Tragic Details About Benedict Cumberbatch

Whether you know him as Doctor Strange, Smaug, Sherlock Holmes, or any number of his many famous characters, Benedict Cumberbatch is undeniably iconic. With his distinct voice and willingness to explore a host of characters, the London-born actor has been impressing audiences regularly throughout his 20-plus year career. While he often puts out a warm and sunny demeanor, it's surprising Cumberbatch isn't more like his Netflix chart-topping character, The Grinch, as his life hasn't exactly been idyllic. In fact, the "Eric" star has faced devastating circumstances that have had a deep impact on him.

That said, Cumberbatch practices Buddhist meditation and has a surprisingly optimistic outlook on life. In speaking with The Talks in May 2018, the Hollywood star explained, "Happiness for me is just being; just being at any given moment. If you are searching for happiness, you are not happy."

Despite struggling as a child, having several unfortunate experiences while filming, going through a string of controversies, and losing someone close to him, Cumberbatch doesn't let the tragic details about his life define him. "I like the idea that your mind has the power to shape your own reality — however dire, however difficult your circumstances may be," he remarked.

Benedict Cumberbatch's regal-sounding name and posh accent might lead you to believe he had an incredibly privileged upbringing. You wouldn't be wrong, exactly, as he was born to two actors, Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham, and lived in the affluent city of West Sussex, England. Cumberbatch also attended the prestigious (and expensive) Harrow School before taking a gap year, but where he excelled in the arts, he had a tougher time with his academics.

"I had a problem focusing [at school]. I probably had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or something on the border of it," Cumberbatch told Event Magazine (via Digital Spy) in May 2013. The actor added that he was always creative and loved putting on voices for people in class, but that he "had to spend double the amount of time learning French vocabulary."

It isn't uncommon for young performers to relish in a creative outlet while struggling with other subjects, but Cumberbatch also dealt with another issue as an adolescent. In speaking with Esquire in November 2021, the "Avengers: Infinity War" star revealed, "I think I was desperately insecure for all sorts of reasons and tried to compensate for that." While the truth about self-confidence is that it can take time to grow, as a student, the young Cumberbatch was like any other diffident teenager. "I was petrified by the idea of what other people thought of me."

Actors often wrap filming with a couple anecdotes to tell in interviews or on talk shows, but the life-threatening ordeal Benedict Cumberbatch experienced while filming the 2005 BBC miniseries "To the Ends of the Earth" was more than he'd bargained for. The project was based in KwaZulu-Natal, a province of South Africa, and after exploring with friends over the weekend, Cumberbatch returned with them to set in the middle of the night. As luck would have it, they got a flat tire and were stranded on the side of the road.

As Cumberbatch told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2013, "We were like sitting ducks, adverts for — not prosperity necessarily but materialism." Before they knew it, six people with guns emerged and frisked Cumberbatch's group. "At that point, this adrenaline of fight or flight just exploded in my body. I was like, 'Oh f***, we're f***ed!'" the actor recalled.

Cumberbatch and his friends were then bound and taken into a car. The actor was even put into the trunk when he complained about how tight his binds were. "I was scared, really scared," he shared. "I said: 'What are you going to do with us? Are you going to kill us?'" Fortunately, for whatever reason, the men were eventually released by their captors and Cumberbatch was left completely transformed.

While studying drama at the University of Manchester in the late '90s, a young Benedict Cumberbatch met fellow actor Olivia Poulet. The two hit it off and were an item for the better part of a decade, but things seemed to collapse after Cumberbatch told the press in 2010 that he wanted children someday. Their relationship ended, and it was rumored that Poulet was the instigator of the breakup.

Fortunately, a few years after their split, both Poulet and Cumberbatch found their other halves. And this time, it seemed to be the real deal. The "Sherlock" actor's former flame became engaged to actor Laurence Dobiesz in 2015, and that same year, Cumberbatch married his wife, theater director Sophie Hunter. The adorable couple introduced their first son to the world, Christopher, four months after tying the knot and have had two more children since, in 2017 and 2019.

