Early life

Gleeson was born in Dublin, the son of Pat and Frank Gleeson. Gleeson has described himself as having been an avid reader as a child. He received his second level education at St. Joseph's CBS in Fairview, Dublin where he was a member of the school drama group. After training as an actor, he worked for several years as a secondary school teacher of Irish and English at the now defunct Catholic Belcamp College in North County Dublin, which closed in 2004. He was working simultaneously as an actor while teaching, doing semi-professional and professional productions in Dublin and surrounding areas. He left the teaching profession to commit full-time to acting in 1991.

In an NPR interview to promote Calvary, he revealed that he was abused by a Christian Brother, saying, "I remember a particular Christian Brother dropped the hand on me at one point. It wasn’t very traumatic and it wasn’t at all sustained, it was just one of these things where something odd happened."

Career

As a member of the Dublin-based Passion Machine, Gleeson appeared in several of the theatre company's early and highly successful plays such as Wasters (1985), Brownbread (1987) and Home (1988). He has also written three plays for Passion Machine: The Birdtable (1987) and Breaking Up (1988), both of which he directed, and Babies and Bathwater (1994) in which he acted. Among his other Dublin theatre work are Patrick Süskind's one-man play The Double Bass and John B. Keane's The Year of the Hiker.

Gleeson started his film career at the age of 34. He first came to prominence in Ireland for his role as Michael Collins in The Treaty, a television film broadcast on RTÉ One, and for which he won a Jacob's Award in 1992. He has acted in such films as Braveheart, I Went Down, Michael Collins, Gangs of New York, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Lake Placid, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Mission: Impossible II, and The Village. He won critical acclaim for his performance as Irish gangster Martin Cahill in John Boorman's 1998 film The General.

In 2003, Gleeson was the voice of Hugh the Miller in an episode of the Channel 4 animated series Wilde Stories.

While Gleeson portrayed Irish statesman Michael Collins in The Treaty, he later portrayed Collins' close collaborator Liam Tobin in the film Michael Collins with Liam Neeson taking the role of Collins. Gleeson later went on to portray Winston Churchill in Into the Storm. Gleeson won an Emmy Award for his performance. Gleeson played Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody in the fourth, fifth and seventh Harry Potter films. His son Domhnall played Bill Weasley in the seventh film.

Gleeson provided the voice of Abbot Cellach in The Secret of Kells, an animated film co-directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey of Cartoon Saloon which premiered in February 2009 at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.

Gleeson starred in the short film Six Shooter in 2006, which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. This film was written and directed by Martin McDonagh who also wrote and directed In Bruges in 2008. The film, and Gleeson's performance, enjoyed huge critical acclaim, earning Gleeson several award nominations, including his first Golden Globe nomination. In the movie, Gleeson plays a mentor-like figure for Colin Farrell's hitman. In his review of In Bruges, Roger Ebert described the elder Gleeson as having a "noble shambles of a face and the heft of a boxer gone to seed."

Gleeson will be making his directorial debut in a film adaptation of Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds. The Irish production company Parallel Pictures will produce the film with a budget of $11 million. Colin Farrell, Gabriel Byrne, and Cillian Murphy have been attached to star in the film, which was originally set for release in 2010. In October 2009, however, Gleeson expressed concern that the Irish Film Board's budget might be reduced given the state of the Irish economy and that At Swim-Two-Birds might fall through. Gleeson confirmed in July 2011, that he has secured funding for the project. He described the writing of the script as tortuous, saying that it has taken fourteen drafts so far.

In July 2012, he started filming The Grand Seduction with Taylor Kitsch, a remake of Jean-François Pouliot's French-Canadian La Grande Séduction (2003) directed by Don McKellar. He will appear in Ben Affleck's crime drama Live by Night, scheduled for release in October 2017.

Musical talent

Gleeson is a fiddle and mandolin player, with an interest in Irish folklore. He played the fiddle during his role in Cold Mountain, Michael Collins and also The Grand Seduction, and also features on Altan's 2009 live album.

