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Gabriel Byrne

Gabriel James Byrne (Irish: Gabriel Séamas Ó Broin ; born 12 May, 1950) is an Emmy- and Tony-nominated Irish actor, film director, film producer and writer, as well as a Grammy-nominated audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's TV début came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the spin-off show Bracken. The 1981 Arthurian epic, Excalibur, marked the start of his film career; the actor has now starred in over thirty-five feature films, such as The Usual Suspects, Miller's Crossing, Stigmata and The Man in the Iron Mask, in addition to writing two. Byrne's producing credits include the Academy Award-nominated In the Name of the Father.

Biography

Early life

Byrne, the first of six children, was born in Dublin, Ireland, the son of a cooper, Dan, and a hospital nurse, Eileen (née Gannon). His siblings are Donal, Thomas, Breda, Margaret, and Marian, who had passed away at a young age. 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 his language, writing the first drama in Irish, Draíocht, on Ireland's national Irish television station, TG4, when it began broadcasting in 1996.

He discovered his passion for acting later in his life. Before becoming an actor, Byrne 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 Royal National Theatre in London.

The actor 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 début in 1981 as Lord Uther in John Boorman's classic King Arthur epic, Excalibur.

Byrne currently stars as therapist Dr. Paul Weston in the new, critically acclaimed HBO primetime weeknight series In Treatment. He was coined as TV's "latest Dr. McDreamy" by the New York Times for this role, and received his first-ever Emmy Award nomination (Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series) for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (although he lost out to Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad) held on September 21, 2008.

Upon his return to theatre in 2008, he appeared as King Arthur in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot with the New York Philharmonic from May 7 to May 10, following the footsteps of veteran actors Richard Burton and Richard Harris.

Personal life

The actor did not set foot in America until he was 37. He now holds both Irish and US citizenship.

In 1988, Byrne married actress Ellen Barkin with 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 currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, and is a fan of Chelsea FC.

The actor is also actively involved in various charities, in addition to being a human rights activist. In 2004, Byrne was appointed a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador. He became a patron of Croi (The West of Ireland Cardiology Foundation) in 1997 in response to the superb care given to his mother while she was a patient in a Galway hospital, and has worked tirelessly for the Foundation since.

At the 5th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2007, Byrne 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 the actor's "outstanding contribution to Irish and international film".

As of 2008, he is dating actress Anna George. In the past, Byrne has been romantically linked with actress Julia Ormond (his co-star in Smilla's Sense of Snow) and model Naomi Campbell.

Although the actor is noted as a fiercely private person, he released a documentary for the 20th Galway Film Fleadh in the summer of 2008 called Stories from Home; an intimate portrait about his life.

