Peter Hayden Dinklage is a famous American film and television actor who rose to international prominence for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister on HBO’s popular series ‘Game Of Thrones’ which earned him great critical and commercial acclaim along with several awards and accolades including 2 Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe Award. Apart from his acting prowess, Dinklage gained recognition for being one of the best actors with dwarfism, a growth-condition.

Dinklage debuted as an actor in 1995 with the film ‘Living in Oblivion’ but rose to prominence in 2003, with the comedy-drama film ‘The Station Agent’. He has since appeared in several successful films including ‘Elf’, ‘Find Me Guilty’, ‘Underdog’, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ and ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’. He is also a voice actor having lent his voice to films like ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ and ‘The Angry Birds Movie’.

Early Life and Education

Dinklage was born in Morristown, New Jersey, USA on 11 June 1969 to insurance salesman John Carl Dinklage and elementary-school music teacher Diane Dinklage and was raised in Brookside, New Jersey as a Catholic. Born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, Dinklage is the only person in his family to have been born with the growth disorder. He has one sibling, a brother named Jonathan.

Dinklage studied at the Catholic preparatory boys’ school, Delbarton School, Morristown where he appeared in a school production of ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’ and developed a passion for acting. To this effect, he enrolled into Bennington College, Vermont from where he graduated in 1991. Dinklage built a theatre company with Ian Bell, his friend but financial crunches forced him to take a job with a data processing company where he served for 6 years until he started pursuing acting full-time.

Career Rise

Dinklage made his feature film debut in 1995 in a supporting role in Tom DiCillo’s ‘Oblivion’ in which he portrayed Tito, a dwarf actor who is frustrated about his clichéd film roles. He then appeared in several films like ‘Bullet’, ‘Safe Men’, ‘Never Again’, ’13 Moons’ etc until he received his breakthrough with Tom McCarthy’s 2003 film ‘The Station Agent’ in which he played Finbar McBride and won several awards. He continued to appear in supporting roles in films like ‘Elf’, ‘Find Me Guilty’, ‘Penelope’ etc. From 2005-2006, Dinklage appeared as Arthur Ramsay in the CBS show ‘Threshold’.

Dinklage’s next big role was the 2007 British comedy ‘Death at a funeral’ which became a huge success and was later remade in USA in 2010, with him reprising his role. He then appeared as Trumpkin, a grumpy dwarf in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ in 2008. In 2011, Dinklage received the role of his career when he was cast as ‘Tyrion Lannister’ in HBO’s super-hit series ‘Game Of Thrones’, a role that earned him an Emmy Award nomination every year since the show went on-air, apart from critical and commercial success. Over the years, Dinklage has played significant roles in films such as ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, ‘Knights of Badassdom’ and ‘Pixels’ and lent his voice to films like ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ and ‘The Angry Birds Movie’.

Personal Life

Dinklage dated theatre director Erica Schmidt for several years until they got married in 2005. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter in 2011 but haven’t revealed her name publicly. Schmidt is currently pregnant with their second child, due in late 2017.

The 1. 35 meter tall Dinklage suffers from achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism that affected the growth of bones and stands at 4 feet 5 inches tall, with short limbs but a typical-sized torso and head. Dinklage claims to have found his condition challenging as a youth but has now come to accept it. He is also an advocate for animal rights and supports PETA and has adopted vegetarianism.

Peter Dinklage – Salary and Net Worth

Dinklage has an estimated net worth of approximately $16 Million. Like all top performers in ‘Game of Thrones’, his salary is $500,000 per episode.