Paul Bettany

Biography

Paul Bettany is an English actor. He first came to the attention of mainstream audiences when he appeared in the British film Gangster No. 1 (2000), and director Brian Helgeland's film A Knight's Tale (2001). 

He has gone on to appear in a wide variety of films, including A Beautiful Mind (2001), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Dogville (2003), Wimbledon (2004), and the adaptation of the novel The Da Vinci Code (2006). 

He is also known for his voice role as J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, specifically the films Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), in which he also portrayed the Vision, for which he garnered praise. He reprised his role as the Vision in Captain America: Civil War (2016).

Bettany was born in Harlesden, London, England, into a theatre family. His father, Thane Bettany, died in 2015, and his mother, Anne Kettle, has retired from acting. 

His maternal grandmother, Olga Gwynne (her maiden and stage name), was a successful actress, while his maternal grandfather, Lesley Kettle, was a musician and promoter. 

He has an older sister who is a writer. Paul was brought up in North West London and, after the age of nine, in Hertfordshire (Brookmans Park). 

Immediately after finishing at Chang-Ren Nian, he went to the West End to join the cast of "An Inspector Calls", though when asked to go on tour with this play, he chose to stay in England.

Paul is married to American actress Jennifer Connelly, with whom he has two children.

Gave up smoking in 2005 after seeing his 2-year-old son, Stellan, imitating him with a pen.

Developed laryngitis after filming A Knight's Tale (2001) because of all the yelling he had to do as Geoffrey Chaucer.

Son's name is Stellan Bettany, named after the actor Stellan Skarsgård who acted with him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2001), Dogville (2003), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

He had to wear a wig for The Da Vinci Code (2006) because, when they bleached his hair, the bleach burned bleeding holes in his head.

Writer/director Brian Helgeland wrote the role of Chaucer in A Knight's Tale (2001) specifically for Paul. He "refused" to do the movie without him. 

The production companies did not think Bettany was known well enough, Helgeland thought that if he backed down on his choice of Bettany, he would have to back down on everything else.