Gabriel Byrne (born 12 May, 1950) is an Irish actor.
Born in Dublin Ireland, the first of six children born to devoutly Roman Catholic parents, Byrne was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers. He attended University College Dublin, where he studied archaeology and linguistics, becoming proficient in Irish. He 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...
Created by dipity on Jan 24, 2008
Last updated: 03/04/10 at 10:50 PM
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Jindabyne is a 2006 Australian drama film adapted from the Raymond Carver short story So Much Water So Close to Home, by award-winning director Ray Lawrence and starring an ensemble cast including Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney, Deborra-Lee Furness, John Howard. Jindabyne was filmed entirely on location in and around the town of the same name - Jindabyne, New South Wales, situated next to the Snowy Mountains. The film was written by Beatrix Christian.
Jindabyne had its world premiere at Cannes and its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was released in Australia on 20 July 2006 and was released in the United States on April 27, 2007.
Tagline: Under the surface of every life lies a mystery.
On an annual fishing trip, in isolated high country, Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis) and Billy (Simon Stone) find an aboriginal girl's body in the river; she has been brutally murdered by a local electrician. It's too late...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382765
Assault on Precinct 13 is a 2005 action / thriller movie, directed by Jean-François Richet. It is a loose remake of the 1976 movie of the same name by John Carpenter, with an updated plot, and was distributed and produced by Rogue Pictures.
Tagline:With only a few hours until the new year, Detroit's oldest police station, Precinct 13, is about to close forever. Only a few officers are on duty for New Year's Eve, including Sergeant Jake Roenick (played by Hawke). Roenick is haunted by a botched undercover operation from eight months before that resulted in the death of the other two members of his team.
Meanwhile, crime lord Marion Bishop (played by Fishburne) is arrested after a confrontation results in the death of an undercover officer. Bishop is put on a prison bus with three other criminals. A raging snowstorm and treacherous road conditions force the bus driver to make a detour to Precinct 13, where the prisoners are to be held until the storm is over.
New Year's celebrations at...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398712
P.S. is a 2004 romantic comedy, directed by Dylan Kidd. It is based on the novel of the same name written by Helen Schulman and was filmed entirely in New York City. It shares a similar plot to the 2004 movie Birth.
Louise Harrington (Laura Linney), is in her late 30s, divorced, and works in the admission's office at the Columbia University School for The Arts. She is shocked to find the application of Scott Feinstadt (Topher Grace), an artist with the same name of, and whose work bears a striking resemblance to her old high-school crush, who was killed in a car accident twenty years prior. Louise arranges an interview and, just hours after meeting, the two begin an affair. Complications arise when it is revealed that her ex-husband Peter (Gabriel Byrne), is remarrying and is being treated for sex addiction. Things are further complicated when Louise's best friend Missy (Marcia Gay Harden), who stole the original Scott from Louise before his death, hears of the "new Scott" and tries...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380609
William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair (1847 - 1848) has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations. Vanity Fair is a 2004 drama/romance film, directed by Mira Nair. This version made substantial changes, including a happy ending (see Thackery article for plot summary). It stars Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp.
The film was nominated for "Golden Lion" Award in 2004 Venice Film Festival.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241025
Shade is a 2003 neo-noir crime drama starring Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, Jamie Foxx, Roger Guenveur Smith, Melanie Griffith and Sylvester Stallone. The film follows a trio of grifters who attempt to set up a legendary card sharp nicknamed "The Dean." The film is a complex web of interwoven and branching scenes and flashbacks.The film opens in flashback with a young Dean playing in a mob-run illegal underground poker game. The game is raided by robbers who order everyone to put up their hands. The Dean reluctantly does so, revealing the card he's concealed. Incensed, a fellow player grabs a gun and starts shooting, setting off a firefight that kills everyone in the club except the Dean and one of the mobsters. The flashback freezes on the two men with their guns pointing at each others' heads and the opening credits begin.As the credits roll, Tiffany (Newton) and Charlie (Byrne), two of the three small-time hustlers, run a scam involving a phony diamond ring. The...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323939
Ghost Ship (2002) is a horror movie, directed by Steve Beck. The fictional ship Antonia Graza featured in the movie is based on a real life Italian cruise ship, the SS Andrea Doria, which sank in 1956 after colliding with another liner near Nantucket, Massachusetts. The film grossed a total of $30,113,491 in the U.S. Box Office and stars Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies and Emily Browning.
