Stephen Rea (/ˈreɪ/ ray; born 31 October 1946) is an Irish film and stage actor. Rea has appeared in films such as V for Vendetta, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto. Rea was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Neil Jordan's thriller The Crying Game (1992). He has had important roles in the Hugo Blick TV series The Shadow Line and The Honourable Woman, for which he won a BAFTA Award. In 2020, The Irish Times, ranked Rea the 13th greatest Irish film actor of all-time.[1]
Stephen Rea | |
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Born | (1946-10-31) 31 October 1946 (age 75) |
Citizenship | Irish |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1962–present |
Spouse | Dolours Price
(m. 1983; div. 2003) |
Children | 2 |
Rea was born in Belfast; his father was a bus driver and his mother a housewife.[2] He studied English at the Queen's University Belfast and drama at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin.[2]
In the late 1970s, he acted in the Focus Company in Dublin with Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney.
After appearing on the stage and in television and film for many years in Ireland and England, Rea came to international attention when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film The Crying Game. He is a frequent collaborator with Irish film-maker Neil Jordan. Rea has long been associated with some of the most important writers in Ireland. His association with playwright Stewart Parker, for example, began when they were students together at the Queen's University Belfast.
Rea helped establish the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980 with Tom Paulin, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane. In recognition for his contribution to theatre and performing arts, Rea was given honorary degrees from both the Queen's University Belfast[3] and the Ulster University[4] in 2004.
Rea's friendship with American playwright and actor Sam Shepard dates back to the early 1970s, and he starred in Shepard's directorial début of his play Geography of a Horse Dreamer at the Royal Court Theatre in 1974. In 2007, Rea began a successful and acclaimed relationship with both the Abbey Theatre and Sam Shepard, appearing in Kicking a Dead Horse (2007) and Ages of the Moon (2009), both penned by Shepard and also both transferred to New York.[5] Rea returned to the Abbey in 2009 to appear in the world première of Sebastian Barry's Tales of Ballycumber.[6]
Rea was hired to speak the words of Gerry Adams when Sinn Féin was under a 1988–94 broadcasting ban.[7]
In 2011, Rea featured in the BBC crime drama The Shadow Line, playing antagonist Gatehouse.
In April 2012, Rea read James Joyce's short story "The Dead" on RTÉ Radio 1.[8] He also narrated for the BBC Radio 4 production of Ulysses for Bloomsday, 16 June 2012.
Rea starred in Enda Walsh's 2014 play Ballyturk and portrayed Jordan in Out of the Dark,[9] in which he co-stars alongside Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman and Alejandro Furth.[10][11]
Rea was married for 17 years to Dolours Price, a former Provisional Irish Republican Army bomber and hunger striker who later became a critic of Sinn Féin. (Another news source suggests a marriage of 20 years, from 1983 to 2003.)[12] Price attended a performance of Rea's at the Court Theatre in London in 1973, the night before she participated in a car bombing which injured 200 people.[13] They had been divorced when she died on 23 January 2013.[14] They have two sons.[15]
