Tom Burke

The son of actors David Burke and actress Anna Calder-Marshall, and the godson of award-winner Alan Rickman, Tom Burke -born Tom Liam Benedict Burke-had an impressive dramatic lineage. As an adolescent Burke attended the Young Arden Theatre in Faversham England before going for further dramatic study at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Burke's breakthrough came in the critically-acclaimed British miniseries "State of Play" (BBC 2003), a taut thriller that introduced several other young actors, including James McAvoy. Supporting roles on television and film, including the notoriously bad Johnny Depp vehicle "The Libertine" (2004), followed until Burke graduated to starring roles in low-budget fare like the sex comedy "I Want Candy" (2007) and the controversial thriller "Donkey Punch" (2008). More prestigious credits came with his supporting roles in the Benedict Cumberbatch drama "Third Star" (2010) and in "The Hour" (BBC 2011-12), a stylish TV drama about espionage and television news in 1950s Britain starring Ben Whislaw and Dominic West. Burke's next major film was "Only God Forgives" (2013), a thriller by Nicolas Winding Refn starring Ryan Gosling.