Tagline:Sea EvilThe film opens aboard an Italian ocean liner, the Antonia Graza, in the early '60s. Roughly fifty people are enjoying a formal gathering in a luxurious ballroom, as more people dance on the deck. An attractive Italian woman, Francesca, sings Senza Fine. In an outer room a gloved hand pulls a switch that unravels a very thin wire cord from a hidden spool. The cord is aligned with the side of the deck. The dancers continue, completely oblivious to the existence of the cord.
Suddenly, the spool snaps and the wire slices across the deck like a blade. People and objects alike are...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288477
Spider is a 2002 psychological thriller directed by Canadian David Cronenberg and based on the novel of the same name by Patrick McGrath, who also wrote the screenplay.
The film premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and enjoyed some media buzz; however, it was released in only a few theaters at the year's end by distributor Sony Pictures Classics. Nonetheless, the film enjoyed much acclaim by critics and especially by Cronenberg enthusiasts. The film garnered a Best Director award at the Canadian Genie Awards.
The stars of the film, Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Richardson, received a variety of foreign honours, particularly Richardson, for their work in the film.
During a Question and Answer session Cronenberg attended at the Kodak Lecture Series in May of 2005, Cronenberg revealed that neither he, Fiennes, Richarson, or the producers received any sort of salary during the shooting of the film. All chose to waive their salaries so the money could be used to fund the under-funded...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278731
End of Days is a 1999 action/horror film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Peter Hyams. It also featured Robin Tunney, Rod Steiger, Kevin Pollak, CCH Pounder, Udo Kier and Gabriel Byrne as Satan.In the year 1979, a newborn girl named Christine York is found by satanists (two of which are revealed later on as Dr. Abel, Christine's Doctor; and Mabel, Christine's guardian). They see a symbol on her arm, identifying her as the one chosen to bear Satan's son during the last hour on New Year's Eve, 1999. Just as she is being born, a priest in the Vatican witnesses a comet. This results in him being sent on a mission from the Pope to protect the girl.Twenty years later, not so long before the end of 1999, retired police officer Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) is assigned to protect a Wall Street banker (Byrne) from a rogue priest named Thomas Aquinas (played by Derrick O'Connor), who is eventually captured and taken to a mental hospital. Unknown to Jericho however, the banker's...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146675
Stigmata is a controversial film directed by Rupert Wainwright that premiered on September 10, 1999. It follows the conflict between Frankie, an atheist Pittsburgh hairdresser played by Patricia Arquette who exhibits true stigmata and Father Andrew Kiernan (played by Gabriel Byrne), a former scientist and ordained Jesuit priest who, as part of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, investigates miracles for the Vatican. Kiernan soon discovers that the stigmata stems from the spirit of Father Paul Alameida; a deeply religious priest who was ex-communicated from the Catholic Church for his discovery of a lost Gospel undermining the very foundations of Catholicism. The movie is loosely based on the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas; a document which the Vatican and most other Christians have declared as being the product of a heretical Gnostic group.
Stigmata premiered at the box office in the number one position, earning $18.3 million in its first weekend. All in all, in the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145531
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) is a film directed by Randall Wallace, and is an unofficial sequel to The Three Musketeers, as it is based very loosely on Alexandre Dumas' D'Artagnan Romances, more specifically on The Vicomte de Bragelonne. The movie circles around the aging Musketeers Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan and the reign of King Louis XIV of France. It attempts at explaining the mystery/conspiracy of The Man in the Iron Mask.
