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Peter Dinklage Peter Hayden Dinklage is an American actor.
Since his breakout role in The Station Agent , he has appeared in films such as Elf , Find
Me Guilty , Underdog , the British film Death at a Funeral and its American remake of the
same name , The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian , A Little Bit of Heaven , Ice Age:
Continental Drift , and Knights of Badassdom . Since 2011, he has played Tyrion Lannister
in the HBO series Game of Thrones, which earned him the Emmy and the Golden Globe Award for
Supporting Actor in 2011. Early life
Dinklage was born in Morristown, New Jersey the son of John Carl, a retired insurance
salesman, and Diane Dinklage, an elementary school music teacher. Dinklage was born with
achondroplasia, a common cause of dwarfism. He grew up in Mendham Township, New Jersey,
and is of German and Irish descent. His German ancestors were related to the Westphalian
noble family "von Dincklage". Dinklage graduated from Delbarton School in 1987, and Bennington
College in 1991. Career
He made his film debut, Living in Oblivion (1995) as a frustrated actor with dwarfism
who complains about his clichéd roles. His breakout role was in the 2003 film The Station
Agent, for which he received Independent Spirit and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations
for Best Actor. That same year, he appeared in the direct-to-DVD film Tiptoes. Dinklage
has also starred in several Off-Broadway productions. Dinklage appeared in the 2003 film Elf, playing
a pretentious children's author who beats up Will Ferrell's character after he is unintentionally
insulted. In 2005, he starred in the short-lived CBS science fiction series Threshold, and
appeared as a wedding planner in the comedy film The Baxter. In 2006, Dinklage appeared
in the courtroom drama Find Me Guilty, and episodes of Nip/Tuck. He played himself in
one episode of the HBO television series Entourage, and appeared in the NBC series 30 Rock.
He appeared in the 2007 British comedy film Death at a Funeral, reprising the role in
the 2010 American remake. Later in 2007, he played the villainous Simon Bar Sinister in
Underdog. Dinklage played Trumpkin in the 2008 film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince
Caspian, although film critic Bill Gibron described his role as a "cutesy stereotype
he has tried to avoid". In the summer of 2008, he played the title role in Uncle Vanya (directed
by his wife, Erica Schmidt) in Bard College's annual Bard SummerScape, the Upstate New York
summer stage on the Annandale-on-Hudson campus. Dinklage plays Tyrion Lannister in HBO's Game
of Thrones, an adaptation of author George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.
His performance has received widespread praise, highlighted by his receiving the Emmy Award
for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2011, as well as the 2012 Golden
Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. As a result
of his outstanding performance and increased screen time, Dinklage was given top billing
in the second season of the series. In 2012, he voiced Captain Gutt in Ice Age:
Continental Drift and portrays Bolivar Trask in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past.
He also voices Ghost in the upcoming 2014 video game Destiny. He stars in the comedy
horror film Knights of Badassdom. Dinklage and writer-director Sacha Gervasi spent several
years writing and producing a film based on the final days of actor Hervé Villechaize,
who committed suicide shortly after his 1993 interview with Gervasi, he will star and play
the title role in My Dinner with Hervé, Personal life
In 2005, Dinklage married Erica Schmidt, a theatre director and they had their first
child, a daughter named Zelig in 2011. The family lives in New York City. Dinklage is
a vegetarian, supports Farm Sanctuary and has served as the spokesperson for the organization's
Walk for Farm Animals. When asked about his height in a 2003 interview,
Dinklage said: "When I was younger, I definitely let it get to me. As an adolescent, I was
bitter and angry, and I definitely put up these walls. But the older you get, you realize
you just have to have a sense of humor. You just know that it's not your problem. It's
theirs." In 2012, a New York Times interviewer asked Dinklage whether he saw himself as "a
spokesman for the rights of little people". Dinklage responded: "I don't know what I would
say. Everyone's different. Every person my size has a different life, a different history.
Different ways of dealing with it. Just because I'm seemingly okay with it, I can't preach
how to be okay with it. I don't think I still am okay with it. There's days when I’m not”.
Filmography