Early life

Rea was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the son of a bus driver. He attended Belfast High School and the Queen's University of Belfast, taking a degree in English.

Rea trained at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin. In the late 1970s, he acted in the Focus Company in Dublin with Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney.

Career

After appearing on the stage and in television and film for many years in Ireland and Great Britain, Rea came to international attention when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film The Crying Game. He is a frequent collaborator with Irish film-maker Neil Jordan. Rea has long been associated with some of the most important writers in Ireland. His association with playwright Stewart Parker, for example, began when they were students together at the Queen's University of Belfast.

Rea helped establish the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980 with Tom Paulin, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane. In recognition for his contribution to theatre and performing arts, Rea was given honorary degrees from both the Queen's University of Belfast and the University of Ulster in 2004.

Rea's friendship with American playwright and actor Sam Shepard dates back to the early 1970s, and he starred in Shepard's directorial debut of his play Geography of a Horse Dreamer at the Royal Court Theatre in 1974. In 2007, Rea began a successful and acclaimed relationship with both the Abbey Theatre and Sam Shepard, appearing in Kicking a Dead Horse (2007) and Ages of the Moon (2009), both penned by Shepard and also both transferred to New York. Rea returned to the Abbey in 2009 to appear in the world premiere of Sebastian Barry's Tales of Ballycumber.

Rea was hired to speak the words of Gerry Adams when Sinn Féin was under a 1988-94 broadcasting ban.

In 2011, Rea featured in the BBC crime drama The Shadow Line, playing antagonist Gatehouse.

In April 2012, Rea read James Joyce's short story "The Dead" on RTÉ Radio 1.

He also narrated for the BBC Radio 4 production of Ulysses for Bloomsday, 16 June 2012.

Rea starred in Enda Walsh's 2014 play Ballyturk and portrayed Jordan in Out of the Dark, in which he co-stars Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman and Alejandro Furth.

Personal life

Rea was married for 17 years to Dolours Price, a former Provisional Irish Republican Army bomber and hunger striker who later became a critic of Sinn Féin. (Another news source suggests a marriage of 20 years, from 1983 to 2003.) They had been divorced when she died on Wednesday, January 23, 2013. They had two sons.

Rea is an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970	Cry of the Banshee	Villager
1975	I Didn't Know You Cared	Carter Brandon	TV, Series 1 & 2
1977	Professional Foul	Pavel Hollar	BBC Play (TV)
1978	The Professionals	Pellin	Episode: "In the public interest"
1978	On a Paving Stone Mounted
1982	Angel	Danny
1983	Loose Connections	Harry
1984	The Company of Wolves	Young Groom
	Minder	Roddy	Series 4, episode 10 "Windows"
1985	The Doctor and the Devils	Timothy Broom
1990	Not with a Bang	Colin Garrity	TV series
1991	Life Is Sweet	Patsy
1992	The Crying Game	Fergus	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor
1993	Hedda Gabler	Ejlert Lovborg	TV
	Bad Behaviour	Gerry McAllister
1994	Princess Caraboo	Gutch
	Angie	Noel Riordan
	Interview with the Vampire	Santiago
	Prêt-à-Porter	Milo O'Brannigan	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1995	Citizen X	Lt. Viktor Burakov	(TV)
	Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea	Nikos
	All Men are Mortal	Fosca
1996	Trojan Eddie	Trojan Eddie
	Michael Collins	Ned Broy
	Crime of the Century	Bruno Richard Hauptmann	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
	The Last of the High Kings	Cab Driver
1997	Double Tap	Cypher
	Fever Pitch	Ray, the Governor
	The Butcher Boy	Da Brady
	Hacks	Brian
	The Break	Sean Dowd
1998	Still Crazy	Tony Costello
	This Is My Father	Father Quinn
1999	Guinevere	Connie Fitzpatrick
	The End of the Affair	Henry Miles
	The Life Before This	Brian
	I Could Ready the Sky	PJ Doran
	In Dreams	Doctor Silverman
2000	The King's Wake	King Connor Mac Neasa	(voice)
2001	The Musketeer	Cardinal Richelieu
	Armadillo	Hogg	TV film
	Snow In August	Rabbi Judah Hirsch
	On the Edge	Dr. Figure
2002	FeardotCom	Alistair Pratt, 'The Doctor'
	Copenhagen	Niels Bohr	BBC-PBS (TV)
	Evelyn	Michael Beattie
2003	The i Inside	Doctor Newman
	Bloom	Leopold Bloom
2004	Fluent Dysphasia	Murph
	Control	Dr. Arlo Penner
	Proud	Barney Garvey
	The Confessor	McCaran	alternate title The Good Shepherd
	The Halo Effect	Fatso	Nominated — Irish Film and Television Awards — Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Film
2005	Breakfast on Pluto	Bertie	Nominated — Irish Film and Television Awards - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Film
	Tara Road	Colm
	River Queen	Francis
	V for Vendetta	Inspector Finch
2006	Sisters	Dr. Philip Lacan
	Sixty Six	Dr. Barrie
2007	Celebration	Waiter	TV film
	Until Death	Gabriel Callaghan
	The Reaping	Father Costigan
	Stuck	Thomas Bardo
2008	The Devil's Mercy	Tyler
	Heidi 4 Paws	Doctor	(voice)
	Kisses	Down Under Dylan	uncredited
2009	Nothing Personal	Martin
	Father & Son		(TV)
	Ondine	village priest
2010	The Heavy	Anawalt
	Single-Handed	Sean Doyle	TV series
2011	Roadkill	policeman
	Blackthorn	Mackinley
	The Shadow Line	"Controller" James Gatehouse	TV series, Nominated - BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, April 2012
2012	Underworld: Awakening	Dr. Jacob Lane
	Werewolf: The Beast Among Us	Doc
2013	Utopia	Conran Letts	TV series
	Asylum	McGahey
2014	The Honourable Woman	Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle	TV series British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film
	The Curse of Styria aka Styria	Dr. Hill	released on DVD as Angels of Darkness
2015-16	Dickensian	Inspector Bucket	BBC series
2016	War & Peace	Prince Vassily Kuragin	BBC series

[ Source: Wikipedia ]