Ioan Gruffudd
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Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced YO-an GRIFF-ith) (born October 6, 1973 in Cardiff, Wales, UK) is a Welsh actor. His parents, Peter and Gillian Gruffudd, were teachers. He has two siblings – a brother, Alun, who is two years younger and a sister, Siwan, who is seven years younger than him.
Gruffudd started his acting career at the age of 14 in the Welsh soap opera Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley). Aged 18 he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He won his first major English language role a few years later in the 1996 TV remake of Poldark.
After playing Oscar Wilde's gay lover in Wilde in 1997, he got his first international role as Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe in the blockbuster film Titanic. He later got his best-known role as Horatio Hornblower in the ITV production of the C.S. Forester novels. Next, he played Pip in the BBC production of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. He has also starred in 102 Dalmatians, ITV's adaptation of The Forsyte Saga, Black Hawk Down, and King Arthur.