Okay, let's say his name together, to make sure everyone can do it properly. Yoh-ahn Grih-ffith. Now your turn. No, try it again, but do it with a lighter tongue. Make it lilt. It's beautiful; you sound like you've got a mouth full of walnuts and a kazoo up your nose. ::sigh:: You're useless. You really are.

Because you couldn't tell from his name (which, incidentally, is the best name in the world), Ioan is Welsh. And not Welsh like Christian Bale, who was born in Pembrookshire but was raised all over the world and now lives in California. Christian is *Welsh*, but he's not Welsh. Ioan was born in Cardiff (which, in and of itself, sounds more Welsh than Pembrookshire) and is fluent in the language. Now, you may be thinking, "Fluent in Welsh? I've tried to learn a bit of Welsh, and it's absolutely impossible. "I"s can be consonants and "W"s can be vowels, and it makes my head hurt. How can anyone possibly be fluent in it?" Well, I hear that it's much easier when it's your first language. Isn't that COOL! And he's very proud of his heritage, which is even cooler. Cause Wales is simply awesome.

But that isn't the only reason he rocks my world. He's also "yummy with a spoon," a description I understand one of Captain Chaotica!!'s friends uses about him fairly regularly. And he's a brilliant actor. Okay, so I've only seen him in three things (bloody obscure British actors... Can't see their freaking movies...). I first saw him many moons ago as Officer Lowe the one time I sat through all of Titanic. And somehow, following the tragic death scene, I was too busy cackling to hear the most gorgeous voice asking "Is anyone alive out there? Can anyone hear me?" In eighth grade, my History teacher played the first two episodes of Horatio Hornblower, and I took the opportunity to read...I don't know. Something. But for some reason (I wonder why...), I remembered Horatio jumping into the water to investigate the damage to the ship in the first and the gauntlet in the second. [shrug]

And then I met CC!!, and she kept talking about Horatio Hornblower and the guy who starred in it and how he would be perfect as Imp y Celin in Soul Music. So when I found 102 Dalmatians at my grandparents' and shoved it in to see what depths Eric Idle had sunk to, I was rather pleasantly surprised when I saw his name in the opening credits. Though that was nothing compared to how pleasantly surprised I was when I saw him and realized just how incredibly much he actually looked like Imp as illustrated by the good people at Cosgrove Hall. I was impressed even by his portrayal of Kevin Shepherd (who, incidentally, made it into my harem), so I went back and watched the entire Hornblower series, as well as the last few minutes of Titanic. Gruffudd has also been in The Forsyte Saga, Black Hawk Down, and a whole bunch of stuff I doubt you've ever heard of. If you really care, go to IMDb.

One last thing - a bit of a brag, actually - and I'll let you be on your way (on to the pictures! ^_^). I was watching Hornblower about a year and a half ago and thought "Wow. Look at his facial muscles... That guy has to be a clarinet player. I later came to the same conclusion about Guy Pierce. Well, I was right about one of them... Pierce does, indeed, play clarinet. It has recently come to my attention that Gruffudd actually played oboe.

Psst! You wanna know a secret? He's even more talented than you think! He can...sing! Click here and scroll down to the picture of the teeny, tiny version of Ioan - the adorable boy in the white dress shirt and tie - and listen to "The Pancake Song" (in Welsh! Eee!) Try not to faint. And if that didn't completely incapacitate you, check out my Horatio Hornblower Image Gallery

It's not polite to stare.

Created August 1, 2003.