Sam Riley

Sam Riley made an unforgettable first impression on me as Ian Curtis in Control. He didn't imitate the Joy Division frontman so much as inhabit his haunted stillness, and it helped that Riley, a Yorkshireman who started out chasing a music career, could actually sing. That musician's authenticity has shadowed his best roles since, from Sal Paradise in On the Road to the brooding Diaval in Maleficent. He's never been a flashy leading man; instead he specializes in characters carrying some private darkness. I have a real weakness for actors who glow quietly in the shadows, and Riley is one of them.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Sam Riley

Name (Japanese)

サム・ライリー

Reading

さむ・らいりー

Born

January 8, 1980 (age 46)

Origin

Menston, United Kingdom

Occupation

actor / film actor / film director / singer / television actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Monkey

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam%20Riley
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q520001

Tags

• actor
• film actor
• film director

Last updated

September 25, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.