Matthew Vaughn | |
|---|---|
_CROPPED.jpg) Vaughn in 2019 | |
| Born | Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn (1971-03-07)7 March 1971 (age 54) Paddington, London, England |
| Other names | Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond (since 2002)[1] |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1996–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
Sir Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond (bornMatthew Allard Robert Vaughn; 7 March 1971), also known asSir Matthew Vaughn,[2] is an English filmmaker.[3] He has produced films includingLock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) andSnatch (2000), and directedLayer Cake (2004),Stardust (2007),Kick-Ass (2010),X-Men: First Class (2011), andArgylle (2024). Vaughn also co-created theKingsman comic book series andresulting franchise, directing, producing and co-writing the filmsKingsman: The Secret Service (2014),Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), andThe King's Man (2021).
Vaughn was born inPaddington on 7 March 1971.[4][5] His mother was Kathy Ceaton (died 20 July 2013), daughter of electrical and property tycoon James Ceaton,[6] and a former wife of Pakistani millionaire Javaid Saigol.[7] Until 2002, Vaughn believed that he was the child of a relationship between his mother, a production manager and producer, and American actorRobert Vaughn.[8] A paternity investigation in the 1980s revealed that Robert Vaughn was not his father, but Ceaton had never disclosed this to her son.[5] Upon asking his mother about his true paternity, she admitted that Vaughn's biological father was George Albert Harley de Vere Drummond,[8][9] an English banker, aristocrat and son ofGeorge Henry de Vere Drummond. Early in Vaughn's life, Robert Vaughn had asked for the child's surname to be the same as his, and Vaughn continues to be his professional name, though he uses de Vere Drummond in his personal life,[8] having changed it bydeed poll in May 2002.[1]
Vaughn's early education was atSussex House School in central London,[10] followed byStowe School in Buckinghamshire. From 2017 until 2022, he was the president of the Old Stoics, a society for former students of Stowe School.[11]
Aged 25, Vaughn produced a low-budget thriller,The Innocent Sleep (1996), starringAnnabella Sciorra andMichael Gambon.[12] He continued as a producer on his friendGuy Ritchie's filmLock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The film was a critical, popular and financial success, earning Vaughn and Ritchie £9 million each.[citation needed] Vaughn later produced Ritchie'sSnatch andSwept Away.
Vaughn made his directorial debut in 2004 withLayer Cake. The film was well received and its success led to Vaughn being tapped to directX-Men: The Last Stand (2006), but he dropped out only two weeks before filming began. Subsequently, he said the film was "pretty good" given the limited time they had to make it,[13] but he was critical ofBrett Ratner's direction of the film.[14] For his next project he co-wrote and directedStardust, followed by amovie adaptation ofMark Millar'sKick-Ass in 2010. Vaughn directed and co-wrote the first film in the prequel trilogy of theX-Men film universe titledX-Men: First Class (2011).[15] Vaughn was signed to return to the series as director of the sequel,X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), but dropped out in favour ofBryan Singer who had directed the first two films in the original trilogy,X-Men andX2. Vaughn remained attached to the film by co-writing the script.[16]
Vaughn's next directorial project, wasKingsman: The Secret Service (2014), an adaptation of the comic bookThe Secret Service created by Millar andDave Gibbons from a concept by Millar and an initially uncredited Vaughn himself (Vaughn being credited as the comic's co-creator on all republications since 2014).[17] The film was scripted by Vaughn andJane Goldman, and produced by Vaughn's production company Marv Films.[18][19][20][21][22][23] Vaughn returned to direct, produce, and co-write theKingsman sequel,Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which was released in theaters in September 2017. Vaughn also directed and provided the story forThe King's Man, the third instalment in the franchise serving as a prequel to the original film. Delayed from November 2019 due to both the schedule shuffle followingDisney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox and the subsequentCOVID-19 pandemic, the film was released on 22 December 2021.
