Date of Birth : May 24th 1960
An interest in acting from an early age lead to a year in drama school at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama (“It was disastrous…”), though her mother preferred for her to attend university. As a practical matter she enrolled in a teaching course, but her determination to pursue acting finally won out despite, or perhaps in spite of, a teaching instructor’s unbelievably harsh pronouncement that Kristin had no talent and should “stick to the amateur-dramatics society”; surely an example of nurturing and inspirational pedagogy at its very finest.
Needing a break from this oppressive attitude and environment, Kristin went to visit a friend in Paris, intending to stay for a couple weeks. As it turned out, she found work in the city as an au pair for a supportive family who encouraged her desire to act.
Kristin’s major cinematic debut came in the Prince’s Under the Cherry Moon in 1986. She was originally called to try out for a minor character, but her reading of the leading lady in auditions was so compelling they offered her that part instead. 1988 saw her in a film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust, and a noticeably British cast after years in France: “I was a bit intimidated at the prospect of working with all these British actors. I don’t have any real training; I did most of my study in France, where they don’t have the same British method of acting. I thought everybody would be doing voice warm-ups before each take.” Handful turned out to be less formidable than she feared and her portrayal of Lady Brenda Last remains one of her most compelling. A steady series of roles in films and television, primarily in Europe, followed until the smash international success of Four Weddings and a Funeral — for which she was awarded a BAFTA and an Evening Standard Award for Best Actress as Fiona — in 1994. Recent roles include agent Sarah Davies in Mission: Impossible (1996) and her Oscar-nominated role as Katharine Clifton in The English Patient (1996).
CAREER
Tomb Raider ( 2018 )





Darkest Hour ( 2018 )





The Party ( 2017 )





Suite Française ( 2015 )





The Invisible Woman ( 2014 )





Looking for Hortense ( 2013 )





Only God Forgives ( 2013 )





In The House ( 2013 )





Love Crime ( 2012 )





In Your Hands ( 2012 )





Salmon Fishing in the Yemen ( 2012 )





Bel Ami ( 2012 )





The Woman in the Fifth ( 2012 )





Sarah’s Key ( 2011 )





Nowhere Boy ( 2009 )





Confessions of a Shopaholic ( 2009 )





Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge ( 2008 )





Easy Virtue ( 2008 )





I’ve Loved You So Long ( 2008 )





The Other Boleyn Girl ( 2008 )





Chromophobia ( 2007 )





The Golden Compass ( 2007 )





The Walker ( 2007 )





Tell No One ( 2007 )





Keeping Mum ( 2005 )





Life as a House ( 2002 )





Gosford Park ( 2002 )





Up At The Villa ( 2000 )





Random Hearts ( 1999 )





The Horse Whisperer ( 1998 )





Microcosmos ( 1997 )





The English Patient ( 1997 )





Mission: Impossible ( 1996 )





Richard III ( 1996 )





Angels and Insects ( 1995 )





Four Weddings and a Funeral ( 1994 )





A Handful of Dust ( 1988 )





Under The Cherry Moon ( 1986 )




