Robert Pattinson

Robert Pattinson (1986) is a British actor and musician. He began his career in theatre and made his film debut in 2004. The young Patterson gained attention as Carlo Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and became a teen idol as Edward Cullen in the Twilight films (2008-2012). Since then he starred in both major studio productions and independent films and has been ranked among the world's highest-paid actors.


Vintage postcard. Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008).


Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Robert Pattinson and Katie Leung in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005).

British star of tomorrow

Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson was born in a private hospital in Barnes, southwest London, England in 1986. His mother Clare worked as a booker at a modelling agency and his father Richard imported vintage cars from the United States. He has two older sisters, Lizzy and Victoria Pattinson. Lizzy is a singer with the band Aurora and Victoria works in an advertising department.

As a teenager, Robert joined the local amateur theatre club, the Barnes Theatre Company, after his father convinced him to attend because he was quite shy. After two years of working backstage, the 15-year-old Pattinson auditioned for the play 'Guys and Dolls' and he got his first role as a Cuban dancer with no lines. He got the lead part in the next play 'Our Town'. A talent agent in the audience spotted him and he began looking for professional roles.

Pattinson appeared in stage productions such as 'Macbeth', 'Anything Goes' and 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. He had supporting roles in the German television film Die Nibelungen – Der Fluch des Drachen / Ring of the Nibelungs (Uli Edel, 2004) with Benno Fürmann and Alicia Witt, and in the costume drama Vanity Fair (Mira Nair, 2004) as Reese Witherspoon's son. His scenes were cut out of the final film. Pattinson didn't know about it until he attended the premiere. The casting director felt so guilty for not telling him, that she got him an audition for the new Harry Potter film.

In 2005, he was due to appear in 'The Woman Before' at the Royal Court Theatre but was fired shortly before and replaced by Tom Riley. Later that year, he played Carlo Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mike Newell, 2005). It brought him to a wider audience at the age of 19 and soon after, he was even named 'British Star of Tomorrow' by Times Online. He continued to star in mostly smaller British TV productions. As a model, Pattinson appeared in the ad campaign for Hackett's 2007 autumn collection. Pattinson appeared in Little Ashes (Paul Morrison, 2008), in which he played Salvador Dalí, the British comedy How to Be (Oliver Irving, 2008), and the short film The Summer House (Daisy Gili, 2009).

Occasionally, he sent audition tapes for roles in America. One, for a rom-com, led to the opportunity for an in-person audition in Los Angeles. That audition did not pan out, but while in town he went in for another, with director Catherine Hardwicke, for a part in an adaptation of a low-profile book about a vampire. His role as vampire Edward Cullen opposite Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008), suddenly turned him into a worldwide star and a teen idol.


Belgian freecard by Boomerang. Photo: Belgafilms. Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: Fascination.


Vintage postcard. Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: When you can live forever, What do you live for?


Belgian freecard by Boomerang. Photo: Belgafilms. Robert Pattinson in The Twilight Saga - New Moon (2009).

Sexiest man in the world at 22

At age 22, Robert Pattinson was voted ‘sexiest man in the world’ by Glamour magazine, before Brad Pitt. Hugh Jackman and Johnny Depp. Between 2008 and 2012, the five film adaptations of the Twilight novels written by Stephenie Meyer grossed over $3.3 billion in worldwide receipts. Between the Twilight Saga films, he also starred in Remember Me (Allen Coulter, 2010), Water for Elephants (Francis Lawrence, 2011) with Reese Witherspoon, and Bel Ami (Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod, 2012) alongside Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Pattinson's Twilight era was surreal. He had been catapulted onto Hollywood's A-list as a heartthrob, but also experienced certain preconceptions about what he wanted - or was capable of doing - as an actor. That changed with an unexpected straight offer from auteur director David Cronenberg to star in Cosmopolis (2012), which he described as an eye-opening experience. It reminded him of his love for cinema, why he wanted to become an actor in the first place and solidified his foremost desire for the coming years to work with great filmmakers.

With Pattinson being a big cinephile, he then starred in mostly independent films from auteur directors, such as The Rover (David Michôd, 2014) opposite Guy Pearce, Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014) starring Julianne Moore, Life (Anton Corbijn, 2015), Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015) with Nicole Kidman and The Childhood of a Leader (Brady Corbet, 2015). He also became the face of Dior Homme fragrance in 2013 and the face of Dior Homme menswear in 2016. His unrecognisable role as an explorer in the Amazon jungle in Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2016) brought him critical acclaim. His transformation to a sleazy, manic conman in the gritty crime thriller Good Time (Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, 2017) earned him a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. His role was written specifically for him after sending a spontaneous email to the directors, the Safdie Brothers, without knowing them and seeing only a movie still on the internet from their previous film Heaven Knows What (2014).

Next, he starred in the Western comedy Damsel (David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, 2018) as a cowboy with sociopathic characteristics and played a convict sent to space for sexual experimentation in the psychological mystery drama High Life (2018) from acclaimed French auteur director Claire Denis. He returned to work with director David Michôd in The King (David Michôd, 2019) and starred with Willem Dafoe in the Fantasy-Horror film The Lighthouse (Robert Eggers, 2019), set on a remote New England island in the 1890s. The film earned good reviews for both its storytelling and Pattinson's performance. In Netflix's The Devil All the Time (Antonio Campos, 2020), Pattinson played a corrupt preacher preying on young girls.

Robert Pattinson returned to mainstream films with a leading role in Christopher Nolan's time-bending Spy film Tenet (2020) and starred as the superhero and his secret alter ego Bruce Wayne in The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022). Next followed Bong Joon-ho's Science Fiction film Mickey 17 (2025), in which Pattinson played the lead role. He portrayed Mickey Barnes, a disposable crew member on a space mission who is assigned perilous tasks, as he can be regenerated upon death while retaining most of his memories. The film received mostly positive reviews, with most of the focus on Pattinson's performance as dual versions of the same character. Robert Pattinson was in a relationship with Kristen Stewart from mid-2009 until May 2013 and with British singer FKA Twigs, from 2014 to 2017. Since 2018, he has been dating British actress and singer Suki Waterhouse. In 2024, the couple became parents to a daughter.


Vintage postcard. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: When you van live forever, What do you live for?


English postcard by Cinema. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008). Caption: Nothing will be the same.


Belgian freecard by Boomerang. Photo: Belgafilms. Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (Bill Condon, 2011).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.