Personal life

He has been married to Mary (née Weldon) since 1982. He has four sons; Domhnall, Brían, Fergus, and Rúairí. Domhnall and Brían are also actors. Gleeson speaks fluent Irish and is an advocate of the promotion of the Irish language. Gleeson is a fan of Championship team Aston Villa, as is his son Domhnall.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1989	Dear Sarah	Brendan Dowd	TV
1990	Hard Shoulder	Lorry Driver	TV
1990	The Field	Quarryman
1991	In the Border Country	Farmer
1991	Saint Oscar		TV
1991	The Treaty	Michael Collins	TV
1992	The Bargain Shop	Jim Kennedy
1992	M.A.N.: Matrix Adjusted Normal	Dr. Abraham	Short
1992	Far and Away	Social Club Policeman
1992	Conneely's Choice	Josie Conneely	Short
1992	Into the West	Inspector Bolger
1993	The Snapper	Lester	TV
1993	Love Lies Bleeding	Thomas Macken	TV
1994	The Lifeboat	Leslie Parry	TV series
1995	The Life of Reilly	Patient	Short
1995	Braveheart	Hamish Campbell
1995	Kidnapped	Colin Campbell of Glenure, the Red Fox
1996	Angela Mooney	Barney Mooney
1996	Michael Collins	Liam Tobin
1996	Trojan Eddie	Ginger
1997	Angela Mooney	Barney Mooney
1997	Spaghetti Slow	Frank Ferguson
1997	Turbulence	Stubbs
1997	The Butcher Boy	Father Bubbles
1997	A Further Gesture	Richard
1997	I Went Down	Bunny Kelly	Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
1998	Making the Cut	Flanagan	TV
1998	The General	Martin Cahill	Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1998	This Is My Father	Garda Jim	TV
1998	The Tale of Sweety Barrett	Sweet Barrett
1999	Lake Placid	Sheriff Hank Keough
1999	My Life So Far	Jim Menries
2000	Mission: Impossible II	John C. McCloy
2000	Harrison's Flowers	Marc Stevenson
2000	Saltwater	Simple Simon
2000	Wild About Harry	Harry McKee
2001	J.J. Biker
2001	Cáca Milis	Paul	Short
2001	The Tailor of Panama	Michelangelo 'Mickie' Abraxas
2001	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Lord Johnson-Johnson
2002	28 Days Later	Frank
2002	Gangs of New York	Walter 'Monk' McGinn
2002	Dark Blue	Jack Van Meter
2003	Cold Mountain	Stobrod Thewes
2004	In My Country	De Jager
2004	Troy	Menelaus
2004	The Village	August Nicholson
2004	Six Shooter	Donnelly	Short
2005	Kingdom of Heaven	Raynald of Châtillon
2005	Breakfast on Pluto	John Joe Kenny
2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
2006	Studs	Walter Keegan	Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role - Film
2006	The Tiger's Tail	Liam O'Leary
2007	Black Irish	Desmond
2007	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
2007	Beowulf	Wiglaf	Voice
2008	In Bruges	Ken	Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role - Film Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2009	The Secret of Kells	Abbot Cellach	Voice
2009	Into the Storm	Winston Churchill	TV Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries or a Movie Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role - Television Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Actor Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
2009	Perrier's Bounty	Darren Perrier	Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Film
2010	Green Zone	Martin Brown
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1	Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody
2010	Noreen	Con Keogh	Short film
2011	The Guard	Sergeant Gerry Boyle	Nominated—British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role - Film
2011	Albert Nobbs	Dr. Holloran	Nominated—IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Film
2011	The Cup	Dermot Weld
2012	Safe House	David Barlow
2012	The Raven	Captain Charles Hamilton
2012	The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!	Pirate with Gout	Voice
2012	The Company You Keep	Henry Osborne
2013	The Smurfs 2	Victor Doyle
2013	The Grand Seduction	Murray French
2014	Calvary	Father James Lavelle	Boston Online Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor British Independent Film Award for Best Actor San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role - Film Nominated—Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor
2014	Edge of Tomorrow	General Brigham
2014	Song of the Sea	Conor	Voice
2014	Stonehearst Asylum	The Alienist
2015	Suffragette	Arthur Steed	British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor
2015	In the Heart of the Sea	Old Thomas Nickerson
2015	Pursuit	Searbhán
2016	Free State of Jones		Post-production
2016	Trespass Against Us		Post-production
2016	Alone in Berlin	Otto Quangel	Filming
2016	Atlantic	Narrator	Voice
2016	Assassin's Creed	Joseph	Post-production
2017	Live by Night	Thomas Coughlin	Post-production

[ Source: Wikipedia ]