Byrne mentioned in interviews and his 1995 autobiography, Pictures In My Head that he hates being called brooding. For the past few years, he has been listed by People as one of the "Sexiest Men Alive". Entertainment Weekly has also recently dubbed Byrne as one of the hottest celebrities over the age of 50.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	The Riordans (TV series)	Pat Barry
1978	Bracken (TV series)	Pat Barry	This role won him the Jacob's Award for Best Actor in a Television Series in 1979.
1981	Excalibur	Uther Pendragon	This was Byrne's breakthrough role in the film industry.
1983	Hanna K.	Joshua Herzog
1983	The Keep	Major Kaempffer
1984	Reflections	William Masters
1985	Defence of the Realm	Nicholas 'Nick' Mullen	Byrne was first introduced to an American audience in this film.
1986	Gothic	Lord Byron
1987	Lionheart	The Black Prince
	Julia and Julia	Paolo Vinci
	Hello Again	Dr. Kevin Scanlon
	Siesta	Augustine	Byrne met his future wife, Ellen Barkin, on the set of this movie.
	The Courier	Val
	A Soldier's Tale	Saul
1989	Dark Obsession	Lord Hugo Bruckton
1990	Miller's Crossing	Tom Reagan	This film was chosen by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the 100 greatest films ever made.
1990	Shipwrecked	Lt. John Merrick
1992	Into the West	Papa Reilly	Also the associate producer
1992	Cool World	Jack Deebs
1993	Point of No Return	Bob
1993	A Dangerous Woman	Colin Mackey
1994	A Simple Twist of Fate	John Newland
	Trial By Jury	Daniel Graham
	Little Women	Professor Friedrich Bhaer
	Prince of Jutland	Fenge
1995	The Usual Suspects	Dean Keaton
	Buffalo Girls (TV movie)	Teddy Blue
	Dead Man	Charlie Dickinson
	Frankie Starlight	Jack Kelly
1996	Draiocht (TV movie)	Father	Byrne wrote this drama himself.
	Mad Dog Time	Ben London
	The Last of the High Kings	Jack Griffin	Also the writer and executive producer
	Dr. Hagard's Disease		Also the executive producer
	The Lark in the Clear Air	Executive producer, writer and director
	Somebody is Waiting	Roger Ellis	Also the co-producer
1997	Smilla's Sense of Snow	The mechanic
	The End of Violence	Ray Bering
	Weapons of Mass Distraction (TV movie)	Lionel Powers
	This is the Sea	Rohan
1998	Polish Wedding	Bolek
	The Man in the Iron Mask	D'Artagnan
	The Brylcreem Boys	Sean O'Brien	Also the co-producer
	Quest for Camelot (animated)	Sir Lionel (voice)
	Enemy of the State	Fake Brill
1999	Stigmata	Father Andrew Kiernan
1999	End of Days	The Man/Satan	He went from playing a priest in Stigmata to Satan in the same year.
2000	Madigan Men (TV series)	Benjamin 'Ben' Madigan	Also the co-executive producer
2002	Virginia's Run	Ford Lofton
	Spider	Bill Cleg
	Emmett's Mark	Jack Marlow/Stephen Bracken
	Ghost Ship	Captain Sean Murphy
2003	Shade	Charlie Miller
2004	Vanity Fair	The Marquess of Steyne
	P.S.	Peter Harrington
	The Bridge of San Luis Rey	Brother Juniper
2005	Assault on Precinct 13	Captain Marcus Duvall
2005	Wah-Wah	Harry Compton
2006	Played	Eddie
2006	Jindabyne	Stewart Kane
2007	Leningrad	Phillip Parker
2007	Emotional Arithmetic	Christopher Lewis
2008	In Treatment (TV series)	Dr. Paul Weston	His first Emmy Award nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series
2009	King of the Pipers (in production)	Michael
2009	The Snow Prince (in production)	Rumoured role

Theatre/Musical

Year	Theatre	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Broadway	A Moon for the Misbegotten	James 'Jim' Tyrone, Jr.	Nominated for a Tony Award (Best Actor in a Play) and Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Actor in a Play) Winner of the Theatre World Award
2003	Off-Broadway	The Exonerated	Kerry Max Cooke
2005	Broadway	A Touch of the Poet	Cornelius Melody	Winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play
2008	Off-Broadway	Camelot	King Arthur	Performance for the New York Philharmonic's annual musical event from May 7-10, 2008

Awards and nominations

Year	Event	Award/Category	Nominated/Won	Notes
1979	Jacob's Awards	Jacob's Award for Best Actor in a TV Series (Drama)	Won	For Bracken
1987	Fantasporto	International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor	Won	For Gothic and Defence of the Realm
1995	National Board of Review of Motion Pictures	NBR Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble	Won	For The Usual Suspects (with Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey, Benicio del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, Suzy Amis and Giancarlo Esposito)
1998	Satellite Awards	Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television	Nominated	For Weapons of Mass Distraction
1998	Grammy Awards	Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album (Children)	Nominated	For The Star-Child and The Nightingale and the Rose (Oscar Wilde)''
1999	Cinequest Film Festival	Maverick Tribute Award	Won
2000	Theatre World Awards	Theatre World Award for Acting	Won	For A Moon for the Misbegotten
	Tony Awards	Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play	Nominated	For A Moon for the Misbegotten
	Razzie Awards	Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor	Nominated	For End of Days and Stigmata
	Blockbuster Entertainment Awards	Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favourite Actor (Horror)	Nominated	For Stigmata
2005	Irish Film and Television Awards	IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film	Nominated	For Wah-Wah
2006	Inside Film Awards	IF Award for Best Actor	Nominated	For Jindabyne
	Australian Film Institute Awards	AFI Award for Best Lead Actor	Nominated	For Jindabyne
	Outer Critics Circle Awards	Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play	Won	For A Touch of the Poet
2007	Jameson Dublin International Film Festival	Volta Award for Lifetime Achievement in Acting	Won	This was the first year for the presentation of the award.
2008	Irish Film and Television Awards	IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Feature Film	Nominated	For Jindabyne
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series	Nominated	For In Treatment
	Dingle Film Festival	Gregory Peck Excellence in the Art of Film Award	Won	This is the first year for the presentation of the award, which was named in honour of the late Gregory Peck.