| Real Name: | John Carl Dinklage |
| Birthday: | October 27, 1931 |
| Net Worth: | $100,000-$500,000. |
| Height: | 175 cm |
| Occupation: | Father of John Carl Dinklage |
John Carl Dinklage is a celebrity in Hollywood thanks to his famous younger son, Peter Dinklage. John is a celebrity father, who works as a salesman. His son, Peter, on the other hand, is one of the most famous actors in Hollywood.
Peter got international recognition thanks to his outstanding performance in The Game of Thrones. Let’s find out more about John and his son.
Story Stages
Who Is His Famous Son?
As we said before, John got widely famous because of his son. Born Peter Hayden Dinklage in June 1969, he is an American actor appearing in film, television series, and theatre productions. Peter got international recognition for portraying Tyrion Lannister in the HBO television drama series Game of Thrones from 2011 to 2019.
For that outstanding performance, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor a record four times. In 2011, he also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Born in June 1969 in the Jersey Shore region of New Jersey, he grew up in the historic Brookside section of Mendham Township. There, he spent his childhood with his parents and his older brother, Jonathan Dinklage.
Peter is the only member of the family with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. As a child, he and his brother performed puppet musicals for people in the neighborhood. Peter describes his brother Jonathan Dinklage as the real performer of the family.
His older brother plays the violin and graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Jonathan is a violinist and concertmaster for the musical Hamilton.
Back to Peter, he attended Bennington College, where he studied for a drama degree. Before graduating in 1991, Peter appeared in several productions. Then, he moved to New York City with his friend Ian Bell to start a theater company. Yet, because they failed to pay rent, they moved out of their apartment.
Initially, he struggled to find acting work. One of the reasons for that was he refused to take the roles typically offered to actors with dwarfism, usually elves and leprechauns.
Fun fact: he made his film debut in the comedy-drama Living in Oblivion. In that story, he portrays a frustrated actor with dwarfism who complains about his clichéd roles. Then, he appeared in the crime drama Bullet, starring rapper Tupac Shakur.
He got his breakthrough role in the 2003 movie The Station Agent. What attracted him to the role was that he portrayed a character that was not a stereotypical one. That role earned him an Independent Spirit Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actor.
And then came The Game of Thrones. From 2011 to 2019, Dinklage portrayed Tyrion Lannister in the HBO fantasy drama.
Fun fact: he was the first actor to be cast according to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. They wanted him as the first choice for the role, because his “core of humanity, covered by a shell of sardonic dry wit, is pretty well in keeping with the character”.
Because he was unfamiliar with the source material, he was cautious in his first meeting. He hoped that as a dwarf, he would not have to play elves or leprechauns. But they explained to him that the character was a different kind of fantasy little person. In Peter’s words, “No beard, no pointy shoes, a romantic, real human being”.
Thanks to his popularity, Peter has then appeared in numerous films, including My Dinner with Herve, I Care a Lot, I Think We’re Alone Now, Rememory, Avengers: Infinity War, Death at a Funeral, Pixels, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Boss, The Angry Birds Movie, and more.
Fun fact: while Peter refused clichéd roles, he actually appeared in the movie Elf in 2003, alongside James Caan, Bob Newhart, Will Ferrell, and Zooey Deschanel.
Peter has a common form of dwarfism, known as achondroplasia. He stands 4 ft 5 in tall. Over the years, he has used his celebrity status to raise awareness regarding dwarfs.
Quick Bio
Now let’s take a look at the life of his father. As we said before, Peter is the only one in the family with a form of dwarfism. So, no, his father is not a dwarf.
John Carl Dinklage was born in October 1931 in Morristown, Morris County, New Jersey. He has an American nationality and is of Irish-German ethnicity. He was raised there by his parents Ray Dinklage and Florence Dinklage. There is no information regarding the occupation of his parents.
He is an everyday man who worked a 9 to 5 job for his entire life. Speaking about his personal life, it is kept a secret. There is no information regarding his early life, educational background, or more about his professional career.
John rose to prominence as his son Peter became more and more popular. Speaking about his marriage ceremony with his wife, John has said it was nothing special, a primary ceremony with vows.
He works as an insurance salesman for a living. He got married to his wife in 1966. At the time, John Carl Dinklage was 35 years of age. His wife is Diane E Hayden, who has since changed her name to Diane Dinklage. At the time of their wedding in 1966, Diane was 23 years of age.
While he is not part of the entertainment industry, both of his sons have established a career. His older son is Jonathan Dinklage, a lead violinist for Hamilton. Jonathan has received praise from his peers in the music enterprise.
It is Jonathan who is more fond of John’s spouse, Diane. The two share a bond since Diane worked as an elementary college music instructor. They often interact and listen to music together.
Is He On Social Media?
It is rare to find a celebrity father on Instagram or any other social media platform. John Carl Dinklage is the same. He doesn’t want publicity and stays away from the media.
His son Peter is a celebrity, but he also doesn’t have an Instagram account. You can find a fan account with more than 4 million followers. But that is not the real Peter.
You can read it in the about section, “Don’t bother telling the word you are ready. Show it. Do it. I am not Peter Dinklage, fan account”.
Net Worth
We said John has worked a 9 to 5 job his whole life. He earns a decent living working as an insurance salesman. Over the years, he has accumulated a net worth of $100,000 to $500,000.
His son, Peter, on the other hand, has a net worth of more than $25 million. For the late episodes of the television drama series Game of Thrones, Peter earned more than $1 million per episode.