France is under the reign of a cruel and self-centered version of King Louis XIV, who spends his time declaring war, distributing rotten, disgusting, foul-smelling food to the now-rioting citizens of Paris, and seducing women who hope to win his heart and become Queen.
Aramis is now an aging priest, and Porthos likes to spend his time drinking and hanging around with women half his age (who fancy him). But Athos is different: he has a son named Raoul (in his twenties) who is prepared to join the Musketeers and has just built up enough courage to...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120744
The End of Violence is a 1997 film by the internationally renowned German director Wim Wenders. The film featured a prestigious cast which included Bill Pullman, Gabriel Byrne, Traci Lind, Rosalind Chao, Andie MacDowell, and Loren Dean among others. It also featured a distinctly Wenders soundtrack marked with the signature sounds of regulars Jon Hassell, Ry Cooder, and Bono. The film was praised by a select few critics for its stunning cinematography but performed poorly in the box office. The movie had a budget of $5 million, but only received $386,673 in its domestic box office. Like many other of Wim Wender's American movies, the film displays beautiful and original locations, for instance the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park and the Santa Monica Pier. ...
This Is the Sea is an Irish film, released in 1997, directed and written by Mary McGuckian and produced by Michael Garland. It is a romance film, focusing on the relationship between the character Hazel Stokes, played by Samantha Morton, and Malachy McAliskey, played by Ross McDade. The two lovers live in Northern Ireland. Stokes is a Protestant, while McAliskey is Catholic. Their relationship is complicated by the spying of Stokes' brother Jef, played by Marc O'Shea, and by the attempts of Rohan, played by Gabriel Byrne, to recruit McAliskey into the Republican movement. The film also stars Richard Harris as Old Man Jacobs, an ally to the couple.
The film's title comes from the song "This Is the Sea" from the 1985 music album This Is the Sea, by the folk-rock band The Waterboys. The film's soundtrack uses seven different Waterboys songs.Mike Scott, The Waterboys' lead singer, shares music credits for the film with singer Brian Kennedy.
Des Whelan is credited as Director of...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111416
Mad Dog Time (a.k.a. Trigger Happy) is a 1996 ensemble cast crime film directed by Larry Bishop, released through United Artists. The film is a cult classic[citation needed] with cameo appearances by many well-known personages, including the first movie appearance by Christopher Jones in over a quarter-century.The film was not well-received by critics on release. Roger Ebert gave the film a rare zero star rating, noting:Mad Dog Time is the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time. Oh, I've seen bad movies before. But they usually made me care about how bad they were. Watching Mad Dog Time is like waiting for the bus in a city where you're not sure they have a bus line.... Mad Dog Time should be cut into free ukulele picks for the poor. [1]The character of Gabrielle is reportedly based upon the infamous Madame Emily Robin.[citation needed]...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116953
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. It stars Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak, and Pete Postlethwaite.
It tells the story of Roger "Verbal" Kint (Spacey), a small-time con man, who is in a police interrogation, and tells his interrogator, U.S. Customs Agent David Kujan (Palminteri), a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Verbal's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on that boat, but not everything is as it seems.
The film, shot on a $6 million budget, did not create much excitement prior to its initial release and was released in few theaters, but it received favorable reviews and was given a wider release, grossing far more than expected...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814
Little Women is the 1994 film version of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel, Little Women adapted by Robin Swicord and directed by Gillian Armstrong. It stars Susan Sarandon as Marmee March, Winona Ryder as Josephine 'Jo' March, Claire Danes as Beth March, Kirsten Dunst as Younger Amy March, and Christian Bale as Theodore 'Laurie' Laurence.
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Winona Ryder, Best Costume Design, and Best Music, Original Score for composer Thomas Newman.
The movie follows the March children as they grow up during and after the American Civil War. The family is faced with major and minor problems that they confront head on sharing laughter, tears, and some awkward moments. With their father away fighting in the Civil War, the girls are lead by their strong-willed mother whom they affectionately call Marmee. One of the ways the girls find to deal with all that is going on is to create their own attic theater company...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110367
Point of No Return, known as The Assassin in some markets, is a 1993 film directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda. It is a remake of Luc Besson's 1990 film Nikita.
Maggie Hayward (Bridget Fonda), a drug addict found guilty of murdering a police officer during a burglary, is sentenced to be executed after several violent outbursts before and during her trial. With the help of Bob (Gabriel Byrne) and Amanda (Anne Bancroft) She is reluctantly reincarnated as Claudia Anne Doran, an assassin for the American government. Her code name is Nina, named after the singer Nina Simone; it is to Simone's music that she listens when she is upset, as did her late mother. Nina performs her assignments well but makes the mistake of falling in love. When she tries to quit her work as a professional killer it is all she can do to escape with her life.
Upon release, the film grossed approximately $30,038,362 (USD) and received mixed reviews.
The section could be improved by integrating...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107843
Cool World is a 1992 live-action/animated film. It was directed by Ralph Bakshi, and starred Kim Basinger, Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt. It tells the story of a cartoonist who finds himself in the animated world he created, and is seduced by one of his characters, a comic strip vamp who wants to be real. Cool World marked Bakshi's return to feature films after nine years. The film was originally pitched as an animated horror film about an underground cartoonist who fathers an illegitimate half-human/half-cartoon daughter who hates herself for what she is and tries to kill him.
During production, Bakshi's original screenplay was scrapped by producer Frank Mancuso Jr. and heavily rewritten by screenwriting duo Michael Grais and Mark Victor, best known for writing Poltergeist and Poltergeist II: The Other Side, and an uncredited Larry Gross. The film received mostly negative reviews from film critics, and was not a commercial success. Bakshi himself publicly attacked the film years after...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104009
Shipwrecked is a 1990 adventure film directed by Nils Gaup, and staring Stain Smestad, Gabriel Byrne, Louisa Millwood-Haigh, and Trond Peter Stamsø Munch. A dramatization by Norwegian author O. V. Falck-Ytter's Haakon Haakonsen. En norsk Robinson ("Haakon Haakonsen. A Norwegian Robinson"), an action-adventure story aimed at youths, it was inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and published in 1873. A young Norwegian boy in 1850's England goes to work as a cabin boy and discovers some of his shipmates are actually pirates. ...
Into the West is a 1992 film about Irish Travellers, directed by Mike Newell and written by Jim Sheridan. Music by Patrick Doyle.
Actors: Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Ruaidhri Conroy, Ciaran Fitzgerald, David Kelly, Colm Meaney, Johnny Murphy, John Kavanagh and Brendan Gleeson.
Into the West is a film about two young boys, Tito (Conroy) and Ossie (Fitzgerald), whose father (Byrne) was 'King of the travellers' until his wife, Mary, dies during the birth of their second son, Ossie. The boys' Grandfather (David Kelly) is an old story telling traveller, who regales the children with Irish folk-tales and Legends. When he is followed by a beautiful white horse called Tír na nÓg (meaning "Land of Eternal Youth" in Irish Gaelic), from the sea to Dublin, where the boys and their Father now live, the boys are overwhelmed with joy and the dreams of becoming cowboys. The horse is stolen from them and they begin their adventure to get their mystical horse back. They escape the degradation of the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104522
Miller's Crossing (1990) is a gangster film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and stars Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and John Turturro. The film's plot depicts a power struggle between two rival gangs and how the protagonist (played by Byrne) plays both sides off each other. In 2005, Time magazine chose Miller's Crossing as one of the best 100 movies made since the inception of the periodical. Time movie critic Richard Corliss said that the movie is a "noir with a touch so light, the film seems to float on the breeze like the Frisbee of a fedora sailing through the forest".
