Since his debut in 1989 on EastEnders, British actor Mark Strong has raked in impressive acting credit in movies and TV shows. With a filmography filled with successful movies, Mark Strong is one of Hollywood’s most underrated British actors. Strong has earned a reputation for playing sinister characters and spy agents. He’s worked with Matthew Vaughn and Guy Ritchie in several of their movies.
Born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia to an Austrian mother and an Italian father, his mother legally changed his name to enable him to fit in with his peers after his father left them. Although he never truly considered a career as an actor until he was older, Mark Strong is one of the most talented character actors in the movie industry. As proof of his enviable roles over the years, here are Mark Strong’s best movies and TV shows from the last decade.
The Imitation Game
The Morten Tyldum-directed period biographical thriller The Imitation Game was one of the best movies of 2014. The movie was based on Andrew Hodges’ 1983 biography Alan Turing: The Enigma. The Imitation Game centered around British mathematician, codebreaker, and early computer scientist, Alan Turing and his contribution to developing a machine that could decipher the Nazi’s Enigma machine used for sending coded messages.
Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed Alan Turing, while Keira Knightley portrayed Joan Clarke. Unsurprisingly, in a film with some of the most talented British actors, Mark Strong also joined the cast, portraying the Chief of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, Stewart Menzies. The Imitation Game was Strong’s fifth movie, released in 2014. The movie was critically acclaimed and a commercial success, with a worldwide Box Office earnings of $233.6 million on a $14 million budget.
The Kingsman Movies
The Kingsman movies are Mark Strong’s most famous films in the last decade. As one of the main characters in the film series, Mark Strong joined the series in its first installment, Kingsman: The Secret Service, in 2014. Strong played Hamish Mycroft (codename Merlin), the Kingsman’s technical support operative. Mark Strong reprised his role as Merlin in the 2017 sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. However, his character sacrifices himself to save Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) after the latter steps on a mine when they arrive at Poppy Land. His death, especially the theatrics surrounding it, was one of the highlights of Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Miss Sloane
If Box Office earnings were all movies were judged by, Miss Sloane, John Madden’s masterpiece movie, would have gone unnoticed by many. However, Miss Sloane was a critical success, coupled with its amazing cast led by Academy Award-winning actress Jessica Chastain. Mark Strong plays a major supporting role in Miss Sloane as Rodolfo Schmidt. Although Strong was an established actor when the movie was released, his performance proved his versatility beyond villain and spy agent roles.
Deep State
While accumulating movie credits, Mark Strong was equally expanding his roles on television. In Deep State, Mark Strong led the Fox British espionage TV series cast in season 1. Strong was cast as former MI6 field agent Max Easton. The character is forced back into the world of espionage after he uncovers a global conspiracy that puts him at odds with powerful forces in his former agency and the US government. As the season’s protagonist, Mark Strong appeared in all 8 episodes of season 1. However, he was replaced in season 2, when American actor Walton Goggins was cast to play ex-CIA operative Nathan Miller. Although the series was not officially canceled, there has been no update on season 3 production.
Temple
Mark Strong returned in another lead role on Sky’s British medical crime drama series Temple the next year. The series was created by Irish screenwriter and playwright Mark O’Rowe and was based on the 2017 Norwegian drama series Valkyrien. In Temple, Mark Strong played a renowned surgeon, Daniel Milton. With the character’s wife suffering a terminal illness, he tries to find a cure by raising funds by any means necessary for his research. Daniel Milton illegally operates on desperate patients and criminals in abandoned service tunnels below Temple Underground Station. Temple aired for 2 seasons from September 13, 2019, to December 9, 2021.
Shazam!
By 2019, Mark Strong wasn’t a stranger to the superhero genre, having starred in the 2010 Kick-Ass and Green Lantern (2011). Mark Strong portrayed the DC Comics character Dr. Thaddeus Sivana in the DCEU movie Shazam! In the movie, Strong’s character is the supervillain and Shazam’s (Zachary Levi) nemesis, who becomes a host for the Seven Deadly Sins. Shazam! was a commercial success at the Box Office and also received positive reviews from critics and audiences. Strong also reprised the role in a cameo appearance in the 2023 sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
Murder Mystery 2
Mark Strong joined the cast of Netflix’s action-comedy mystery sequel Murder Mystery 2 in 2023. Strong plays Connor Miller, the leader of the professional detectives who arrive on Vikram “The Maharajah” Govindan’s (Adeel Akhtar) private island to investigate his kidnapping. As a former MI6 hostage negotiator, Miller despises and berates husband-wife private detectives Nick Spitz (Adam Sandler) and Audrey Spitz (Jennifer Aniston) methods. It is later revealed he’s the mastermind of the kidnapping and the movie’s main antagonist.
Besides these movies, Mark Strong has also appeared in several other movies within the last decades, albeit in minor supporting roles. These include the star-studded 2018 war film The Catcher Was a Spy, Stockholm (2017), and 1917 (2019). Strong also starred in the 2022 Tár as Eliot Kaplan. As proof that he’s one of the most sought-after and busiest British actors, Mark Strong has several upcoming movies in the pre-production and post-production stages. If you enjoyed reading about Mark Strong’s best roles in movies and TV shows in the last decade, check out Liam Neeson’s 5 best action movies of his career.
