Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill (born 5 May 1983) is a British actor. He has appeared in the films The Count of Monte Cristo and Stardust, and played the role of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, on the Showtime series The Tudors, from 2007 until 2010. He has been cast as Superman in the 2013 film Man of Steel.Cavill was born on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, the fourth of five boys. His mother, Marianne, worked in a bank, and his father, Colin Cavill, was a stockbroker. He was educated at St. Michael's Preparatory School in Saint Saviour, Jersey before attending Stowe School, a boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England. He began acting in school plays during prep school, and has said that if he had not become an actor, he would have joined the army or gone to university to study ancient history, specifically Egyptology.
Cavill had his first film role in Kevin Reynolds' 2002 adaptation The Count of Monte Cristo. He went on to star in Laguna (2001), and afterwards appeared in BBC’s The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2002), the TV film Goodbye Mr. Chips (2002), and the TV series Midsomer Murders (2003). In 2003 he had a supporting role in I Capture the Castle, followed by Red Riding Hood (2004), Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005), and Tristan & Isolde (2006). He had a minor role alongside Sienna Miller and Ben Barnes in Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of Stardust (2007).
From 2007 to 2010, Cavill had a leading role in Showtime's television series The Tudors as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The series was well-received: it was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 and won an Emmy in 2008. Cavill credits the show with bolstering his career: "It’s done the most for me to date. Now that there's an audience somewhere in America that’s aware of who I am, I have more sell-ability, because of The Tudors." Entertainment Weekly named him the "Most Dashing Duke" and praised his work on The Tudors for displaying "charm, depth and a killer bod".
