Once a highly-respected police detective, he now passes the time yelling at the neighborhood kids and drinking too much – that is until one of his former unresolved cases starts pushing him to an entirely new edge.
A former teacher, Dublin-born Brendan Gleeson left the profession to pursue a career in his first love – acting. He joined the Irish theater company Passion Machine and has since starred on the stage, in films and on television, winning fans and awards worldwide.
Following small roles in such movies as Jim Sheridan’s The Field, Mike Newell’s Into the West, Jonathan Lewis’ telefilm The Treaty, and Ron Howard’s Far and Away, he landed his breakout role in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, which won five Academy Awards including Best Picture. His portrayal of real-life criminal Martin Cahill in John Boorman’s The General, tandemed with his performance in Paddy Breathnach’s I Went Down, brought Mr. Gleeson Best Actor honors from the Boston Society of Film Critics. The General also earned him the Irish Film & Television Award (IFTA) and the London Critics’ Circle Film Award for Best Actor.
He starred for writer/director Martin McDonagh in Six Shooter, which won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Reteaming with the filmmaker for Focus Features’ In Bruges, Mr. Gleeson earned Golden Globe, British Independent Film, Satellite, IFTA, and BAFTA Award nominations for his memorable performance opposite Colin Farrell.
His distinctive voice has been heard as narrator of the Irish-language documentary series 1916 Seachtar na Cásca, as well as in roles in three Academy Award-nominated animated features: The Secret of Kells, directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, directed by Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt, and Mr. Moore’s Song of the Sea.
Moviegoers also know him from three Harry Potter movies, directed by Mike Newell and David Yates, respectively; Mr. Boorman’s The Tailor of Panama, In My Country, and The Tiger’s Tail; Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, and Breakfast on Pluto; John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II; Steven Spielberg’s AI; Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later…; Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York; Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy; Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven; Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf; Paul Greengrass’ Green Zone; Rodrigo García’s Albert Nobbs; Daniel Espinosa’s Safe House; Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep; Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow; and John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard, for which he was again a Golden Globe, IFTA, and British Independent Film Award (BIFA) nominee, and Cavalry, for which he was named Best Actor by both IFTA and BIFA.
Mr. Gleeson starred as Winston Churchill in Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s telefilm Into the Storm, and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards in addition to winning an IFTA as well as Satellite and Emmy Awards.
Mr. Gleeson will next appear in The Coen Brothers The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for Netflix. Most recent films include: Hampstead, opposite Diane Keaton; Paddington 2 also starring Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins and Julie Walters; Trespass Against Us opposite Michael Fassbender; Vincent Perez’s Alone in Berlin opposite Emma Thompson; Assassin's Creed once again with Michael Fassbender; the WB Ben Affleck starrer Live By Night; and Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea and Suffragette opposite Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep, once again winning the BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor.