Josef and Adele Fassbender may have raised a highly successful son, but they failed in one respect: they couldn’t dissuade him from becoming an actor.

The long and sometimes rocky road to Hollywood began in simple schoolboy settings for actor Michael Fassbender, 36, nominated for an Oscar tomorrow night for his role in 12 Years a Slave.

THE WORDS “cat” and “cream” immediately spring to mind, when a beaming Michael Fassbender comes loping into the Dorchester Hotel in London this week.