Stephen Rea

Born: 31st October 1949
Where: Belfast, Northern Ireland

Rea's breakthrough performance was as the IRA kidnapper in The Crying Game - the 1992 movie celebrated for it's remarkable twist.

He began his career at Dublin's Abbey Theatre and went on to tread the boards at England's National Theatre and Royal Court before small appearances on British TV.

His first leading feature role was as a vengeful musician who trades his saxophone for a machine gun in Neil Jordan's directorial debut Angel.

He followed up in several small British-made films, among them Richard Eyre's road movie Loose Connections, and Jordan's second film The Company of Wolves.

The Crying Game opened doors to American roles (he was Oscar-nominated) and roles followed in Angie (opposite Geena Davis), Princess Caraboo and Interview With The Vampire.

Rea reteamed with Jordan for a pivotal role in the biopic Michael Collins and also appeared in the American TV movie Crime of the Century.

He returned to his native Ireland to headline Trojan Eddie, reunited with Jordan for The Butcher Boy, played an IRA gunman in The Break and support in the comedy rock movie Still Crazy.

Rea offered terrific turns as a moralistic, fire-and-brimstone preacher in the multigenerational drama This Is My Father and a doctor in Jordan's thriller In Dreams.

He played a cuckolded husband in The End of the Affair and went on to appear in Bruce Beresford's cloying Irish drama Evelyn with Pierce Brosnan.

Rea can next be seen in as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses and the thriller The I Inside.

His wife, Dolours Price served eight years for an IRA-related car bombing. They married in 1983, and have two sons together, Danny and Oscar.