Tim Roth
Tim Roth was born on born 14 May 1961 in Dulwich, London, the son of Ann, a painter and teacher, and Arnie Smith, a journalist, painter and, until the 1970s, a member of the British Communist Party. His father, who was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, adopted the surname Roth after World War II in order to hide his nationality when travelling in countries hostile to the British.
Roth attended the Strand School in Tulse Hill. As a young man, Roth wanted to be a sculptor and studied at London’s Camberwell School of Art.
After some time at the Camberwell School of Art, Roth tried acting and made his debut at the age of 21 playing a white power skinhead in a TV movie entitled Made in Britain. Roth played an East End character in ‘King of the Ghetto’ which was made by the BBC. This four part drama was shown in 1986 on national television, based on a novel by Farukh Dhondy. The story partly set in Brick Lane, caused a sensation among the public, especially amongst the Bengali community. In 1984, Roth played an apprentice hitman in Stephen Frears’ The Hit with Terence Stamp and John Hurt, earning an Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. With that recognition, he appeared in several other films during the end of the decade. In 1989 he had a memorable supporting role as the buffoonish lackey, Mitchell, in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. In 1990, Roth began to enjoy international attention with starring roles as Vincent van Gogh in Robert Altman’s Vincent & Theo and Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
Roth impressed director Quentin Tarantino and was cast as Mr. Orange in his 1992 ensemble piece Reservoir Dogs. This film paved the way for more work in Hollywood. In 1994, Tarantino cast him again as a robber in the acclaimed Pulp Fiction. They worked again in the 1995 movie Four Rooms, where Roth played the extremely physically animated role of “Ted the Bellhop”. Roth was very successful playing viciously evil English nobleman Archibald Cunningham in Rob Roy opposite Liam Neeson. For that role he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe nomination, and won a British Academy Award.
Roth had a son, Jack, with Lori Baker in 1983. He married Nikki Butler in 1993, and had two sons with her, Timothy Hunter (b. 1995) and Cormac (b. 1996). Both of his sons with Butler are named after the couple’s favourite authors: Hunter S. Thompson and Cormac McCarthy.
