Tom Conti
Personal details
  • Born:
    • Birthday: 1941-11-22
    • Born Place: Paisley, Scotland, UK
  • Also Known As:

    Thomas Conti, 톰 콘티, تام کونتی

Tom Conti

Thomas Antonio "Tom" Conti, born on November 22, 1941, in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, is a highly esteemed Scottish actor, director, and novelist known for his compelling performances across stage, film, and television. His father was Italian and his mother was Scottish with Irish parents; both worked as hairdressers. Raised Roman Catholic, Conti later described himself as anti-religious. He initially pursued a musical career as a classical pianist, starting lessons at age four, but ultimately switched to drama, training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. He made his professional stage debut with the Dundee Repertory in 1959.Conti rose to prominence in the 1970s, particularly for his stage work. He garnered significant acclaim for his Broadway debut in Whose Life Is It Anyway? in 1979, for which he won a Tony Award for Best Actor. He also won a Laurence Olivier Award for his stage performance in They're Playing Our Song. On screen, he became more widely known with the one-two punch of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1982), where he played a bilingual POW, and Reuben, Reuben (1983), in which he portrayed a boozy Scottish poet. The latter earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His notable filmography also includes Shirley Valentine (1989), Saving Grace (1986) where he played Pope Leo XIV, and more recently, appearances in blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Paddington 2 (2017), and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), where he played Albert Einstein. On television, he had memorable guest roles, including as Stephen Waltham, the snobby father-in-law of Ross Geller, in a couple of episodes of Friends.Beyond his acting, Conti has also ventured into writing and directing. His debut novel, The Doctor, was published in 2004, and he has directed several plays, including Wife After Death, in which he also starred. He has been married to Scottish actress Kara Wilson since 1967, and their daughter, Nina Conti, is also an actress and renowned ventriloquist. The couple resides in Hampstead, London, where Conti has been a vocal advocate on local development issues. Consistently praised for his versatile acting range and captivating presence, Tom Conti remains a celebrated figure in the entertainment industry.

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