Reference.com

Gabriel Byrne

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Gabriel James Byrne (born 12 May, 1950) is an Irish actor. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before joining London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1979. His film debut came in John Boorman’s 1981 Arthurian epic, Excalibur. Byrne has starred in over thirty-five feature films, including The Usual Suspects, Miller's Crossing, Stigmata and Into the West, as well as producing three pictures and writing two.

Biography

Early life

Byrne, the first of six children, was born in Dublin Ireland, the son of a cooper and a hospital worker. Byrne was raised Catholic and educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. Despite spending five years of his childhood in a seminary training to be a priest, he said in an interview: "I spent five years in the seminary and I suppose it was assumed that you had a vocation. I have realised subsequently that I didn't have one at all. I don't believe in God. But I did believe at the time in this notion that you were being called." . He attended University College Dublin, where he studied archaeology and linguistics, becoming proficient in Irish. He played football in Dublin with the famous Stella Maris Football Club in Drumcondra and has fond memories of his time spent there.

Career

Byrne worked in archaeology when he left UCD but maintained his love of the language, writing the first drama in Irish, Draíocht, on Ireland's national Irish Language television station, TG4 when it began broadcasting in 1996.

Byrne discovered his passion for acting later in his life. Before becoming an actor, he worked at everything from an archaeologist to a cook, to a bullfighter to a Spanish schoolteacher. When he finally found acting aged 29, he began his career on stage with the Focus Theatre and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, later joining the Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre in London.

Byrne came to prominence on the final season of the Irish television show The Riordans, subsequently starring in his own spin-off series, Bracken. He made his film debut in 1981 as Lord Uther in John Boorman's classic King Arthur epic, Excalibur. He first visited the United States when he was 37. Byrne has won four awards for his acting: in 1979 the Jacobs' Award for Best Actor in a TV series for Bracken; 1999 the Theatre World Award for A Moon for the Misbegotten; and in 2000 the Outstanding Award for Irish Culture for Wild Geese.

Byrne currently stars as therapist Dr. Paul Weston in the new, critically acclaimed HBO primetime weeknight series In Treatment. He has recently been coined as TV's "latest Dr. McDreamy" by the New York Times for this role.

Personal life

Byrne married actress Ellen Barkin by whom he has two children, Jack Daniel (born 1989) and Romy Marion (born 1992). The couple separated amicably in 1993 and divorced in 1999. Byrne is a fan of Chelsea FC and resides in Brooklyn, New York.

In November 2004, Byrne was appointed a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador.

At the 5th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2007, the actor was presented with the first of the newly created Volta awards, for lifetime achievement in acting. He also received the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society, of Trinity College, Dublin on February 20, 2007. In November of that same year, he was awarded an honorary degree by the National University of Ireland, Galway; the president of the University, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, said that this award is in recognition of Byrne's "outstanding contribution to Irish and international film".

Byrne often mentions in interviews that he hates being called brooding, something that he commented about in his 1995 autobiography, Pictures In My Head.

Filmography

References

External links



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 06:01:10 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation