Mads Mikkelsen

**Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen** (Danish: [ˈmæs ˈme̝kl̩sn̩] ⓘ; born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor, dancer and former gymnast. He rose to fame in Denmark for his diverse roles including Tonny in the first two films of the _Pusher film trilogy (1996, 2004)_, Detective Sergeant Allan Fischer in the television series Rejseholdet (2000–2004), Niels in _Open Hearts (2002)_, Svend in _The Green Butchers (2003)_, Ivan in _Adam's Apples (2005) and Jacob Petersen in _After the Wedding (2006)_. Mikkelsen achieved worldwide recognition for playing the main antagonist Le Chiffre in the twenty-first James Bond film, _Casino Royale (2006)_. His high profile roles also include Igor Stravinsky in _Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2008)_, Johann Friedrich Struensee in _A Royal Affair (2012)_, Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the television series Hannibal (2013–2015) and Cliff Unger in Hideo Kojima's video game Death Stranding (2019). A. O. Scott of The New York Times remarked that in the Hollywood scene, Mikkelsen has become a reliable character actor with an intriguing mug. Mikkelsen was born on 22 November 1965 in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of mother Bente (Christiansen) Mikkelsen and father Henning Dittmann Mikkelsen, a cab driver. In his youth, he trained as a gymnast but then studied dancing and became fluent in Swedish. Mikkelsen's breakthrough role as a sensitive policeman in Niels Arden Oplev's Danish television series _Rejseholdet (Unit One)_ (2000–03), won him the 2002 Best Actor Award from TvFestival.dk. In 2013, Mikkelsen appeared in Charlie Countryman alongside Shia LaBeouf and Evan Rachel Wood, and later in the year, played the title character in _Michael Kohlhaas_, which had its premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. In 2018 he had a supporting role in Julian Schnabel's film _At Eternity's Gate_ starring Willem Dafoe and in 2019, he starred in Jonas Åkerlund's action film Polar.