1980-present
Who Is Charlie Hunnam?
Born in 1980, Charlie Hunnam has been acting since he was 17. His first big role came in Russell T. Davies' British series Queer as Folk, before he moved to the U.S. for films such as Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Cold Mountain (2003) and Children of Men (2006). Hunnam's breakout role came in 2008 when he signed on to play Jax Teller on FX's crime drama Sons of Anarchy, which aired through 2014. Since then Hunnam has created a tradition of embodying hyper-masculine roles, including the sci-fi flick Pacific Rim (2013), the adventure drama The Lost City of Z (2016) and the epic fantasy King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017). In addition to acting, Hunnam is a screenwriter.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Charles Matthew Hunnam
BORN: April 10, 1980
BIRTHPLACE: Newcastle Upon Tyne, England
SPOUSE: Katharine Towne (1999-2002)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries
Early Life
Charles Matthew Hunnam was born on April 10, 1980, in Newcastle, England. His father, William, worked in the scrap metal industry and died in 2013, while his mother, Jane, a business owner, raised the actor and his older brother after the couple divorced when Hunnam was a toddler.
After high school, Hunnam matriculated to the University of Cumbria, where he graduated with a film degree.
Movies and TV Shows
Queer as Folk
Hunnam's first major screen role was on Russell T. Davies' British gay series Queer as Folk. On the show he played 15-year-old Nathan Maloney, a rebellious school kid who's new to the gay scene but is full of confidence.
The young actor then appeared in the love story Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999) before making his way across the pond to America, where he picked up a recurring role in WB's Young Americans. He also had a quick stint on Fox's Judd Apatow-helmed sitcom Undeclared, though the acclaimed show was canceled after one season.
Cold Mountain and Children of Men
Turning to film, Hunnam appeared opposite Katie Holmes in the panned psychological thriller Abandon (2002). He had better luck with the Charles Dickens-inspired drama Nicholas Nickleby (2002), in which he played the title role, as well as the Civil War film Cold Mountain (2003). In the latter, he played the psychotic lieutenant Bosie, who duels with the protagonist Inman (Jude Law).
Hunnam's flair for depicting troubled characters continued after Cold Mountain, his follow-ups being a Cockney-accented hooligan in Pete Dunham's indie football drama Green Street (2005) and a corrupt gang member in the dystopian thriller Children of Men (2006).
Sons of Anarchy
As Hunnam continued to star in bigger projects, his rounds in Hollywood paid off: In 2008, he was cast in one of his most memorable roles as gang leader Jackson "Jax" Teller in the FX crime drama Sons of Anarchy, about an outlaw motorcycle club set in a fictional town in California. The series became one of the highest rated shows for the network, which ran its course through 2014. Still, Hunnam admittedly had a hard time saying goodbye to the show and his character.
“It was actually quite emotional for me, living and loving that guy for eight years, to have to finally put him to bed,” he told Glamour UK. “I found myself going back to set a lot. I knew the security guards and for a couple of days said, ‘Oh, I forgot something’, so they’d let me onto the set, and I’d just walk around at night because I wanted to be in that environment and go through a personal process of saying goodbye. After a couple of nights I didn’t really need the alibi to get in, and then after a while I just said, ‘OK, enough, this is done.’”
Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak
While on Anarchy, Hunnam also starred as the lead in Guillermo del Toro's blockbuster Pacific Rim (2013), a sci-fi drama about humans operating giant humanoids to battle sea monsters from another dimension. The actor teamed up with del Toro again for the gothic horror flick Crimson Peak (2015), which found a solid audience and generally fared well with critics.
Fifty Shades of Grey
In between these projects, it was announced that Hunnam was set to star as Christian Grey in the film version of E.L. James' erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. However, due to multiple scheduling conflicts, Hunnam reluctantly bowed out and later called the ordeal "the worst professional experience of my life."
“I called [director Sam Taylor-Johnson], and we both cried our eyes out on the phone for 20 minutes,” he told V Man magazine in 2015. “I needed to tell her that this was not going to work. … There was a lot of personal stuff going on in my life that left me on real emotional shaky ground and mentally weak. I just got myself so f–king overwhelmed and I was sort of having panic attacks about the whole thing.”
The Lost City of Z and Papillon
Hunnam bounced back playing British geographer Percy Fawcett in the biographical drama The Lost City of Z (2016). He also collaborated with Guy Ritchie on the film King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), though critics generally panned the project. Hunnam enjoyed a better reception playing French convicted murderer Henri Charrière in the lauded Papillon (2017), which co-starred Rami Malek.
A Million Little Pieces and The Gentlemen
Hunnam found another opportunity to work with Fifty Shades director Taylor-Johnson when he signed on for A Million Little Pieces (2018), an adaptation of the controversial 2003 novel written by James Frey. The actor followed with a busy 2019 in which he appeared in four features, including the action film Triple Frontier and the violent comedy The Gentlemen.
Screenwriter
Outside of acting, Hunnam is a screenwriter. Before he earned the lead role on Sons of Anarchy, he sold a screenplay about Vlad the Impaler to a major film distribution company. Later, it was reported he was developing films on American drug lord Edgar Valdez Villareal and gypsy culture in British society.
Personal Life
After a brief courtship, Hunnam married actress Katharine Towne in 1999 but the couple called it quits three years later.
Since 2005, he's been in a relationship with artist Morgana McNelis.
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