Tilda Swinton's Real Name: Katherine Matilda Swinton

Quick answer: Tilda Swinton's documented full name is Katherine Matilda Swinton. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that she was born November 5, 1960, in London, England, and is a Scottish actress known for an eclectic screen career (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encyclopedia.com). Encyclopedia.com gives the same full name and date but notes that some sources cite 1961.

Real name and early life

Britannica gives the form "In full: Katherine Matilda Swinton." She was born into Scottish nobility; her father was a major general who had headed the queen's Household Division, Britannica says. Encyclopedia.com names her parents as Major-General John Swinton and Judith Balfour (maiden name Killen) Swinton, and says she was raised in Scotland. She acted in student productions at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in social and political sciences and English literature; Encyclopedia.com specifies New Hall, Cambridge. She performed with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh and with the Royal Shakespeare Company before moving into cinema.

Career highlights

Her first film was Derek Jarman's Caravaggio (1986), an anachronistic biopic of the Renaissance painter. She came to wider prominence as the title character in Sally Potter's Orlando (1992), adapted from Virginia Woolf's novel about a person who lives for centuries and changes sex. Later work alternated commercial and independent films, including Vanilla Sky (2001) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and its sequels, in which she played the White Witch. She won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her role as a corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton (2007). Other notable films in Britannica's account include I Am Love (2009), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Snowpiercer (2013), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and The Room Next Door (2024). She has also worked with Jim Jarmusch on films including Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). In 2013 she revived The Maybe at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; she had first performed it in London in 1995 and Rome in 1996 to honour Jarman after his death, Britannica says. In Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) she appeared with Idris Elba. She has also presented the performance installation The Maybe, lying asleep in a glass case, first shown in London in 1995.

Name notes for searchers

Katherine Matilda Swinton is the documented full name; she is known professionally as Tilda Swinton. Searchers looking for Orlando, the White Witch, or the Oscar-winning performance in Michael Clayton are usually aiming at the same person.