Biography

In an industry where age twenty-eight is considered over-the-hill, the career of Gabriel Byrne is an anomaly. The brooding Irish thespian was a geriatric twenty-nine years old when he decided to pursue acting professionally, and was positively prehistoric—forty to be exact—when he was cast in his star-making role, as a stoic thirties gangster in Miller's Crossing.

Craving academic stimulation, Byrne enrolled under scholarship at Dublin's University College to study archaeology, languages, and phonetics. Those studies secured employment on a series of archaeological digs and a three-year gig as a Spanish teacher at an all-girls school. Just as the Byrne family was convinced that Gabriel had finally found a real job, he scrapped it all to become an actor. He had dabbled in local amateur theatre, and in 1979 joined a theatrical troupe lead by buddy Jim Sheridan, who would go on to direct the films My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father. (Actor Liam Neeson was also a member of the company.)

The acting thing worked out both personally and professionally. In 1981, Byrne landed a role as a sheep farmer on a long-running but soon-to-be-cancelled Irish television program called The Riordans. Six months later, his character was spun off to his own eponymous program, called Bracken. The role garnered Byrne fame in Ireland, and ensured that the adjective "brooding" would always precede his name. (Critics also frequently characterize Byrne as "dark and intense"; female co-stars frequently characterise Byrne as "sexy.") Director John Boorman spotted Byrne in a Dublin play and cast him in a supporting role in Excalibur, the actor's first feature film. Byrne's acting career had reached critical mass, and he moved to London to make it big.

In between critically acclaimed performances in West End theatre productions, Byrne appeared in a handful of films and TV movies, including the title role in an American mini-series, Christopher Columbus. In 1987, Byrne made his own maiden voyage to America and, at his agent's urging, established a home Stateside. His next project—the "comedy" Hello Again with Shelley Long—marked a professional nadir. Fortunately for Byrne, he soon went to work playing a Spanish trapeze artist in Siesta, and fell in love with his co-star, Ellen Barkin, whom he married a year later. The couple divorced in 1993, but they amicably share custody of their two children.

After Siesta, Byrne toiled on a steady stream of lacklustre British and American productions, including the films Lionheart, A Soldier's Tale, and Dark Obsession. It was not until Miller's Crossing that he finally grabbed Hollywood's full attention. Now a brightening movie star, Byrne seized the opportunity presented by a sudden barrage of scripts. He played a media-crossing cartoonist in Cool World, a love-struck secret agent in Point of No Return, and Wynona Ryder's love interest in Little Women. In 1994 alone, Byrne appeared in eight features. The next professional plateau came with his portrayal of crooked ex-cop Dean Keaton in 1995's The Usual Suspects.

As his industry muscle has strengthened, Byrne has moved into director and producer roles. In 1992, he produced an English stage production about the wrongly accused Irishmen known as the Birmingham Six. One year later, Byrne again appeased his social conscience by co-producing In the Name of the Father, about the Guildford Four, another band of wronged Irishmen. The film received five Oscar nominations. Byrne made his directing debut with 1996's The Lark in the Clear Air, a film he also wrote and produced. Back in front of the camera in 1997, he appeared in the film adaptation of Danish novelist Peter Hoeg's best-selling book Smilla's Sense of Snow, and in German director Wim Wenders' suspenseful drama The End of Violence. With his rousing portrayal of D'Artagnan in the star-studded 1998 adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel The Man in the Iron Mask, Byrne betrayed a surprising talent for swashbuckling heroics (Star Bios).

Born in Dublin (Ireland), May 12th. 1950. He is the eldest of 6 children. He was married to actress Ellen Barkin (Siesta, Into the West). They have two children, Jack Daniel and Romy. Gabe has a home in Ireland and still in America.