Gabriel Byrne Biography
Summary
"Gabriel James Byrne" (born 12 May, 1950) is an Irish actor.
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. He attended University College Dublin, where he studied archaeology and linguistics, becoming proficient in Irish.
Career
Byrne worked in archaeology when he left UCD but maintained his love of the language, writing the first drama in Irish, "Draiocht", 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 did work as 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 will star as a therapist in the upcoming HBO series, "In Treatment".
Personal life
Byrne mentions in interviews and in his 1995 autobiography, "Pictures in my Head" (ISBN 0-86327-709-8), that he hates being called "brooding".
Byrne married actress Ellen Barkin and has two children with her, 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 2007 the 5th Dublin International Film Festival presented Byrne with the first of the newly created Volta awards, for lifetime achievement in acting. On February 20th, 2007 he received the Honorary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society, of Trinity College, Dublin.
Filmography
"The Riordans" (1965) (TV series)
"Bracken" (1978) (TV series)
"Excalibur" (1981)
"Hanna K." (1983)
"The Keep" (1983)
"Defence of the Realm" (1985)
"Gothic" (1986)
"Lionheart" (1987)
"Shipwrecked" (1990)
"Miller's Crossing" (1990)
"Into the West" (1992)
"Cool World" (1992)
"Point of No Return" (1993)
"Trial by Jury" (1994)
"Little Women" (1994)
"Dead Man" (1995)
"The Usual Suspects" (1995)
"Mad Dog Time" (1996)
"This Is the Sea" (1997)
"The End of Violence" (1997)
"The Brylcreem Boys" (1997)
"Smilla's Sense of Snow" (1997)
"Polish Wedding" (1998)
"The Man in the Iron Mask" (1998)
"Quest for Camelot" (1998) (voice)
"Enemy of the State" (1998)
"Stigmata" (1999)
"End of Days" (1999)
"Spider" (2002)
"Ghost Ship" (2002)
"Shade" (2003)
"Vanity Fair" (2004)
"P.S." (2004)
"The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (2004)
"Assault on Precinct 13" (2005)
"Wah-Wah" (2005)
"Jindabyne" (2006)
"In Treatment" (2007) (TV Series)
"Emotional Arithmetic" (2007) (post-production)
"King of the Pipers" (2008) (in production)
External links
(Gabriel Byrne's entry in Art of Amnesty)
(JewReview.net Gabriel Byrne video interview on Jindabyne and In Treatment)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Gabriel Byrne.
