Aidan Quinn

Born: March 8, 1959
Where: Chicago, Illinois

Irish American actor Quinn is one of those rare players who manages to be both successful and avoid box office fodder.

His feature debut was in 1984's Reckless opposite Daryl Hannah and he went onto win an Emmy for his small screen portrayal of a gay HIV victim in An Early Frost.

Quinn's face became well-known in the 80's when he starred with Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, and then he turned to the stage, both acrting and directing.

He followed his villainous turn in John Badham's Stakeout with a starring performance in Crusoe, a revisionist adaptation of Daniel Defoe's oft-filmed 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe.

Quinn then landed a support in the well-mounted but ultimately sterile sci-fi offering The Handmaid's Tale and played a character based on director Barry Levinson's father in Avalon.

As the traveling Irish player in The Playboys he added more spice to an already dicey mix, but his role as the brother of a mentally disturbed Mary Stuart Masterson cast him rather thanklessly as the reality base and opponent of love in Benny & Joon.

In the same year as Legends of the Fall, he also appeared as the bearded ship's captain who listens to Dr. Frankenstein's tragic tale in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Quinn reteamed with Robert Duvall for James Keach's The Stars Fell on Henrietta and appeared as Richmond in Al Pacino's ingenious documentary exploration of Shakespeare, Looking for Richard.

He played Harry Boland, co-strategist and romantic rival of Michael Collins, Neil Jordan's epic take on the Irish freedom fighter.

Canadian director Christian Duguay gave him his second opportunity to play a dual role in The Assignment, a thriller which cast him not only as Carlos the Jackal but also as the "dead ringer" Navy man trained to catch him.

He returned to his beloved Ireland for This Is My Father, written and directed by his brother Paul, and had turns in Practical Magic, Music of the Heart and Two of Us.

In 2000 Quinn starred in Songcatcher and also participated in the production of Stolen Summer, the film that won the Project Greenlight competition which was set up by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Recently, he played the American lawyer in Bruce Beresford's cloying Evelyn, which starred Pierce Brosnan.

But his latest film - and possibly his strongest performance to date - is as William Franklin in Song for a Raggy Boy, a teacher who is haunted by his past but is able to change the brutality of life at an Irish boys' reformatory school.