Henry Cavill

 ( 1983 Births ) 

At Stowe, Cavill was active in both sport and drama. He portrayed a member of the T-Birds in a 1999 school production of Grease and took the lead role in a performance of Dogg's Hamlet, which was made by his own Grafton house as their submission for an intra-school drama festival. The Stoic, September 2000, p. 49 He played field hockey for the 1st XI and Rugby union for the 3rd XV. The Stoic, pp. 88, 97

In 2000, while playing rugby, 16-year-old Cavill met actor Russell Crowe, who was shooting on location at Stowe for the film Proof of Life. The actor shared some acting tips and later sent a package to Cavill. The two actors later worked together on Man of Steel.

From 2007 to 2010, Cavill had a leading role in Showtime's television series The Tudors, as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The series was commercially well-received and it went on to be nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 and won an Emmy in 2008. Cavill gave the show credit for bolstering his career: "It's done the most for me to date. ... Now that there's an audience somewhere in America that's aware of who I am, I have more sell-ability, because of The Tudors." Entertainment Weekly named him the "Most Dashing Duke" and praised his work on The Tudors for displaying "charm, depth and a killer bod".

Cavill had been set to play Superman in McG's 2004 film, Superman: Flyby. McG pulled out of the project and direction was taken over by director Bryan Singer, who recast Brandon Routh as the lead in Superman Returns. Cavill was also the cause of a write-in effort from fans to see him cast as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The role eventually went to Robert Pattinson. Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series, was outspoken in favour of Cavill playing the character of Edward Cullen in the Twilight film, calling him her "perfect Edward". However, by the time production of the film began, Cavill was too old to play the character, and again the role went to Pattinson. Despite reports that he was a contender for Batman in Batman Begins, Cavill confirmed that he never auditioned for, nor was offered, the role.

In 2005, Cavill was a final choice for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale. The producers and director Martin Campbell were torn between him and Daniel Craig; reportedly Campbell supported Cavill but the producers preferred an older Bond, and Craig ultimately landed the role.

While appearing in The Tudors, Cavill starred in director Joel Schumacher's horror film, Blood Creek (2008), and had a supporting role in Woody Allen's comedy film Whatever Works (2009). He went on to play the lead role of Theseus in Tarsem Singh's mythological film, Immortals, released 11 November 2011, and starred, alongside Bruce Willis, in The Cold Light of Day released in 2012.

Cavill returned as Superman in the 2017 theatrical version of Justice League, which had been reworked by director Joss Whedon after Snyder left the project due to a family tragedy. He appeared again in Zack Snyder's Justice League which premiered on HBO Max in March 2021 after an intense fan campaign to see the Snyder cut. His manager Dany Garcia said in 2016 that he was working on a new standalone Superman film. Directors Matthew Vaughn and Christopher McQuarrie were reportedly interested. Shortly after the release of Justice League, Cavill revealed he was under contract to play Superman in one more film.

In 2015, he co-starred with Armie Hammer in the film version of spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E, directed by Guy Ritchie. In 2018, Cavill co-starred as August Walker in the action spy film , the sixth installment of the . Later that year, he starred in the psychological thriller Night Hunter (originally titled Nomis). Cavill has expressed interest in taking over the role of James Bond after Daniel Craig leaves the role.

From 2019 to 2023, Cavill portrayed the mutant monster hunter Geralt of Rivia in the hit Netflix fantasy drama The Witcher, an adaptation of The Witcher of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series premiered on 20 December 2019 and had its early premiere on Służewiec Racetrack in Warsaw on 18 December 2019. In late October 2022, Cavill and Netflix announced that he would exit from The Witcher after the third season released in 2023, and would be replaced by Liam Hemsworth.

In 2020, Cavill portrayed Sherlock Holmes in Legendary Entertainment's film adaptation of The Enola Holmes Mysteries, with Millie Bobby Brown starring in the eponymous role as the younger sister of the famous detective. In 2022, Cavill reprised his role as Sherlock in Enola Holmes 2. On 7 November 2023, Collider reported that Netflix was developing a screenplay for Enola Holmes 3.

In May 2021, it was announced that Cavill would portray Connor MacLeod in the reboot of Highlander. In July 2021, it was also announced that Cavill would join an all-star cast for director Matthew Vaughn's new spy film Argylle. The same month, an article by Deadline reported that he would star in The Rosie Project, directed by Steve Falk and based on the book of the same name, written by Australian author Graeme Simsion.

In 2022, Cavill negotiated what was intended to be a one-time contract with Warner Bros. to return as Superman in a cameo for Black Adam, and appeared uncredited in the mid-credit scene of the film. He confirmed shortly after the films release that he would appear in future DCEU films and referred to his cameo as "just a very small taste of things to come". Additionally, it was reported that Cavill was set to make another cameo appearance in The Flash in 2023, having shot a scene for an alternative ending of the film at the same time as his cameo in Black Adam. However, in December 2022 Cavill released a statement saying that his future involvement as Superman was no longer moving forward after meeting with new DC Studios executives James Gunn and Peter Safran. For this reason, Cavill's minor cameo role in The Flash was scrapped in post-production, though he retained a brief cameo through the use of a computer-generated imagery (CGI) model bearing his likeness.

Cavill is set to executive produce and star in projects related to the Warhammer 40,000 universe after Games Workshop finalized their deal with Amazon Studios in December 2024, having nailed down creative guidelines to bring the universe to screens big and small. Amazon Studios had earlier acquired global rights to the franchise in December 2022.