However, as Cumberbatch told Variety in a January 2025 interview, fatherhood has forced him to face the reality of getting older. "The minute you have kids this sense of time sinks in far more profoundly," he said. "My youngest is turning 6 tomorrow, and I'm like, 'I will be in my 60s when he's 21,' you know? It's crazy. It's gone so fast." Cumberbatch went on to explain how becoming a parent has forced his thoughts to "turn more towards mortality," but that he's making the most of the time he still has.

As times have changed, celebrities aren't spared criticism for the comments they've made in the past. This includes Benedict Cumberbatch who, back in 2014, made comments about autistic people that many have since taken offense to. As one former fan told Insider in 2022, "[The comments] felt elitist and like someone who doesn't understand what they're talking about was making bold assumptions."

After he played Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game," fans took to comparing Cumberbatch's performance to that of Sherlock Holmes, drawing links to his characters potentially being on the spectrum. The actor addressed these theories in a September 2014 interview with Metro. "Sherlock is a sociopathic show-off, and Alan was anything but that," Cumberbatch said. "I don't think he was on the spectrum. I think a lot of people are very lazy with that." He went on to suggest that it's "dangerous" to make such assertions about his characters. "People talk about me doing that quite a lot and that being a good thing for people who are on the spectrum, which is great. But I don't go into a job going, 'Is this autism?'" he said. "I've met people with those conditions. It's a real struggle all the time."

Then, just a couple months later, the Hollywood star's interview with The Irish Times came under fire for what many considered to be ignorant remarks. After sharing that he spent time with autistic children to prepare for a production of "Frankenstein," he offered some of his observations from those visits. "Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. S***ting," he said. "So when I hear people use diagnostic labels casually — Sherlock is autistic, Turing is autistic — it really upsets me." 

From Jake Gyllenhaal's 30-pound weight loss for "Nightcrawler" to Christian Bale's many weight fluctuations over the years, many stars transform dramatically after taking on a role. Oftentimes, though, the physical toll of these changes can be felt by the actor. Benedict Cumberbatch experienced this first hand when he played Greville Wynne, a real life businessman who became a Cold War spy, in 2020's "The Courier." To portray him accurately, Cumberbatch embarked on a dramatic weight loss journey, which resulted in him dropping about 21 pounds.

He utilized diet and exercise, and strived to transform in the healthiest way possible. However, in speaking with CinemaBlend in March 2021, Cumberbatch revealed how difficult he found the process. "It was very much about trying to shred everything to shrink wrap my body mass around muscle," he said. "It's horrible." And it wasn't just fat loss, Cumberbatch said, but muscle. "You get very disoriented, you feel dehydrated, you feel hungry all the time. You feel emotionally and physically very vulnerable," he remarked.

While he used these uncomfortable feelings to play his character well, it was far from an easy feat. Fortunately for Cumberbatch, his hard work paid off, as many reviewers applauded the star for his riveting performance. "Cumberbatch does a magnificent job at grasping this portrayal," critic Josh Parham of Next Best Picture shared.

There's one man in particular who's definitely not Benedict Cumberbatch's biggest fan, and that's the cyclist the actor hit in April 2019 while driving his Lamborghini on the Isle of Wight in England. Michael "Scooby" Lawrence was biking along a country road, when, according to a friend who spoke with The Sun, "The car appeared out of nowhere. There was literally nowhere else in the road to go." Lawrence was struck on his arm by the mirror, which his friend claimed caused a gruesome injury.

Cumberbatch reportedly stepped out of his luxury car after hitting the 63-year old and shouted at him for cycling in the middle of the road. In response, Lawrence slapped the actor across the face. It was only after Cumberbatch took off his hat that Lawrence realized who he'd just assaulted. "Scooby said he nearly had a heart attack," his friend continued. The "Sherlock" star reported the accident to the police and offered the cyclist a ride to the hospital, which he didn't appear to accept. Cumberbatch also declined to press charges on Lawrence for the assault.

Neither the cyclist nor the actor have offered any comments on the incident, but the police did provide a little bit of insight. "No complaints were made, no criminal offences were investigated and the matter is being dealt with through insurance," a representative told the publication.

Benedict Cumberbatch's dedication to method acting has earned him a fair amount of praise, but it's also resulted in the actor enduring several uncomfortable experiences. One of which happened while he was portraying Montana rancher Phil Burbank in 2021's "The Power of the Dog." Cumberbatch fell head first into this character, including rarely showering, as he told Esquire during his November 2021 interview. "I wanted that layer of stink on me. I wanted people in the room to know what I smelt like," he said.

