Benjamin John "Ben" Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor. He is known for his stage role as Hamlet; his roles in the television series Nathan Barley, Criminal Justice, and The Hour; and film roles including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, I'm Not There, Bright Star, Brideshead Revisited, and Cloud Atlas. He played the role of Q in the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, and was the voice of Paddington Bear in the 2014 film, Paddington.

Biography

Whishaw prefers not to discuss his personal life, saying: "For me, it's important to keep a level of anonymity. As an actor, your job is to persuade people that you're someone else. So if you're constantly telling people about yourself, I think you're shooting yourself in the foot." In 2011, he told Out magazine: "As an actor you have total rights to privacy and mystery, whatever your sexuality, whatever you do. I don't see why that has to be something you discuss openly because you do something in the public eye. I have no understanding of why we turn actors into celebrities."

A representative for Whishaw confirmed that he entered into a civil partnership with Australian composer Mark Bradshaw in August 2012. Whishaw later publicly discussed his coming out as a gay man in 2014, saying that it was a tense experience for him but "everyone was surprisingly lovely".

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