Rea is an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland.[16] He lives in County Donegal.[17]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1970 | Cry of the Banshee | Villager | |
1982 | Angel | Danny | |
1984 | The Company of Wolves | Young Groom | |
1985 | The Doctor and the Devils | Timothy Broom | |
1985 | Loose Connections | Harry | |
1990 | Life Is Sweet | Patsy | |
1992 | The Crying Game | Fergus | |
1993 | Bad Behaviour | Gerry McAllister | |
1994 | Angie | Noel | |
1994 | Princess Caraboo | Gutch | |
1994 | Interview with the Vampire | Santiago | |
1994 | Prêt-à-Porter | Milo O'Brannigan | |
1995 | Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea | Nikos | |
1995 | All Men Are Mortal | Fosca | |
1996 | Michael Collins | Ned Broy | |
1996 | Trojan Eddie | Eddie "Trojan Eddie" | |
1996 | The Last of the High Kings | Cab Driver | |
1997 | Fever Pitch | Ray | |
1997 | The Butcher Boy | Benny Brady | |
1997 | The Break | Sean Dowd | |
1997 | Double Tap | Cypher | |
1997 | Hacks | Brian | |
1998 | This Is My Father | Mission Priest | Cameo |
1998 | Still Crazy | Tony Costello | |
1999 | In Dreams | Dr. Silverman | |
1999 | Guinevere | Connie Fitzpatrick | |
1999 | I Could Read the Sky | P.J. Doran | |
1999 | The Life Before This | Brian | |
1999 | The End of the Affair | Henry Miles | |
2000 | The King's Wake | King Connor Mac Neasa | (Voice) Short film |
2001 | The Musketeer | Cardinal Richelieu | |
2001 | On the Edge | Dr. Figure | |
2002 | FeardotCom | Alistair Pratt | |
2002 | Evelyn | Michael Beattie | |
2003 | Bloom | Leopold Bloom | |
2004 | The I Inside | Dr. Newman | |
2004 | The Halo Effect | "Fatso" | |
2004 | The Confessor | McCaran | |
2004 | Fluent Dysphasia | "Murph" | Short film |
2004 | Proud | Barney Garvey | |
2004 | Control | Dr. Arlo Penner | |
2005 | Breakfast on Pluto | Bertie Vaughan | |
2005 | River Queen | Francis | |
2005 | Tara Road | Colm Maguire | |
2006 | V for Vendetta | Chief Inspector Eric Finch | |
2006 | Sisters | Dr. Philip Lacan | |
2006 | Sixty Six | Dr. Barrie | |
2007 | Until Death | Gabriel Callaghan | |
2007 | The Reaping | Father Michael Costigan | |
2007 | Stuck | Thomas Bardo | |
2008 | The Devil's Mercy | Tyler | |
2008 | Kisses | "Down Under" Dylan | Uncredited cameo |
2009 | Spy(ies) | M. Palmer | |
2009 | Child of the Dead End | Patrick MacGill | |
2009 | Nothing Personal | Martin | |
2009 | The Heavy | Jameson Anawalt | |
2009 | Ondine | Priest | |
2011 | Blackthorn | MacKinley | |
2011 | Stella Days | Brendan McSweeney | |
2012 | Underworld: Awakening | Dr. Jacob Lane | |
2012 | Werewolf: The Beast Among Us | Doc | Direct-to-DVD |
2013 | Tasting Menu | Walter | |
2014 | Asylum | McGahey | |
2014 | Styria | Dr. Hill | |
2014 | Out of the Dark | Jordan | |
2015 | Ruby Strangelove Young Witch | Danforth | |
2015 | An Enchanted Ruby | Danforth | |
2018 | Black '47 | Conneely | |
2018 | Greta | Brian Cody | |
2018 | Unquiet Graves | Narrator | Documentary about the Troubles |
2021 | Nightride | Joe | Voice |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1964 | Crossroads | Pepe Costa | |
1967 | Angel Pavement | Second Mate | Episode: "They Arrive" |
1967 | Sanctuary | Stephen Moriarty | Episode: "The Voice of His Calling" |
1969 | Z-Cars | Kenny | Episode: "Snout: Part 2" |
1970 | Softly, Softly: Task Force | Philip Conner | Episode: "Trust a Woman" |
1971 | Omnibus | Hubert Page | Episode: "Hail and Farewell-George Moore" |
1972 | The Moonstone | Major Frayne | Episode: "1.1" |
1974 | Thriller | Arden Buckley | Episode: "K is for Killing" (US Title: "Color Him Dead") |