It wasn't easy to maintain, but Cumberbatch persevered throughout the entirety of the 12 week-long filming process, maintaining his accent at all hours and never responding to his real name. But to top it off, the actor, who had quit his cigarette habit back in 2014, took up smoking again for the role. "That was really hard," Cumberbatch remarked. "Filterless rollies, just take after take after take. I gave myself nicotine poisoning three times." Nicotine poisoning, which can cause nausea, vomiting, sweating, and dizziness, must've been a truly horrible experience for the star.

"When you have to smoke a lot, it genuinely is horrible," Cumberbatch added. Smoking everyday can have devastating effects on the body, so hopefully this experience at least reinstated the "Doctor Strange" star's wish to stay off the cigarettes for good. Again, Cumberbatch's dedication to his role was worthwhile, as the film received rave reviews.

Although Benedict Cumberbatch is known to be fairly private about his personal life, he wasn't deterred from sharing the devastating news that his beloved sister, artist Tracy Peacock, had died in December 2021. Though she was technically his half sister, related by blood through their mother who had Peacock during her previous marriage, she was Cumberbatch's only sibling. "She died of cancer," the "1917" star told the Daily Mail at the time. "She'd been battling it for seven years." Peacock was just 62 when she died, and was survived by her husband and daughter.

Cumberbatch was understandably heartbroken by his sister's death, but spoke fondly to the outlet of both her achievements as an artist and her distinct personality. "She was nothing to do with this world. She was markedly different," he shared.

It seems the actor was again reminded of Peacock when he was awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2022, and he gave a shout out to her during his acceptance speech (via Variety). "She would have loved this. She was unbelievably loyal, supportive, and she would have loved the glitz and the oddness and the glamour," Cumberbatch shared. After a moment, he spoke directly to the late Peacock, adding, "I hope somewhere up there, where the real stars shine, you're looking down on this moment now. I'm sure you are."

It's no secret that when Benedict Cumberbatch takes on a project, he gives it his all. But, due to the nature of many of the films he's signed on to, this can often lead the actor to feeling emotionally drained by his work, too. Cumberbatch has played several blockbuster-style characters, from a Marvel superhero to an arrogant dragon to an iconic "Star Trek" villain. But, he's also delved into more artistic roles that explored themes like mental illness.

One such movie was 2021's "The Electrical Life of Louis Wain," which again saw Cumberbatch transform into a real-life persona. He played the titular character, a renowned Edwardian artist who became known for his abstract drawings of cats and was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1920s. "I really miss him," Cumberbatch told The I Paper in December 2021 while reflecting on playing Wain. "It was by and large a joy, but there were moments of extreme distress and loneliness and isolation." The actor compared this role to that of Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game," saying these low feelings helped him better understand his character.

Though Wain has been recognized for his diagnosis, Cumberbatch explained that the purpose of the filmmakers wasn't to categorize him too specifically. "We tried very hard not to be prescriptive about what his condition was, but he did have mental health difficulties," he shared. The film was met with mixed criticism on how Wain's mental health was portrayed.

"Zoolander" might've brought about the role that changed everything for Owen Wilson, but the Ben Stiller-directed flick also kicked off a sequel that marred Benedict Cumberbatch's filmography permanently. In 2016's "Zoolander 2," he was cast as a non-binary model called All who was played for laughs. Today, the controversial nature of the role goes without saying, and the release of the "Zoolander 2" trailer alone inspired activists to start a petition to boycott the movie.

Cumberbatch addressed the criticism during a January 2022 interview with Variety, saying, "I think in this era, my role would never be performed by anybody other than a trans actor." But at the time, the star viewed the role differently, as he explained that Wilson and Stiller's characters were meant to be seen as ignorant for not understanding "the new diverse world." That said, "it backfired a little bit," Cumberbatch concluded.

Nearly a decade on, this role still haunts the "Sherlock" star. In speaking with Variety in January 2025, Cumberbatch was again asked about his part in "Zoolander 2." As he put it, "I've had to apologize for that quite a lot, so it's a difficult one to talk about." He did, however, acknowledge that the role caused offense and he wouldn't make the same mistake again.