My Take
I'll be honest — I first noticed Lars Mikkelsen as "Mads's older brother," which is a terrible way to discover an actor this good. But then I watched him play the chillingly precise Charles Augustus Magnussen in Sherlock and immediately had to recalibrate. That performance — all cold intellect and quiet menace — is one of the great TV villain turns of the 2010s. Then came Viktor Petrov in House of Cards, a barely-veiled Putin who somehow managed to be more unsettling than the real thing. What gets me about Lars is the range underneath the restraint: the guy studied at the University of Copenhagen, worked as a mime artist, and still brings something physically alive to every scene. Denmark clearly knows what it has — he's won the Bodil and Robert Awards multiple times — and international audiences are finally catching up. He doesn't need his brother's shadow; he's cast a pretty long one of his own.
Overview
Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen (Danish: [ˈlɑːs ˈme̝kl̩sn̩]; born 6 May 1964) is a Danish actor. He is known for his roles as Copenhagen mayoral election candidate Troels Hartmann in the Danish police procedural The Killing, the character Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of the BBC programme Sherlock, fictional Russian president Viktor Petrov in the American political thriller TV series House of Cards, mage Str…
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Lars Mikkelsen
- Name (Japanese)
- ラース・ミケルセン
- Reading
- らーす・みけるせん
- Born
- May 6, 1964 (age 62)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Dragon
- Origin
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- television actor / film actor / voice actor / street artist / mime artist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Copenhagen
Awards & achievements
- 2007 Teaterpokalen
- 2017 Bodil Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- 2022 Bodil Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- 2010 Robert Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
- 2017 Robert Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- 2018 Robert Award for Best Actor in a Leading Television Role
- 2019 Robert Award for Best Actor in a Leading Television Role
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.