1974–1979 | Play for Today | Peter / Chas / Shay | 3 episodes |
1975–1976 | I Didn't Know You Cared | Carter Brandon | 13 episodes |
1977 | BBC2 Play of the Week | Hollar | Episode: "Professional Foul" |
1978 | Play of the Month | Constantin | Episode: "The Seagull" |
1978 | The Professionals | Pellin | Episode: "In the Public Interest" |
1978 | Thank You, Comrades | Mayakovsky | TV film |
1980 | Caleb Williams | Tyrell | Episode: "1.1" |
1982 | Joyce in June | Stanislaus Joyce / McIntosh | TV film |
1984 | Minder | Roddy Allan | Episode: "Windows" |
1984 | Four Days in July | Dixie | TV film |
1986 | Boon | Frank Warren | Episode: "Fools Rush In" |
1986 | Screen Two | Frankie | Episode: "Shergar" |
1987 | Lost Belongings | Lenny | 2 episodes |
1987 | Scout | Marshall | TV film |
1989 | 4 Play | Paul | Segment: "Not As Bad as They Seem" |
1989 | Endgame | Clov | TV film |
1990 | Not with a Bang | Colin Garrity | 7 episodes |
1993 | Saturday Night Live | Fergus | (Uncredited) Episode: "Miranda Richardson/Soul Asylum" |
1993-1995 | Performance | Ejlert Lovborg / Seamus Shields | 2 episodes |
1995 | Citizen X | Lieutenant Viktor Burakov | TV film |
1996 | Crime of the Century | Bruno Hauptmann | TV film |
2001 | A Scare at Bedtime | Dr. Roger St. Roctor | Episode: "Not What the Doctor Ordered" |
2001 | Snow in August | Rabbi Judah Hirsch | TV film |
2001 | Armadillo | Hogg | 3 episodes |
2001–2002 | Horrible Histories | Narrator (voice, UK dub) | 26 episodes |
2002 | Copenhagen | Niels Bohr | TV film |
2007 | Imeacht Na N'Iarlaí | Aodh Ó Néill, Tiarna Thir Eoghain | Episode: "1" |
2008 | 10 Days to War | Tim Cross | Episode: "These Things Are Always Chaos" |
2009 | Father & Son | Augustine Flynn | 4 episodes |
2009 | Law and Order: SVU | Callum "Cal" Donovan | Episode: "Solitary" |
2009 | Heidi 4 Paws | The Doctor (voice) | TV film |
2010 | Single-Handed | Sean Doyle | Episodes: "The Lost Boys: Parts 1 & 2" |
2011 | Roadkill | Seamus | TV film |
2011 | The Shadow Line | Gatehouse | 6 episodes |
2013 | Utopia | Conran Letts | 5 episodes |
2014 | The Honourable Woman | Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle | 8 episodes |
2015–2016 | Dickensian | Inspector Bucket | 16 episodes |
2016 | War & Peace | Prince Vassily Kuragin | 5 episodes |
2016 | Fir Bolg | Spencer | Episode: "Nochtadh" |
2018 | Counterpart | Alexander Pope | 7 episodes |
2018 | Thanksgiving | Melchior | 3 episodes |
2020 | The Stranger | Martin Killane | 8 episodes |
2020 | Flesh and Blood | Mark | 4 episodes |
TBA | The English | Upcoming series[18] |
Year | Title | Playwright | Theatre |
---|---|---|---|
1967 | Shadow of a Gunman | Sean O'Casey | The Mermaid Theatre, London |
1969 | Captain Oates' Left Sock | John Antrobus | Royal Court Theatre, London |
1971 | Crete and Sargent Pepper | John Antrobus | Royal Court Theatre, London |
1973 | The Freedom of the City | Brian Friel | Royal Court Theatre, London |
1973 | The Duchess of Malfi | John Webster | 7:84 Theatre Company, London |
1973 | Sargent Musgraves | John Arden | The Gate, Dublin |
1973 | The White Devil | John Webster | Nottingham Playhouse |
1973 | Drums in the Night | Bertold Brecht | Hampstead Theatre, London |
1974 | Geography of a Horse Dreamer | Sam Shepard | Royal Court Theatre, London |
1974 | Comedians | Trevor Griffiths | Nottingham Playhouse |
2016 | Cyprus Avenue | David Ireland | Royal Court Theatre, London |
2020 | The Visiting Hour | Frank McGuinness | The Gate Theatre, Dublin |
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Biographical dictionaries | |
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