Henry Cavill's Real Name: Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill

Quick answer: Henry Cavill's real name is Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill. He was born on May 5, 1983, in St. Helier, Jersey, in the Channel Islands.

Real name and early life

Britannica lists him in full as Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill, born May 5, 1983, in St. Helier, Jersey. The Library of Congress name authority records Cavill, Henry, 1983-. He is the fourth of five sons of Marianne (née Dalgliesh) and Colin Cavill. At 13 he left Jersey for Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, where he acted in school productions and, at 16, worked as an extra on Proof of Life (2000); Russell Crowe encouraged him to pursue acting.

Quick facts

• Real name: Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill
• Known as: Henry Cavill
• Born: May 5, 1983, in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands
• Known for: Actor
• Notable work: Man of Steel, The Tudors, The Witcher, Mission: Impossible—Fallout
• Sources checked: Britannica, Library of Congress Name Authority, Biography.com

Career highlights

Early credits include The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and supporting film roles before his breakthrough as Charles Brandon on The Tudors (2007–10). Action leads followed in Immortals (2011) and then Clark Kent/Superman in Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Justice League (2017).

He starred in Guy Ritchie's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), played the antagonist in Mission: Impossible—Fallout (2018), and led Netflix's The Witcher through its third season (2023). Other credits include Sherlock Holmes in the Enola Holmes films and Argylle (2024). A planned Superman return after a Black Adam cameo was later dropped by the studio, per Cavill's public statement.

Name notes

Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill is his birth name; Dalgliesh is his mother's maiden name used as a middle name. He has not used a separate stage name. Fan sites often copy names from one another, so we checked this page against Britannica and the Library of Congress.