The film is set during the Prohibition era in an unnamed northeastern US city (most of the exteriors were shot in New Orleans, taking advantage of that city's vintage architecture and streetcar line) where two warring gangs face off. Leo O’Bannon (Finney), a headstrong Irishman, controls the town, but his power is in danger of being usurped by a rival gang headed by the ambitiously violent Italian, Giovanni Gasparo,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100150
Shipwrecked (1990) is an action-adventure film intended for family viewing. The movie was produced by a consortium of Scandinavian companies and released in the U.S. in a dubbed English-language version by Walt Disney Pictures. Shot on location in Fiji, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, the movie is a dramatization of Norwegian author O.V. Falck-Ytter's book Haakon Haakonsen: En Norsk Robinson (Haakon Haakonsen: A Norwegian Robinson). This adventure story aimed at young readers was inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and published in 1873. The film has received favorable reviews as a well-made adventure story for families.
Haakon Haakonsen, a young Norwegian boy in the 1850s, becomes the sole support of his family as a cabin boy on a ship after his father is injured. Jens, a family friend and a fellow shipmate of Haakon’s father, becomes an older brother to Haakon on their voyage. At first, Haakon has a difficult time adjusting to life at sea, but eventually earns the...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099816
Lionheart is a 1987 film directed by Academy Award-winner Franklin J. Schaffner. Loosely based on the historical Children's Crusade, the story follows an exiled young knight, played by Eric Stoltz, who leads a band of orphans to join the Crusade of Richard the Lionheart while protecting the children from the Black Prince (Gabriel Byrne), a disillusioned crusader turned child slave trader. Francis Ford Coppola, who had initially planned to direct the film, is credited as Executive Producer. The screenplay was written by Menno Meyjes and Richard Outten from a story by Menno Meyjes. Oscar-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score.
...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093424
Gothic is a 1986 film directed by Ken Russell. It starred Gabriel Byrne as Lord Byron, Julian Sands as Percy Bysshe Shelley, Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley and Timothy Spall as Dr John William Polidori. It features a soundtrack composed by Thomas Dolby.The film is a lurid and highly fictionalized tale based on the famous challenge to write a horror story, made while the Shelleys were staying at Byron's villa on Lake Geneva, that led to Mary Shelley's writing Frankenstein....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091142
The Keep is a 1983 horror film directed by Michael Mann and starring Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow , and a dubbed[citation needed]Ian McKellen. It was released by Paramount Pictures. The story is based on the F. Paul Wilson novel of the same name, published in 1981 (1982 in the United Kingdom).The video run time of 1:37 is thought to be a studio-ordered cut against the wishes of Michael Mann. His cut of choice is speculated to be in the three to four hour range.[citation needed]Wilson himself has expressed his distaste for the film version publicly, writing in the short story collection The Barren (and Others) that it is, "Visually intriguing, but otherwise utterly incomprehensible." When talk of a DVD release of the film came about in 2004, Wilson and a friend recorded a caustic CD commentary to go along with it, which he teased to his official mailing list [1], "The F File", although the CD appears to have never actually been released.A board game based on the film was...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085780
Excalibur is a 1981 film which retells the legend of King Arthur. It grossed USD$34,967,437 and was the 18th most successful film of that year.
Excalibur was directed by John Boorman and stars Nigel Terry (King Arthur), Helen Mirren (Arthur's half-sister Morgana), Nicol Williamson (Merlin), Nicholas Clay (Lancelot) and Cherie Lunghi (Guenevere). Even though he was 35 years old, Nigel Terry plays King Arthur from his teenage years to his ending as an aged monarch. The film also features some noted actors in early screen roles. Liam Neeson plays Gawain, Patrick Stewart plays King Leondegrance, and Gabriel Byrne plays Uther Pendragon. Several members of the Boorman family also appeared in the picture. Igrayne (Arthur's mother), the Lady of the Lake, Mordred as a boy, and the infant Arthur were all played by Boorman's children. Because of the number of Boormans involved with the film, it is sometimes called "The Boorman Family Project."
Excalibur was filmed in Irish locations in Wicklow...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082348
Gabriel Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland, Republic of Ireland
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