Brendan Gleeson 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 RTÉ 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 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 since 1982.
He has four boys; Domhnall, Bríain, Fergus and Rúairí.
Domhnall and Bríain are also actors."Capturing the Glee factor", 16 July 2011, The Irish
Times.
Gleeson speaks fluent Irish and is an advocate of the promotion of the Irish language.
Filmography References
External links Brendan Gleeson at the Internet Movie Database