Andy Serkis's Real Name: Andy Serkis

Quick answer: Andy Serkis is documented professionally as Andy Serkis. A Golden Globes biography also records the fuller form Andrew Clement G. Serkis and gives his birth date as April 20, 1964 (BFI Screenonline; Golden Globes; Encyclopedia.com).

Real name and early life

Encyclopedia.com lists him as Andy Serkis, born April 20, 1964, in London, England, the son of a doctor and a special education teacher. BFI Screenonline instead places his birth in Ruislip, Middlesex, and notes Armenian descent on his father's side. The Golden Globes biography agrees with the 1964 date and the London wording, and is the source for the fuller form Andrew Clement G. Serkis used above. This page records that place-of-birth difference rather than choosing silently among the accounts. He studied visual arts at Lancaster University, both Encyclopedia.com and the BFI say, and planned at first to work as a painter and graphic designer before turning to acting. The BFI records that he joined Lancaster's Dukes Playhouse in 1985 and spent the next decade with touring companies, notably Manchester's Royal Exchange.

Career highlights

Early television included The New Statesman (1989) and, more substantially, the drama Finney (1994), the BFI says, along with Bill Sikes in the BBC's Oliver Twist (1999). He appeared in Mike Leigh's Career Girls (1997) and Topsy-Turvy (1999). His international breakthrough was Gollum in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films (2001–03), work that combined on-set performance with digital post-production. Jackson later cast him as the title character in King Kong (2005). Encyclopedia.com records ensemble awards attention for the Rings films. The BFI also notes a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of Ian Brady in the television film Longford (2006), and the Golden Globes lists a nomination for that role. Later performance-capture work widely associated with him includes Caesar in the Planet of the Apes films, which the Golden Globes biography records, along with Captain Haddock in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011). Encyclopedia.com also notes his marriage to actress Lorraine Ashbourne in 2002.

Name notes for searchers

He is known professionally as Andy Serkis. Searchers looking for Gollum, King Kong, or Caesar in the Planet of the Apes series are usually aiming at the same person. The fuller form Andrew Clement G. Serkis appears in the Golden Globes account cited here.