Possessing dark, curly hair, hooded green eyes and angular features, Rufus Sewell has proven equally at home in period fare or contemporary works. The tall, masculine actor first garnered widespread attention in 1994 with featured role in the British TV adaptation of "Middlemarch" (aired in the USA on PBS) and as the object of Albert Finney's crush in the underrated comedy "A Man of No Importance".

The son of a Welsh mother and an Australian father, Sewell was raised in his mother's homeland after the untimely death of his father, cartoonist Bill Sewell in 1977. He has confessed to being "quite rebellious at school, under threat of constant expulsion" while growing up, and his activities including the requisite drinking and drug use as well as shoplifting food and clothing.

After working as a laborer and carpenter's assistant, he enrolled at London's Central School of Drama at age 18 and completed his training in three years. Sewell made his stage debut in "As You Like It" at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, England, and soon found roles in other regional theaters. Sewell made a splash in London's West End as a Czech hustler involved with an older woman (Jane Asher) in "Making It Better" in 1992. The following year, he originated the part of the Byronic tutor Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppard's cerebral "Arcadia", earning a nomination for an Olivier Award for his efforts.

By this time the actor had begun to make inroads in film and TV. Sewell made his feature acting debut as a Scottish junkie opposite Patsy Kensit in "Twenty-One" and had been featured in the British TV production "The Last Romantics" (both 1991). By the time "Middlemarch" aired, it was clear that Sewell was emerging as a rising star. Rather than be typecast in romantic roles, though, he aggressively sought to portray the more contemporary part of a Dublin bus driver in "A Man of No Importance". He also spurned the opportunity to recreate his London stage triumph in the American premiere of "Arcadia" on Broadway to instead essay a prodigal Irish son hired to serve as an interpreter for the British in a revival of Brian Friel's "Translations" (1995).

Back on the big screen, Sewell portrayed painter Mark Gertler who eventually romances the title character (played by Emma Thompson) in "Carrington" (1995), a drama set among the legendary Bloomsbury circle. He proved effective as a lusty laborer in "Cold Comfort Farm" (BBC, 1995; released theatrically in the USA) and as a scheming manservant in an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Victory" (1997) alongside Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. His romantic persona was once again put to strong use as a poet who falls in love with a courtesan (Catherine McCormack) in the lavish period drama "Dangerous Beauty/A Destiny of Her Own" (1998). In the futuristic "Dark City" (1998), a film Roger Ebert cited as the year's best, the actor delivered a well-received turn as an amnesiac suspected of murder.

The British romance "Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel & Laurence/The Very Thought of You" (1998) allowed Sewell to tap his comic side as an out-of-work actor competing with two of his friends for the same woman. Along the same lines was his turn-of-the-century thespian with a reputation as a lothario in "Illuminata" (also 1998). Following a return to the London stage in the title role of "Macbeth" in 1999, Sewell essayed Ali Baba in the sumptuous ABC miniseries "Arabian Nights" (2000) before turning up at cineplexes as a former child actor turned Satanic cult leader in the less than thrilling suspenser "Bless the Child" (2000). He subsequently returned to period fare as one of the men of honor featured in the medieval "A Knight's Tale" (2001).

In 2002, Sewell was cast as Ian in the Austian Alps thriller feature "Extreme Ops."

Credit: allstars-online.net