He was born David Jude Law in South East London on December 29, 1972, the second child of Peter and Maggie (they'd earlier had a daughter, Natasha, now a photographer), and grew up in Blackheath. It remains unclear whether his name was inspired by The Beatles' Hey Jude or Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure - one hopes it was the former, the latter being so remorselessly miserable. Peter was a primary school teacher, with a pony tail. Maggie taught English to refugee kids. Into amateur dramatics, they now run their own theatre company in France.