobsen, whom he married in 2000. He was a professional dancer for almost a decade until he left it behind to study drama at the Århus Theatre School in 1996, embarking on a career in acting.

In Their Own Story

Mikkelsen made his film debut in 1996 as a drug dealer in Nicolas Winding Refn's internationally successful film Pusher, which spawned two sequels. He played marginalized, often comic roles in popular Danish films. In 1999, Mikkelsen had a leading role as Lenny, a shy film expert who has avoidant personality disorder, opposite Kim Bodnia in Refn's Bleeder (1999). In 2000, Mikkelsen played a gangster opposite Søren Pilmark, Ulrich Thomsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas in Anders Thomas Jensen's Copenhagen gangster film, Flickering Lights. The following year, he gained wider popularity when he starred in the gay comedy Shake It All About (2001).

Reader's Guide

Mikkelsen achieved his first widely acclaimed international success as Le Chiffre in the twenty-first James Bond film, Casino Royale (2006). Mikkelsen has said that he so easily won the part that even Daniel Craig asked him if he had slept with someone to be cast. He said of the casting, "They'd done their homework, seen my stuff, so it was fine, just a bit of anti-climax, because I was so ready to do more for them, but it was ... shrugs... you're in." He also stated that because he was already a big film star in Denmark at the time, that the international role did not really change much. Roger Ebert noted the suspense during Mikkelsen's scene with Bond during the extended poker game, in which Le Chiffre weeps blood from his left eye.

Did You Know?

• Mikkelsen was a professional dancer for almost a decade before studying drama at the Århus Theatre School in 1996.
• He met his wife, choreographer Hanne Jacobsen, during his dancing career; they married in 2000.
• Mikkelsen's older brother, Lars Mikkelsen, is also an actor.
• He became fluent in Swedish while studying dancing at Balettakademien in Gothenburg.
• Mikkelsen won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his performance as Lucas in The Hunt (2012).