Spotlight on Tom Hiddleston

London born and Cambridge educated, Tom Hiddleston seems an unlikely candidate to play country singer Hank Williams in 'I Saw the Light.' But as this gallery will show, Tom Hiddleston can play just about anybody.

Hiddleston was just 20 when he made his screen debut in this U.K. TV movie based on the Charles Dickens novel. It was a minor role, as a cohort of the evil Sir Mulberry Hawk (Dominic West), but it was a good start.

Hiddleston continued to do small parts on British TV as he finished his training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Here he played Randolph Churchill, son of Winston, who was portrayed by the great Albert Finney.

Hiddleston's first feature film was this low-budget English drama set in Italy's Tuscany region, in which he played a young vacationer. The cast included another Hiddleston: Tom's little sister Emma.

The actor reunited with 'Unrelated' writer-director Joanna Hogg for another modest indie. Even though he was keeping busy on U.K. television and the London stage, he couldn't have known that superstardom was just around the corner.

'Thor' director Kenneth Branagh had worked with Hiddleston on the 2008 British TV series 'Wallander' and asked him to audition. Hiddleston, a natural blond, originally tried out for Thor, but was instead cast as the villainous Loki. The rest is history.

In 2010, as 'Thor' was being filmed, word got out about Tom – and suddenly everyone wanted to work with him. The first was Woody Allen, who cast him as F. Scott Fitzgerald in his hit fantasy. (That’s Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald.)

After spending a few days with Woody Allen, Hiddleston's next director was another legend: Steven Spielberg. Hiddleston (right) and fellow rising star Benedict Cumberbatch (left) had memorable supporting roles in this World War I epic.

The fourth film Tom Hiddleston shot in 2010, a quietly devastating WWII romance starring Rachel Weisz, may have been the smallest. But it gave the actor plenty of opportunity to display his tremendous range.

Playing the bad guy in the year's biggest movie may not guarantee you a spot on the A list, but it helps when you steal every scene you're in. ‘The Avengers’ won Hiddleston millions of fans, and his Loki would return in 2013's 'Thor: The Dark World.'

Reminding the world that he's not just a comic book villain, Hiddleston took on the complex role of Prince Hal, later King Henry V, in three of four episodes of this ambitious BBC series based on Shakespeare plays.

It’s hard to believe that the part of this world-weary vampire was first meant for Michael Fassbender. We can't imagine anyone besides Tom Hiddleston in the role. Tilda Swinton is equally great in Jim Jarmusch's critically lauded film.

Aside from a funny cameo in 2014's 'Muppets Most Wanted,' Hiddleston's next big film was Guillermo del Toro's gothic horror-fantasy. Although 'Crimson Peak' was unjustly ignored at the box office, its fan base is already secured.

'I Saw the Light' and 'High-Rise' both premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2015. And although the darkly surreal 'High-Rise,' about life in a bizarre London high-rise building, couldn't be more different than 'I Saw the Light,' both will surely be remembered for Tom Hiddleston's amazing work.