Film star Jude Law's acting background, performs on stage as Hamlet

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ophelia, Law as Hamlet

David Jude Heyworth Law is a classically trained English actor, film producer and director.  Law began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989.

In 1987 Law began acting with National Youth Music Theatre. He played various roles in the Edinburgh Fringe-awarded play The Ragged Child. One of his first major stage roles was Foxtrot Darling in Philip Ridley's The Fastest Clock In The Universe. Law went on to appear as Michael in the West End production of Jean Cocteau's tragicomedy Les parents terribles.

Personally speaking there's only so long you can go from film to film to film. There's an inspiration an actor gets from the stage." - Jude Law

That same play, with name changes, was transferred to Broadway in 1995, where Law acted opposite Kathleen Turner, Roger Rees and Cynthia Nixon.

Jude Law, in 1997, became more widely known with his role in the Oscar Wilde bio-pic Wilde. Law won the "Most Promising Newcomer" award from the Evening Standard British Film Awards for his role as Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the glamorous lover of Stephen Fry's Oscar Wilde.

In the science fiction film Gattaca he played the role of a disabled former swimming star living in a eugenics-obsessed dystopia. In Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil he played the role of the ill-fated hustler murdered by an art dealer, played by Kevin Spacey. He also played a mob hitman in Sam Mendes's 1930s period drama Road to Perdition.

For The Talented Mr. Ripley Law learned to play saxophone and earned a MTV Movie Award nomination with Matt Damon and Fiorello for performing the song "Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano" by Renato Carosone and Nicola Salerno. He learned ballet dancing for the film Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001).

Law also portrayed the title character in Alfie, the remake of Bill Naughton's 1966 film, playing the role originated by Michael Caine. He took on another of Caine's earlier roles in the 2007 film Sleuth adapted by Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter, while Caine played the role originated by Sir Laurence Olivier.

Law is one of three actors who took over the role of actor Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell are the other actors.

More projects involve Law appearing opposite Forest Whitaker in the dark sci-fi comedy Repossession Mambo and he'll star as Dr. Watson in Guy Ritchie's adaption of Sherlock Holmes, alongside Robert Downey, Jr. and Rachel McAdams. Law stars as a celebrity supermodel in the film Rage.

Stage performances lately include Law returning to the London stage.  There he has portrayed the title role in Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse West End season at Wyndham's. He was joined by Ron Cook, Peter Eyre, Gwilym Lee, John MacMillan, Kevin R McNally, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matt Ryan, Alex Waldmann and Penelope Wilton.

The Broadway cast with Law include Ross Armstrong, Harry Attwell, Ron Cook, Ian Drysdale, Peter Eyre, Jenny Funnell, Michael Hadley, Colin Haigh, Sean Jackson, Geraldine James, Gwilym Lee, James Le Feuvre, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, John MacMillan, Kevin R. McNally, Henry Pettigrew, Matt Ryan, Alan Turkington and Faye Winter.

Most of the original cast is moving with the production to New York. There were some changes, already incorporated in Elsinore, new were Ross Armstrong, Geraldine James and Michael Hadley.