Brendan Gleeson Biography

Brendan Gleeson (born 29 March 1955) is an Irish actor. His best-known films include Braveheart, Gangs of New York, In Bruges, 28 Days Later, Troy, the Harry Potter films, The Guard and the role of Michael Collins in The Treaty. He won an Emmy Award in 2009 for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the film Into the Storm.

Early life

Gleeson was born in Dublin, the son of Pat and Frank Gleeson. Gleeson has described himself as having been an avid reader as a child. He received his second level education at St. Joseph's CBS in Fairview, Dublin where he was a member of the school drama group. After training as an actor, he returned to Ireland and worked for several years as a secondary school teacher of Irish and English at the now defunct Catholic Belcamp College in North County Dublin, which closed in 2004. He was working simultaneously as an actor while teaching, doing semi-professional and professional productions in Dublin and surrounding areas. He left the teaching profession to commit full-time to acting in 1991.

Career

Gleeson started his film career at the age of 34. He first came to prominence in Ireland for his role as Michael Collins in The Treaty, a television film broadcast on RT"? One, and for which he won a Jacob's Award in 1992. He has acted in such films as Braveheart, I Went Down, Michael Collins, Gangs of New York, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Lake Placid, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Mission: Impossible II, and The Village. He won critical acclaim for his performance as Irish gangster Martin Cahill in John Boorman's 1998 film The General.

In 2003, Gleeson was the voice of Hugh the Miller in an episode of the Channel 4 animated series Wilde Stories.

While Gleeson portrayed Irish statesman Michael Collins in The Treaty, he later portrayed Collins' close collaborator Liam Tobin in the film Michael Collins with Liam Neeson taking the role of Collins. Gleeson later went on to portray Winston Churchill in Into the Storm. Gleeson won an Emmy Award for his performance. Gleeson played Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody in the fourth, fifth and seventh Harry Potter films. His son Domhnall played Bill Weasley in the seventh film.

Gleeson provided the voice of Abbot Cellach in The Secret of Kells, an animated film co-directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey of Cartoon Saloon which premiered in February 2009 at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Gleeson starred in the short film Six Shooter in 2006, which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. This film was written and directed by Martin McDonagh who also wrote and directed In Bruges in 2008. The film, and Gleeson's performance, enjoyed huge critical acclaim, earning Gleeson several award nominations, including his first Golden Globe nomination. In the movie, Gleeson plays a mentor-like figure for Colin Farrell's hitman. In his review of In Bruges, Roger Ebert described the elder Gleeson as having a "noble shambles of a face and the heft of a boxer gone to seed."

Gleeson will be making his directorial debut in a film adaptation of Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim Two Birds. The Irish production company Parallel Pictures will produce the film with a budget of $11 million. Colin Farrell, Gabriel Byrne, and Cillian Murphy have been attached to star in the film, which was originally set for release in 2010. In October, 2009, however, Gleeson expressed concern that the Irish Film Board's budget might be reduced given the state of the Irish economy and that At Swim Two Birds might fall through. Gleeson confirmed in July, 2011, that he has secured funding for the project. He described the writing of the script as tortuous, saying that it has taken fourteen drafts so far.

In July 2012, he started filming The Grand Seduction with Taylor Kitsch, a remake of Jean-François Pouliot's French-Canadian La Grande Séduction (2003) directed by Don McKellar.

Musical talent

Gleeson is a fiddle player, with an interest in Irish folklore. He played the fiddle during his role in Cold Mountain and in Michael Collins, and also features on Altan's 2009 live album.

