Jude Law Turns 54 on December 29, and His Best Roles Are the Ones You Cannot Quite Trust

Illustration: AI-generated with Pollinations (FLUX), free to use

Jude Law turns 54 on December 29. He arrived as a young star in the late 1990s, and for a while people talked more about his looks than his work. He kept taking chances on smaller films and stranger parts, and now he is one of the few British actors who can make a charming man feel slightly dangerous.

Photo: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gattaca (1997) was an early big film for him. He plays Jerome, a former athlete whose identity is borrowed by Ethan Hawke's character, and he gives the role a sad, sharp quality that stays with you. It remains one of the smartest science-fiction films of its decade.

Photo: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) is where he shows his teeth. As Dickie Greenleaf, the rich and careless playboy, he is charming one minute and cruel the next, and Matt Damon's Ripley is lucky he does not get to be the one in charge. Cold Mountain (2003) gave him a quieter romantic lead as Inman, a Confederate soldier walking home.

Photo: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sherlock Holmes (2009) paired him with Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Watson, and the two made a fun match. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) gave him a smaller comic role, and The Young Pope (2016) let him play a very dark, very theatrical pope. Jude Law is good at making charm look like a warning.

Photo: Jay Dixit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which Jude Law performance is your favourite? I am partial to Dickie Greenleaf, and I still wince when he turns up on that boat.