Mark Umbers / Biography

British born actor who grew up in Yorkshire, England. Was awarded an honors degree in Classics from Oxford University in 1995. His critically acclaimed stage debut in 1998 at West Yorkshire Playhouse led him to the Royal National Theater in London, where he stayed until 2002 under the directorship of Trevor Nunn. Playing supporting roles alongside Sophie Okonedo and Jonathan Pryce amongst others, he appeared in Nunn's landmark productions of The Merchant of Venice (2001) (TV), "Candide", and most notably "My Fair Lady", for which he won rave reviews across the board. After his 2003 appearance at the Donmar Warehouse theater in "The Vortex" opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and Indira Varma, he was offered a leading role in Lions Gate's A Good Woman (2004) opposite Scarlett Johansson, Helen Hunt and Tom Wilkinson. Appeared in Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story (2005) with John Malkovich, after which he received critical acclaim for his lead performance in the historical drama Princes in the Tower (2005) (TV). The following year he starred in These Foolish Things (2006), playing opposite Anjelica Huston, Terence Stamp and Lauren Bacall. After a cameo in Cassandra's Dream (2007) directed by Woody Allen, he returned to the London stage, playing Jim (the Gentleman Caller) in the Tennessee Williams drama "The Glass Menagerie" opposite Jessica Lange, for which he again won enormous critical acclaim, the Sunday Times claiming, amongst others, that he "set the thing alight".