Personal life

He has been married to Mary (née Weldon) since 1982. He has four sons, Domhnall, Bríain, Fergus and Rúairí. Domhnall and Bríain are also actors. His brother, Barry Gleeson, is a well-known singer in An Góilín traditional singers' club. Gleeson speaks fluent Irish and is an advocate of the promotion of the Irish language.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1989	Dear Sarah	Brendan Dowd	TV
1990	Hard Shoulder	Lorry Driver	TV
	The Field	Quarryman
1991	In the Border Country	Farmer
	Saint Oscar		TV
	The Treaty	Michael Collins	TV Jacob's Award
1992	The Bargain Shop	Jim Kennedy
	M.A.N.: Matrix Adjusted Normal	Dr. Abraham	Short
	Far and Away	Social Club Policeman
	Conneely's Choice	Josie Conneely	Short
	Into the West	Inspector Bolger
1993	The Snapper	Lester	TV
	Love Lies Bleeding	Thomas Macken	TV
1994	The Lifeboat	Leslie Parry	TV series
1995	The Life of Reilly	Patient	Short
	Braveheart	Hamish Campbell
	Kidnapped	Colin Campbell of Glenure, the Red Fox
1996	Angela Mooney	Barney Mooney
	Michael Collins	Liam Tobin
	Trojan Eddie	Ginger
1997	Angela Mooney	Barney Mooney
	Spaghetti Slow	Frank Ferguson
	Turbulence	Stubbs
	The Butcher Boy	Father Bubbles
	A Further Gesture	Richard
	I Went Down	Bunny Kelly	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Male Role Nominated"?National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
1998	Making the Cut	Flanagan	TV
	The General	Martin Cahill	Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Male Role London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year Nominated"?National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated"?New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (3rd place) Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
	This Is My Father	Garda Jim	TV
	The Tale of Sweety Barrett	Sweet Barrett
1999	Lake Placid	Sheriff Hank Keough
	My Life So Far	Jim Menries
2000	Mission: Impossible II	John C. McCloy
	Harrison's Flowers	Marc Stevenson
	Saltwater	Simple Simon
	Wild About Harry	Harry McKee	Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Feature Film
2001	J.J. Biker
	Cáca Milis	Paul	Short
	The Tailor of Panama	Michelangelo 'Mickie' Abraxas
	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Lord Johnson-Johnson
2002	28 Days Later	Frank	Nominated"?Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actor
	Gangs of New York	Walter 'Monk' McGinn
	Dark Blue	Jack Van Meter
2003	Cold Mountain	Stobrod Thewes	Nominated"?London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actor of the Year
2004	In My Country	De Jager
	Troy	Menelaus
	The Village	August Nicholson
	Six Shooter	Donnelly	Short
2005	Kingdom of Heaven	Raynald of Châtillon
	Breakfast on Pluto	John Joe Kenny
	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody	Nominated"?London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actor of the Year
2006	Studs	Walter Keegan	Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Film
	The Tiger's Tail	Liam O'Leary
2007	Black Irish	Desmond
	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
	Beowulf	Wiglaf	Voice
2008	In Bruges	Ken	Nominated"?BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated"?British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Film Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2009	The Secret of Kells	Abbot Cellach	Voice
	Into the Storm	Winston Churchill	TV Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor " Miniseries or a Movie Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television Satellite Award for Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film Nominated"?British Academy Television Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Miniseries or Television Film
	Perrier's Bounty	Darren Perrier	Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Feature Film
2010	Green Zone	Martin Brown
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows " Part 1	Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
2011	The Guard	Sergeant Gerry Boyle	Valladolid International Film Festival's Award for Best Actor Nominated"?British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in a Film Nominated"?London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actor of the Year Nominated"?San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor Nominated"?Satellite Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture
	Albert Nobbs	Dr. Holloran	Nominated"?Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Film
	The Cup	Dermot Weld
2012	Safe House	David Barlow
	The Raven	Captain Charles Hamilton
	The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (Band of Misfits)	Pirate with Gout	Voice
	The Company You Keep	Henry Osborne
2013	The Smurfs 2	Victor Doyle
	Calvary	Father James Lavelle	Post-production
	The Grand Seduction	Murray French	Filming
2014	Eliza Graves	The Alienist	Filming
TBA	At Swim-Two-Birds	TBA	Pre-production Also director
	The Shadow King	Darce	Pre-production Voice