Gabriel Byrne

Season 6, Episode 615

Original Airdate: March 4, 2001

Gabriel Byrne was born on May 12, 1950 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the first of six Catholic children born to a nurse and a Guinness barrel maker, who turned stay-at-home dad when metal kegs rendered his job obsolete.

At the age of 12, Gabriel wanted to join the priesthood, and was shipped off to an English seminary. For four years he half-heartedly pursued his quest, only to be expelled after he was caught smoking in a graveyard.

Byrne returned to Ireland and enrolled at Dublin's University College to study archaeology, languages, and phonetics. He held a number of jobs before scrapping it all to become an actor. He joined a theatrical troupe lead by friend Jim Sheridan, and later gained success in Ireland on the popular TV drama series Bracken.

Byrne's breakthough performance was in the 1990 Coen Brothers film Miller's Crossing, starring as a laconic gangster. He co-starred with Bridget Fonda in Point of No Return (1993), and with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder in Little Women (1994). In 1995, Byrne co-starred with Kevin Spacey in the hit The Usual Suspects.

As his industry muscle strengthened, Byrne moved into director and producer roles. In 1993 he produced an English stage production about the wrongly accused Irishmen known as the Birmingham Six. One year later, Byrne co-produced In the Name of the Father, starring Daniel Day Lewis, 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, which he also wrote and produced. As an actor he appeared in Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), and The End of Violence (1997). Byrne displayed his swashbuckling antics as a Musketeer in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). In 1999, Byrne went from playing a Jesuit priest in Stigmata, to portraying Satan himself in End of Days.