Biography:

Michael Fassbender is an Irish-German actor. His notable roles include Lt. Archie Hicox in the film Inglourious Basterds (2009), Magneto in the superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011), the android David in the science fiction movie Prometheus (2012), and slave owner Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave (2013), a historical drama that earned him a 2014 Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2014, Fassbender will reprise his role as Magneto in X-Men: Days of Future Past, followed by Assassin's Creed in 2015.

His other credits include the fantasy action film 300 (2007); the drama film Fish Tank (2009); the romantic drama film Jane Eyre (2011); the historical film A Dangerous Method (2011); the biographical film Hunger (2008) and the drama film Shame (2011), both directed by Steve McQueen. For his role in Shame, he won the Volpi Cup best actor award at the 68th Venice International Film Festival held in August 2011, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA.

Fassbender was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. His mother, Adele, is from Larne, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, and his father, Josef Fassbender, is German. According to Fassbender's "family lore," his mother is the great-grand-niece of Michael Collins, an Irish leader during the War of Independence. When he was two years old, his parents moved to Killarney, County Kerry, in the Republic of Ireland, where they ran the West End House, a restaurant where his father worked as a chef. Fassbender served as an altar boy and is a lapsed Catholic. He has an older sister Catherine who works at the University of California, Davis as a neuropsychologist.

Fassbender and his sister spent summer holidays in Germany and he speaks German fluently. He attended Fossa National School and St. Brendan's College (The Sem). He discovered he wanted to be an actor at age 17 when he was cast in a play by Donie Courtney. At age 19, Fassbender moved to London to study at the Drama Centre London. He dropped out of the Drama Centre and toured with the Oxford Stage Company to perform the play Three Sisters.

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