Following on from my recent post exploring the history of the Tomb Raider game series, I also realized through the Tomb Raider social media site that there is a second anniversary this year which is 20 years since Lara Croft made her big screen debut in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
So what have the cast of this film been up to since, I thought it would be cool to have a look at what the main actors have been up to since the movie’s release.
Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft)
Of course the first actor to start off with is the titular Lara Croft, played in an iconic role by Angelina Jolie.
Angelina Jolie is the daughter of actors Marcheline Bertrand Jon Voight (the latter was also in the film). At the time of the film’s release Jolie had been in a handful of TV movies and movies with varying degrees of success, including winning a Best Supporting Actress for her part as Lisa in Girl, Interrupted (1999) and her performance as Gia Crangi in the TV film Gia (1998) where she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV film.
However it was the first Tomb Raider film which catapulted her into the international spotlight and onto the Hollywod A-List. Following this movie and the sequel Tomb Raider:The Cradle Of Life followed in 2003. She has appeared in many films since, including Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) where she famously met her third husband, Brad Pitt in one of the biggest stories of the year as he was already married to Jennifer Aniston. They were together for 9 years and married for 2 before filing for divorce in 2016. She has also appeared in Changeling (2008) where she picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Salt and The Tourist (2010) both were two of that year’s top thriller films. She also appeared in Disney’s Maleficent (2014). She has also provided her voice to a number of animated movies, including Shark Tale (2004) and Kung Fu Panda (2008).
In recent years, she has also worked behind the camera as a director, beginning with the 2007 documentary A Place in Time which looks at the everyday lives of people in two dozen countries across the course of the week. Shes also directed the war films Unbroken (2014) and First They Killed My Father (2015).
As well as her film credits, Jolie became well known for her humanitarian work which was actually kick started by the Tomb Raider series. The film was recorded on location in Cambodia and Angelina adopted her oldest son Maddox form the country. She also adopted her second oldest child Zahara from Ethiopia during filming on the sequel. She later adopted her third child Pax from Vietnam. Jolie has also been a a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which has seen her visit various war zones and advocate for refugee rights. This work has given her many honours including being made an honourary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.
Jolie is still starring in many films, with many in various states of production. She is also going to be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in 2021 with the release of The Eternals.
Jon Voight (Lord Richard Croft)
Jon Voight who played Lara Croft’s father, Richard Croft is of course Angelina Jolie’s real-life father. He has had an extremely long career in movies, rising to prominence in 1969 with an Academy Award-nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would be gigolo in Midnight Cowboy.
He appeared in various films throughout the 1970’c including Catch-22 (1970), Deliverance (1972), The Odessa File (1974) and The Champ (1979). His work in the 1980s and 1990s became more sparse, appearing in films sch as Desert Bloom (1985). He also made his acting debut in TV films in 1991’s Chernobyl: The Final Warning.
Following Tomb Raider, Voight appeared in Ali – a biopic of boxer Mohammed Ali where he received his fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also appeared in the 2001 TV film Uprising where he played Major-General Juergen Stroop who crushed the Jewish resistance in the Second World War. For this role he also received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He also had roles in National Treasure (2004) and it’s sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) and Transformers (2007).
He also appeared in TV series 24 as Jonas Hodges in 2009 and as Mickey Donovan in Ray Donovan in 2013. His most recent acting role was in 2020 political film Roe vs Wade, though he is also set to appear in the 2022 biopic Reagan about US President Ronald Reagan.O
Outside of acting, Voight has been known for his political viewpoints with his early life liberal views changing to being a prominent Republican supporter, supporting candidates Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in their campaigns, as well as Trump when he was president. Unfortunately he has had a dysfunctional relationship with his daughter for many years, mainly as a result of his divorce from her mother in 1980. However since Jolie’s mother died of ovarian cancer in 2007 the pair have now manged to reconcile.
Iain Glen (Manfred Powell)
Playing the antagonist in the first Tomb Raider film, Manfred Powell, who wanted to use the film’s artifact the Triangle of Light for his nefarious schemes, was Scottish actor Iain Glen.
Glen first received major acclaim in 1990 at the Berlin International Film Festival, where he won the Silver Bear for best actor in his role in Silent Scream. Since then he has appeared in many films and TV shows. In fact, Tomb Raider is not the only video game-adapted movie franchise he has appeared in, with him playing the role of Dr. Alexander Isaacs or Tyrant in three of the Resident Evil movies (namely, Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016).
His other most famous role would probably be in that massive HBO fantasy juggernaut Game of Thones as Ser Jorah Mormont.
He has also appeared in many guest roles in various British TV shows including Taggart (1986), Law & Order: UK (2009), Doctor Who (2010) and Spooks (also 2010), Ripper Street (2013) and Agatha Christie’s Poirot (2013).
