Martin Freeman

Early life

Freeman was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, the youngest of five children. His parents, Philomena (née Norris) and Geoffrey Freeman, a naval officer, separated when Freeman was a child. When Freeman was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack. Freeman attended the Salesian School, Chertsey before attending Brooklands College for media studies. His older brother Tim became a musician with the group Frazier Chorus.

Freeman was raised as a Roman Catholic. Although his family was not strict in their religious practices, his religion had a profound influence on him. As a child, he was asthmatic, and had to undergo a hip operation for what he has described as a "dodgy leg".

Career

Freeman joined a youth theatre group at 15, but it was not until he was 17 that his confidence in his acting led to the decision to pursue it as a career. He went on to attend the Central School of Speech and Drama. Freeman has appeared in at least 18 TV shows, 14 theatre productions, and several radio productions. He is notable for his role as Tim Canterbury in The Office, a role which, he said in 2004, "cast a very long shadow" for him as an actor. He appeared in the sitcom Hardware. He also appeared in several films, including Ali G Indahouse (2002) and Love Actually (2003).

He began to move into more serious dramatic roles on television with his appearance as Lord Shaftesbury in the 2003 BBC historical drama Charles II: The Power and The Passion. He can also be seen making a brief appearance in the first episode of the second series of This Life. Freeman also starred in the BBC television series The Robinsons and had a cameo in episode 1 of Black Books. In 2007, he appeared in The All Together written and directed by Gavin Claxton, as well as the Bill Kenwright theatre production of The Last Laugh. He is featured in the video for Faith No More's cover of "I Started a Joke". In May 2009, he starred in Boy Meets Girl, a four-part drama that charts the progress of characters Veronica and Danny after an accident which causes them to swap bodies.

He currently plays Dr. John Watson in Sherlock, the BBC contemporary adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories. The first episode of Sherlock, "A Study in Pink", was broadcast on 25 July 2010 to critical acclaim. For his performance in the role he won the BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor, 2011 and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.

He played Bilbo Baggins, the main character, in the three-part Peter Jackson film series The Hobbit. Accolades that his performance in the first part, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, garnered him include Best Hero at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and Best Actor at the 18th Empire Awards.

Freeman appeared in all three of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's comedic Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, commencing with a brief non-speaking role in Shaun of the Dead as Yvonne's boyfriend, Declan, followed by a brief cameo in Hot Fuzz as a police officer. He was a main cast member in the 2013 finale to the trilogy, The World's End. On 5 October 2013, he was presented with a fellowship bearing his name by the members of University College Dublin's Literary & Historical Society. In April 2014, Freeman began playing insurance salesman Lester Nygaard in the dark comedy-crime drama series Fargo. For his performance in this series, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Critics' Choice Television Award. He opened in the title role in Shakespeare’s play Richard III in July 2014 at Trafalgar Studios.

In 2015, Freeman starred as producer Milton Fruchtman in the television film The Eichmann Show, based on the filming, by blacklisted TV director Leo Hurwitz, of the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. The film intercut dramatic scenes with historical footage from the trial. The Daily Telegraph described the film as "absolutely enthralling". He also played Everett Ross in Captain America: Civil War, which released in May 2016.

In 2017, Freeman will star in Cargo, a feature length remake of a 2013 short film of the same name. Later in the year he will appear opposite Sarah Lancashire in Labour of Love, a political comedy by James Graham, at the Noel Coward Theatre. Labour of Love charts both the evolution of the UK Labour Party in recent decades, and its presence in a tight-knit Nottinghamshire community. Freeman portrays fictional Labour MP David Lyons, whose modernising ideas pit him against the traditional left-wing constituency agent Jean Whittaker (Lancashire).

Personal life

Freeman lived in Potters Bar in Hertfordshire with his partner, actress Amanda Abbington, whom he met on the set of Channel 4's Men Only in 2000. The couple have two children together: Joe (born 2006) and Grace (born 2008). They have appeared in other productions together, including Sherlock, Swinging with the Finkels, The Debt, The Robinsons, and The All Together. On 22 December 2016, Freeman announced in an article in the Financial Times that he and Abbington had separated.

Freeman is a close friend of actor Simon Pegg, who is godfather to his son, Joe.

In an edition of Who Do You Think You Are? aired on 19 August 2009, Freeman discovered that his grandfather, Leonard Freeman, was a medic who was killed a couple of days before the Dunkirk evacuation at the beginning of World War II. Leonard's father, Richard, was born blind and had been a piano tuner and organist at St Andrew's Church, West Tarring and later a music teacher in Kingston upon Hull.

Freeman is a pescetarian. He has struggled with religion, stating that "my relationship with my belief has never been easy." Despite these struggles, he has said his Catholic faith remains intact. In 2011, Freeman took part in a charity cricket match to raise money for victims of the Christchurch earthquake.

Freeman has been an outspoken supporter of the Labour Party. As a teenager, he supported Britain's now-defunct Militant political group and volunteered with the Labour Party Young Socialists. In 2015, Freeman appeared in a party election broadcast to endorse the Labour party ahead of the 2015 UK general election. In August 2015, he endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. In a session at the Edinburgh International Television Festival he said: "I happen to think that he is the most impressive one of the four. I do." He added that Corbyn was the "most impressive one as an individual".