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?

1

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).

2

Hamlet (Hamlet)

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

3

Iago (Othello)

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

4

Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)

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

5

Victor Frankenstein (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein)

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

6

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).

7

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).

8

Commander Bolton (Dunkirk)

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

9

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).

10

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).

11

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).

12

Kurt Wallander (Wallander)

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

13

Reinhard Heydrich (Conspiracy)

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