Nice Boy of the Week: Joseph Fiennes

By Liz | October 15, 2009

In light of the breaking news that ABC has picked up a full season of Flash Forward, we thought we would celebrate by adding Joseph Fiennes to our Nice Boys list. Fiennes plays Special Agent Mark Benford, devoted father and husband, working for the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI.

No stranger to stage and screen, Fiennes burst on the scene in the Academy Award winning film, Shakespeare In Love. He garnered a Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor and a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast for his role in the movie as young William Shakespeare. Another period piece, Elizabeth, earned Fiennes the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Breakthrough Artist for his role as Sir Robert Dudley. With his classic good looks, he’s a natural in films of that era.

And why not? Fiennes began his career on the stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing the lead roles in works such as Troilus And Cressida, The Herbal Bed, Les Enfants du Paradis, As You Like It (be still my heart!) and Dennis Potter’s Son Of Man, as Jesus (not difficult to envision). His stage credits are extensive as are his film credits, which include Goodbye Bafana, The Darwin Awards, Running with Scissors, The Escapist and The Merchant of Venice, starring opposite Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons.

Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Joseph attended art school in Suffolk for a year before joining the Young Vic Youth Theatre. He subsequently trained for three years at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1993. Chosen as one of the 50 most sexiest stars by People-magazine in 1999, Joseph Fiennes has certainly earned his place on our Nice Boys Wall of Fame.