Ciaran Hinds – MovieActors.com

About Ciaran Hinds (1953 – )

Ciaran Hinds was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Brought up Catholic, he was one of five children and the only son of his doctor father and schoolteacher mother, who was also an actress. Hinds was an Irish dancer in his youth, attending Holy Family Primary School and St. Malachy's College. After leaving St. Malachy's, he enrolled as a law student at Queen's University, Belfast, but decided to pursue acting and switched to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He began his professional acting career at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in a 1976 production of Cinderella, and remained a regular performer there throughout the late 1970s into the mid-1980s. At the same time, Hinds also performed on stage in Ireland with the Abbey Theatre, the Field Day Theatre Company, the Druid Theatre, the Lyric Players' Theatre and at the Project Arts Centre.

Hinds appeared in the title role of the RSC's 1993 production of Richard III, directed by Sam Mendes, who turned to him as a last minute replacement for Simon Russell Beale, who was injured. Hinds gained popular recognition for his performance as Larry in both the London and Broadway productions of Patrick Marber's play Closer. In 2001 he was featured in The Yalta Game at Dublin's Gate Theatre. He appeared on Broadway in The Seafarer, which ran at the Booth Theatre from December 2007 through March 2008. In February 2009 Hinds had the leading role of General Sergei Kotov in the anti-Stalinist Burnt by the Sun at London's National Theatre.

In 1981 he made his feature film debut in John Boorman's Excalibur. He starred as Captain Frederick Wentworth in Jane Austen's Persuasion (1995), Jonathan Reiss in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), John Traynor in Veronica Guerin (2003), and Firmin in the film version of The Phantom of the Opera (2004). Hinds also played Carl, a cover-up professional assisting a group of assassins, in Steven Spielberg's thriller Munich (2005). In 2006, he appeared in Michael Mann's film adaptation of the '80s TV series Miami Vice, and as Herod the Great in The Nativity Story. In the 2006 film Amazing Grace, Hinds portrayed Sir Banastre Tarleton, one of the chief supporters of slavery in parliament. He starred in Margot at the Wedding, alongside Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a dramedy about family secrets and relationships. He also appeared in There Will Be Blood (2007) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

On television, Hinds portrayed Gaius Julius Caesar in the first season of BBC/HBO's series, Rome (2006). He's also been featured in a number of made-for-TV films, including the role of Michael Henchard in Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge (2004). Other TV performances include that of Edward Parker-Jones in Prime Suspect 3 (1993), Abel Mason in Dame Catherine Cookson's The Man Who Cried (1993), Jim Browner in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (The Cardboard Box, in 1994), Fyodor Glazunov in Cold Lazarus (1996), Edward Rochester in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1997), the Knight Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1997) and a portrayal of the French existentialist Albert Camus in Broken Morning (2003).

Hinds was also featured in two notable television docudramas: Who Bombed Birmingham? (1990) in which he portrayed Richard McIlkenny, a resident of Belfast falsely imprisoned for an IRA bombing; and Hostages (1993), where he portrayed Irish writer and former hostage Brian Keenan. Hinds starred opposite Kelly Reilly in Above Suspicion, a TV adaptation of Lynda La Plante's detective story, then returned as DCI Langton for Lynda La Plante's sequels The Red Dahlia in 2010, Deadly Intent in 2011 and Silent Scream in 2012.

In 2011, Hinds played Albus Dumbledore's brother Aberforth in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. That same year, he appeared as David Peretz in the 1997 segments of The Debt alongside Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson. Hinds played Roy Bland in the 2011 adaptation of the John le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

In 2013 Hinds was cast as wildling leader Mance Rayder for Season 3 of Game of Thrones, and reprised the role for two more years after that.

In 2015 he appeared in 'Hamlet' with Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet's uncle - King Claudius.

Hinds lives in Paris with his long-time partner, Hélène Patarot; they met in 1987 when both were cast members of Peter Brook's production of The Mahabharata. They have a daughter, Aoife, who was born in 1991.

Hinds is a close friend of Liam Neeson and served as a pallbearer at the funeral of Neeson's wife, actress Natasha Richardson, who died in a skiing accident.

Ciaran Hinds's movie credits include...

Ciaran Hinds's television credits include...

Memorable Quotes

“I do believe as human beings we are a great mass of contradictions.”

“Grief is exhausting.”

“It's so tough to get movies made in Ireland anymore. A whole generation of Irish filmmakers doesn't have the resources to get a movie made.”

“I'll tell you, being on set on 'Harry Potter' was nerve-wracking. It was surreal to be in a room with those three kids, all of whom know exactly what they're doing.”

“I float from one project to another project, so you miss people and you don't see them for years.”

Did You Know

Has played a Mossad agent in two movies - Munich (2005) and The Debt (2011).

Is one of few actors to appear in two non-related films that both earned 1 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, due to his appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) and Frozen (2013).

Is a close friend of Liam Neeson.