The English-born, American-raised Mark Rylance returned to England to attend RADA and became one of the new breed of actors who pledge to do both new works and offer vibrant new interpretations of the classics. Rylance won praise in Britain with his TV portrayal of John Healy, an alcoholic boxer-turned-chess champion in "The Grass Arena" (1991). He also had a supporting role in the miniseries, "Wallenberg: A Hero's Story" (NBC, 1985).

Rylance had small roles in "The McGuffin" (1985) and "Hearts of Fire" (1987), which was supposed to be Bob Dylan's film "comeback", but was only released in the