What is the best Kenneth Branagh acting performance?

Shakespeare's champion, a beloved Harry Potter villain, and Agatha Christie's most famous detective — Branagh has played them all with theatrical bravura and magnetic craft. Which performance is his masterpiece?

Henry V (Henry V)

The young warrior king inspiring his men before the Battle of Agincourt in Branagh's stunning directorial debut Henry V (1989).

1/13

Hamlet (Hamlet)

The tormented Danish prince in Branagh's acclaimed full-text four-hour Hamlet (1996).

2/13

Iago (Othello)

The scheming, malevolent villain manipulating Othello's downfall in Oliver Parker's Othello (1995).

3/13

Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)

The witty, love-resistant soldier sparring with Beatrice in Branagh's sunny Much Ado About Nothing (1993).

4/13

Victor Frankenstein (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein)

The obsessed scientist who creates and rejects his monstrous creation in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994).

5/13

Gilderoy Lockhart (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

The vain, incompetent celebrity wizard and Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002).

6/13

Hercule Poirot (Murder on the Orient Express)

The meticulous Belgian detective solving a murder aboard a snowbound train in Murder on the Orient Express (2017).

7/13

Commander Bolton (Dunkirk)

The stoic Royal Navy commander overseeing the desperate Dunkirk evacuation in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk (2017).

8/13

Laurence Olivier (My Week with Marilyn)

The legendary British actor struggling to direct and tolerate Marilyn Monroe on set in My Week with Marilyn (2011).

9/13

Viktor Cherevin (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit)

A coldly menacing Russian intelligence agent plotting a financial attack on the U.S. in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014).

10/13

Roman Strauss / Mike Church (Dead Again)

A dual role as both a 1940s composer and a modern amnesiac connected by a mysterious past in Dead Again (1991).

11/13

Kurt Wallander (Wallander)

The brooding, morally exhausted Swedish detective in the acclaimed BBC crime series Wallander (2008–2016).

12/13

Reinhard Heydrich (Conspiracy)

The chilling Nazi architect chairing the Wannsee Conference in the HBO/BBC film Conspiracy (2001).

13/13