Happy Birthday to Matthew Macfadyen! My Favorite Mr. Darcy!

Published October 17, 2017 · Updated October 14, 2021

David Matthew Macfadyen is forty-three years old today! To this devoted fan, he still looks amazing and totally swoon worthy. He continues to act in memorable roles, both on the silver screen and television. His most recent role is as Henry Wilcox in the Starz/BBC 4-part miniseries production of Howard’s End by E. M. Forster. The filming is complete, with the air date unscheduled but planned for 2018.

Biography~

Matthew was born on October 17, 1974 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the son of Meinir, a drama teacher and former actress, and Martin Macfadyen, an oil executive. His paternal grandparents were Scottish and his maternal grandparents were Welsh. Macfadyen was brought up in a number of places, including Jakarta, Indonesia, as a result of his father’s profession. He attended schools in England, Scotland, and Indonesia, and went to Oakham School in Rutland, before being accepted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at 17 where he studied from 1992 to 1995.

He won critical acclaim in the UK with his work with the stage company Cheek By Jowl in the 1990s and was well established as a stage actor when he made his first TV appearance in Wuthering Heights in 1998. A couple more TV roles followed but it was his role as Tom Quinn, head of Section D, in the 2002 hit BBC series Spooks (MI-5 in the US) that made his name in England. Additionally, he met his wife, Keeley Hawes, while working on the show. They married in 2004 and have two children.

In 2005, as we all know, Matthew starred as Mr. Darcy in the Joe Wright movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. This role brought him international acclaim, as well as spawning a whole new generation of rabid lovers of Jane Austen and Mr. Darcy!

I find Darcy very sympathetic, I find it heartbreaking that he’s seen as very haughty and proud – and he is those things – but he’s a young man who is still grieving for his parents. He’s from an ancient family and has this huge responsibility, but it seemed to me that he’s still trying to work out who he is and how to be in the world. I found that very interesting, and I found him very sympathetic. ~Matthew Macfadyen

Partial Filmography ~

The Current War as J.P. Morgan (movie December 2017)
Howard’s Endas Henry Wilcox (TV mini-series 2017)
Churchill’s Secret as Randolph Churchill (TV 2016)
Ripper Street as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid (TV series 2012-2016)
The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music as Georg von Trapp (2015)
The Enfield Haunting as Guy Lyon Playfair (TV Mini-Series 2015)
Ambassadors as POD (TV mini-series 2013)
Anna Karenina as Oblonsky
The Three Musketeers as Athos
Any Human Heart as Logan Mountstuart (TV mini-series 2010)
The Pillars of the Earth as Prior Phillip (TV mini-series 2010)
Robin Hood as the Sheriff of Nottingham
Little Dorrit as Arthur Clennam (TV mini-series 2008)
Frost/Nixon as John Birt
Secret Life as Charlie (TV movie 2007)
Death at a Funeral as Daniel
Pride and Prejudice as Mr. Darcy
In My Father’s Den as Paul Prior (2004)
MI-5/Spooks as Tom Quinn (TV series 2002-2004)
The Way We Live Now as Sir Felix Carbury (TV mini-series 2001)
Perfect Strangers as Daniel (TV series 2001)

Theatre credits include ~

Henry, Prince of Wales in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2” (July 2005)
Mr Brougham in “Battle Royal”, a new play by Nick Stafford (1999) at the National Theatre
Clay in the 2007 UK premiere of “The Pain and the Itch” at the Royal Court Theatre

For the Royal Shakespeare Company he played Charles Surface in Sheriden’s “The School For Scandal” (1998), and Demetrius in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1996).

With the theatre company Cheek By Jowl his credits include Antonio in Webster’s “The Duchess of Malfi” (1995) and Benedick in “Much Ado About Nothing” (1998) both on international tour.

In February 2010 he acted alongside Kim Catrall as Elyot in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” at the Theatre Royal, Bath.

I could say so much more about the fabulous Matthew Macfadyen. His velvety, resonant voice … crystalline blue eyes … award-winning achievements as an actor … charitable activities … comedic timing … stunning good looks … manly 6’3″ physique … and the list goes on and on.