In March 2017,Collider reported that Vaughn was top choice to directMan of Steel 2;[24] in September of that year, Vaughn confirmed that he was in negotiations with the studio to helm the project.[25] By March 2019, Vaughn stated that discussions with Warner Bros. had ended, and he was no longer involved with development of the film.[26]
Vaughn began working on spy filmArgylle in 2021, an original story written byJason Fuchs and starring anensemble cast includingHenry Cavill,Sam Rockwell,Bryce Dallas Howard,Samuel L. Jackson,Bryan Cranston andJohn Cena.[27] The film premiered in January 2024, and was released byUniversal Pictures andApple Original Films.[28]
In January 2024, Vaughn announced that he would be producing a thirdKick-Ass film, titledStuntnuts Does School Fight, directed by his longtime stunt coordinatorDamien Walters in his feature film debut, which had secretly already been greenlit and had completed filming.[29] also announcing two further films in theKick-Ass franchise to be in development, to be produced by him as a trilogy, under the working titlesVram andKick-Ass.[29]
In April 2025, Vaughn announced his involvement in a new film production studio, "UR•MARV", in collaboration with Portuguese footballerCristiano Ronaldo.[30]
On 25 May 2002, Vaughn married German supermodelClaudia Schiffer inSuffolk.[31] The couple have a son and two daughters, the youngest born in 2010.[32][33] They have resided atColdham Hall,Stanningfield, Suffolk, since 2002, and also have homes inNotting Hill,London andNorthamptonshire.[34]
Vaughn has identified himself politically as aconservative and a supporter of theConservative Party.[35] According to a 2015 article byThe Guardian, Vaughn has served on the committee of aTory fundraising ball, and had been one of the 103 signatories of a letter sent toThe Daily Telegraph, that backedDavid Cameron andGeorge Osborne’s lowering of the corporation tax and criticisedEd Miliband's attempt to introduce a law banningzero-hour contracts.[36][37][38]
Vaughn was appointed aKnight Bachelor in the2024 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours for services to the creative industries.[2][39]
Vaughn is a minority stakeholder in English Premier league teamBrentford FC.[40]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Layer Cake | Yes | No | Yes |
| 2007 | Stardust | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2010 | Kick-Ass | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| The Debt | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 2011 | X-Men: First Class | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2014 | X-Men: Days of Future Past | No | Story | Yes |
| Kingsman: The Secret Service | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2017 | Kingsman: The Golden Circle | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2021 | The King's Man | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2024 | Argylle | Yes | No | Yes |
Producer only
Executive producer
Producer
Work Actor | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | ||||||||||
| Randall Batinkoff |  Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Geoff Bell | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Sofia Boutella | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Henry Cavill | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Sophie Cookson | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Taron Egerton | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Colin Firth | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Jason Flemyng | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 | |||||
| Dexter Fletcher | Y | Y | Y | 3 | ||||||
| Michael Gambon | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Tamer Hassan | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Edward Holcroft | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Hanna Alström | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Samuel L. Jackson | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Aaron Taylor-Johnson | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Corey Johnson | Y | Y | Y | 3 | ||||||
| Sienna Miller | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Sam Rockwell | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Mark Strong | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 | |||||
| Samantha Womack | Y | Y | 2 |
Work Crew | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | ||||||||||
| Adam Bohling | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 6 | |||
| Ben Davis | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 | |||||
| Jane Goldman | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | ||||
| Eddie Hamilton | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 | |||||
| Jon Harris | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | ||||
| Henry Jackman | Y | Y | Y | Y | 4 | |||||
| Matthew Margeson | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | ||||
| George Richmond | Y | Y | Y | 3 | ||||||
| Lee Smith | Y | Y | 2 | |||||||
| Take That | Y | Y | Y | 3 |
Mark Millar: "This education of a 21st Century super-spy forms the structure of the story. I can't give too much away because Matthew Vaughn and I co-conceived the thing withDave [Gibbons], and Vaughn is literally right now writing the screenplay of the movie, so we're on anon-disclosure agreement for a little while yet. But basically, if I had to say anything else about it, I would say that this is our version ofS.H.I.E.L.D. orU.N.C.L.E. or any of those brilliant super-spy concepts, but seen through that skewed perspective we brought to superheroes in'Kick-Ass.' It feels very, very fresh. I don't think there's ever been a comic like this and all three of us are very excited about it. I've wanted to work with Dave since I was sixteen [so] it had to be something big."
Matthew Vaughn, a film producer, was the surprise signatory to yesterday's letter to The Telegraph praising Tory policies for business and warning that a second Labour term would "pose a significant risk to Britain's future prosperity". [...] Friends say Mr Vaughn is a natural Conservative. He is a strong supporter of country sports, going shooting and fishing with [Guy Ritchie] and Vinnie Jones, the former footballer who has become an actor. He also values the freedom of the individual. One ally said: "He has a strong belief in ambition - he supports the Thatcherite dream that the individual can achieve anything regardless of background."
Matthew Vaughn: Film producer, owner of Marv Films. Has served on the committee of Tory fundraising ball. Dined at Chequers with model Claudia Schiffer, according to a Press Association freedom of information request