Noah Taylor (Bryce)
Playing Lara’s geeky tech support Bryce was Australian actor Noah Taylor.
Taylor first gained significant international attention playing troubled pianist David Helfgott in the 1996 movie Shine. His acting CV since then has included a wide variety of movies including action movies such as Tomb Raider and it’s sequel The Cradle Of Life (2003), comedies such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), thrillers including Vanilla Sky (2001) and drams such as Max (2002) where he played a young Adolf Hitler.
He is also the second actor in this blog to have a role in Game of Thrones playing Locke in the third and fourth seasons. His other famous TV role is playing playing Darby Sabini in Peaky Blinders. Taylor has also appeared in music videos including Beargarden’s music video for “The Finer Things” and the “Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, as well as “M.O.R.” by Blur.
In 2012 he married Dionne Harris, an Australian fashion designer and now live sin Brighton in the UK.
Daniel Craig (Alex West)
So far on this blog, I’ve done the cast list in the order they appeared on the original movie poster and for people who maybe haven’t seen the movie this one may be a surprise, also considering how low down he was on the poster.
Alex West is a rival Tomb Raider to Lara and is established as one without any morals and is a frenemy / love interest for Lara in the first movie and yes as you can see in the picture he is played by a pre-James Bond Daniel Craig.
Craig began his career in the early 90s. He appeared in US TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1993) and Zorro (1993). He also appeared in various British TV shows including Heartbeat and Sharpe’s Eagle, though it was his part in the 1996 TV series Our Friends In The North where he first received recognition in the UK. He also appeared in films such as Elizabeth (1998), Some Voices (2000) and Hotel Splendide (2000).
In the years after Tomb Raider he appeared in several other movies including Road to Perdition (2002), Sylvia (2003) and The Mother r(2003). However it was his role in the British gangster film Layer Cake (2004) which brought him to the attention of producers Barbara Brocooli and Michael G. Wilson and he was cast as the sixth actor to play James Bond in the main film series, beginning with Casino Royale in 2006. He has since played the role four more times – Quantum Of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and the yet to be released No Time To Die (2021).
Away from James Bond, Craig has also appeared in various other movie projects. He appeared in The Golden Compass (2007), the first attempt to adapt Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books into films. He appeared in war film Defiance (2008), sci-fi film The Invasion (2009). He also appeared in Cowboys and Aliens (2009) and the English-speaking adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) as Mikael Blomkvist.
He has since married his second wife, actress Rachel Weisz in 2011 and had their first child together in 2018.
Christopher Barrie (Hilary)
Playing Lara’s bumbling butler Hilary (so frustrating he wasn’t called Winston) was British actor Christopher Barrie.
Barrie first found fame as a voice over artist on the iconic ITV satirical show Spitting Image. He has also appeared in various other comedies including Blackadder The Third, The Brittas Empire and his own sketch show Pushing Up Daises.
He is also famous for starring in the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf as Arnold J. Rimmer, alongside Craig Charles’ Lister, Danny John-Jules’ Cat, Robert Llewellyn as the sanitation droid Kryten, and Norman Lovett as the ship’s computer, Holly. The series initially ran form 1988-1999 before being revived in 2009-2017, with a TV movie Red Dwarf: The Promised Land released in 2020.
Barrie has been married twice, to Monica De Meo from 1987 to 1990 and Alecks Barrie from 1997, and the couple have three sons.
Leslie Philips (Mr. Wilson)
Playing Wilson, an old friend of Richard Croft in the movie, who knew of his association with the Illuminati, was British actor Leslie Philips.
Leslie Philips has had an extremely long and varied career. He made his stage debut aged 10 in Peter Pan in 1934 at the London Palladium. He is also the only actor still alive to have performed at Pinewood Studios during it’s opening week in 1936.
He was called up for military service during the Second World War in 1942 before returning to theatre work in after the war. He eventually made his cinematic debut in the Gene Kelly musical Les Girls (1957). He also appeared in three of the early Carry On films, Carry On Nurse and Carry On Teacher (both 1959) and Carry On Constable (1960).
Between 1959 and 1977, Philips became a recognizable voice on the radio, playing the part of Sub-Lieutenant Phillips in the comedy The Navy Lark alongside Jon Pertwee and Ronnie Barker.
Following his marriage to Angela Scoular in 1982, Philips returned to the screen in more varied roles such as Empire Of The Sun (1987) and The Jackal (1997). In the same year as Tom Raider, Philips also voiced the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, a role he reprised for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2011.
Tragically, his second wife committed suicide though the actor married a third time in 2013 to care worker Zara Carr. The 97 year old actor hasn’t appeared on screen since 2012’s Darkheart Manor.
Hopefully you have enjoyed that dive into what happened next to the starts of Lara Croft Tomb Raider.