Michael Fassbender

Fassbender was born on 2 April 1977 in Heidelberg in what was then West Germany. His mother, Adele, is originally from Larne, Northern Ireland, and his father, Josef Fassbender, is German. He has an elder sister named Catherine, a neuropsychologist at the MIND Institute in Sacramento, California, United States. According to lore on his mother's side of family, his mother is the great-grandniece of Michael Collins, an Irish leader during the War of Independence. At age two, Fassbender moved to Killarney, Ireland, where his parents were to operate the West End House, a restaurant where his father also worked as a chef. His parents chose Killarney because they wanted their children to grow up in the countryside, in contrast to the industrial backdrop of their previous German residence. Fassbender, who was raised Catholic, served as an altar boy at the church his family attended. He and his sister spent summer holidays in Germany. He attended Fossa National School near Killarney and St. Brendan's College in Killarney itself. Fassbender decided that he wanted to be an actor at age 17 when he was cast in a play. At age 19, he left home to study at the Drama Centre London. In 1999, Fassbender dropped out of the Drama Centre and toured with the Oxford Stage Company to perform the play Three Sisters. Before finding steady work as an actor, he worked as a bartender, postman, manual labourer, market researcher for Royal Mail, and Dell employee.