Taron Egerton born 10 November 1989 is a Welsh actor and singer. He is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award and has been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards, a Grammy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Born in Birkenhead, England, Egerton began acting at age 15 and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2012. He gained recognition for starring as Gary “Eggsy” Unwin in the action comedy film Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and its sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017). He has also starred in several biographical films, portraying military officer Edward Brittain in the drama Testament of Youth (2014), a psychopath in the crime thriller Legend (2015), the titular ski-jumper in the sports film Eddie the Eagle (2016), and singer Elton John in the musical Rocketman (2019), the latter of which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Early life
Egerton was born on 10 November 1989, in Birkenhead, Merseyside . His mother is half English and half Welsh, while his father is English, and hails from nearby Liverpool; She worked in social services, while he used to run a bed-and-breakfast. Although born in England, Egerton considers himself to be Welsh “through and through” and is fluent in both Welsh and English. His first name is a variation of taran, which means “thunder” in Welsh. Egerton has two younger sisters named Mari and Rosie.
Egerton’s parents divorced when he was two, and he subsequently moved with his mother to the Welsh island of Anglesey, where he went to primary school. The family moved to Aberystwyth when he was 12 years old. He began acting at age 15. He attended Ysgol Penglais School before he went on to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in acting in 2012.
Career
2011–2018: Debut and Kingsman
Egerton made his acting debut in 2013 with a small role in two episodes of the ITV series Lewis as Liam Jay. Later, he was added to the main cast of the Sky1 series The Smoke. Egerton played Gary “Eggsy” Unwin, the young protégé of Harry Hart (Colin Firth), in Matthew Vaughn’s film Kingsman: The Secret Service and its sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The first movie’s success launched Egerton into fame and resulted in him signing a three-movie contract with 20th Century Fox.
Egerton co-starred in Testament of Youth, based on the life of Vera Brittain, and appeared in the two-part episode “The Ramblin’ Boy” in the seventh series of Lewis as Liam Jay. He voiced Johnny the gorilla in the animation film Sing in 2016. In 2018, Egerton played the title character in the action-adventure film Robin Hood and starred in the crime drama film Billionaire Boys Club.
2019–present: Rocketman and acclaim
In 2019, Egerton starred as singer Elton John in the biopic Rocketman. The Washington Post‘s Ann Hornaday opined that Egerton “exerts a steadying, singularly charismatic force” in the role, while Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair described his performance as “nuanced and emotionally intelligent while still loose, carried with verve and agility”. He earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. In June 2019, Egerton performed a live duet of “Your Song” with Elton John at the opening night of the U.K. leg of John’s farewell world tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road in Brighton & Hove. He voiced Moomintroll in the animated series Moominvalley.
Egerton will next portray entrepreneur Henk Rogers in the biographical film Tetris.
Public image
Egerton was named one of British GQ‘s 50 best-dressed British men in 2015 and 2016.
Personal life
Egerton at the 2018 Global Education and Skills Forum
Egerton lives in West London. He has stated that he finds an “umbrella in the rain” type of romance better than the dating app experience common to his generation, about which he said, “I have asked a girl out Kamikaze-style. I stopped her on the Tube and said, ‘I think you’re gorgeous, I think we should go for a drink some time.’ It’s terrifying, but ultimately so much more rewarding.” He later took half a day off from drama school to go on a date with her.
Egerton describes himself as having come from a working-class background. In 2015, he responded to a question for his female Kingsman co-star Sophie Cookson about challenging the gender bias: “I don’t think things are changing fast enough—but you didn’t seem to want to ask me that. It’s not just a question for the women.” Referencing scenes from Aziz Ansari’s comedy-drama series Master of None, he also addressed his privilege as a white actor in 2017: “I’m the epitome of an actor who walks into a room and has the upper hand just because I’m a mid-twenties Caucasian male. How frustrating must the industry be for a person of colour?” Egerton has shown support for the LGBT community as well, stating in an interview about his performance in Rocketman, “Elton John’s a gay icon. And who are we, as frankly heterosexual filmmakers, to not put that element of his story? How dare we. And that’s not what we did.” Having lost a grandmother to motor neurone disease, he is an ambassador for the MND Association.