Andy Serkis

Andy Serkis
Character(s)	Sméagol / Gollum
Date of birth	April 20, 1964
Place of birth	London, England, U.K.
Nationality	English
IMDb profile

Andy Serkis is a British actor, director, and author of Iraqi and Armenian descent, known for his groundbreaking portrayal as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, alongside other roles.

He was recipient of the 2020 BAFTA Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award. Recently, amidst quarantine, Serkis read aloud the whole of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit on his YouTube channel.

In early May 2024, Warner Bros. announced Serkis would direct an upcoming movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (working title).

Biography

Career

After an education at Lancaster University, Andy Serkis was highly involved in theater, and began acting on screen in 1989.

In 2001, he provided the voices of the Witch-king of Angmar and Khamûl in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and voiced the roles of Mauhúr, Snaga, and most significantly Gollum/Sméagol in the rest of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. For Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy (2012 - 2014), he portrayed Gollum again and was also second unit director.

Serkis is otherwise known for portraying the ape Caesar in the newest Planet of the Apes film series, beginning 2011, with performance-capture acting. He stars in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) as Supreme Leader Snoke, and plays Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Black Panther (2018).

In 2018, he directed the Netflix film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.

Character of Gollum

Serkis' acclaimed work as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films - a job initially presented as a three-week voice acting commitment, barely appealing to him until he read the trilogy - became unprecedented in cinema, and raised the standards of performance-capture acting. He wrote of his experiences in the book Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic (2003) and in his afterword to Gary Russell's The Art of The Two Towers.

In 2014, Liam O'Brien imitated Serkis' signature Gollum-voice for the character's portrayal in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Serkis is requested frequently to recreate his Gollum-voice when appearing on talk-shows. As a guest of The Late Late Show with James Corden in November 2018, he taught how to "do a perfect Gollum".

Documentary appearances

• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy appendices
  • Part Three: The Journey Continues  >  The Taming of Sméagol
  • Part Four: The Battle for Middle-earth Begins  >  Cameras in Middle-earth and "The Battle for Helm's Deep is Over..."
  • Part Five: The War of the Ring  >  Designing and Building Middle-earth  >  Costume Design
  • Part Six: The Passing of an Age  >  Editorial: Completing the Trilogy

Media

Images

Circa 2007?

External links

• X account