 Handsome, smouldering younger brother of Ralph Fiennes and director Martha Fiennes, Joseph has had a remarkably rapid ascent. The youngest of a nomadic, artistic family, he worked with the Young Vic Theatre Company, trained at the Guildhall School, and quickly found high-profile work in the West End, notably as the tutor in A Month in the Country (1994). He also appeared on TV, including The Vacillations of Poppy Carew (1995), before his cinema debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty (Io ballo da sola, UK/France/Italy, 1996). His annus mirabilis was 1998, with starring roles in Elizabeth (d. Shekhar Kapur), as the Queen's lover, and as Shakespeare in Love (US/UK, d. John Madden) with Gwyneth Paltrow. Funny, sexy and smart in the latter, he might have been expected to make one hit after another, but chose to return to the theatre, making a triumphant RSC debut in Dennis Potter's Son of Man (1999), and then filmed the much-vilified black comedy, Rancid Aluminium (d. Edward Thomas, 1999). Other films have been interspersed with his RSC work. His romantic life has been well-reported if not especially stable. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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