Colin James Farrell (/ˈfærəl/; born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. A leading man in blockbusters and independent films since the 2000s, he has received numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards and a nomination for an Academy Award. The Irish Times' named him Ireland's fifth-greatest film actor in 2020.
Farrell began acting in the BBC drama series Ballykissangel (1998) and had his film debut in the drama The War Zone (1999). His first lead film role was in the war drama Tigerland (2000), and he had his breakthrough with Steven Spielberg's science fiction film Minority Report (2002). He took on high-profile roles as Bullseye in Daredevil (2003) and Alexander the Great in Alexander (2004), and further starring roles in Michael Mann's Miami Vice (2006) and Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (2007).
Farrell earned acclaim for playing a rookie hitman in Martin McDonagh's comedy In Bruges (2008), winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. He went on to play a variety of leading and character roles in the comedy Horrible Bosses (2011), the science fiction film Total Recall (2012), the black comedy Seven Psychopaths (2012), the drama Saving Mr. Banks (2013), the dark comedies The Lobster (2015) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), the gothic thriller The Beguiled (2017), and the fantasy film Dumbo (2019). He also starred in the second season of HBO's thriller series True Detective (2015).
Farrell has also played Percival Graves in the fantasy film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Penguin in the superhero film The Batman (2022). Also in 2022, Farrell gained acclaim for his roles in the science fiction drama After Yang, the survival film Thirteen Lives, and McDonagh's drama The Banshees of Inisherin. For playing a naive Irishman in the lattermost, he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor and another Golden Globe, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Early life :
Colin James Farrell was born in the Castleknock suburb of Dublin on 31 May 1976, the son of Rita (née Monaghan) and Eamon Farrell. His father played football for Shamrock Rovers FC and ran a health food shop. His uncle, Tommy Farrell, also played for Shamrock Rovers. He has an older brother named Eamon Jr. and two sisters named Claudine (who now works as his personal assistant) and Catherine. He was educated at St. Brigid's National School, followed by the exclusive all-boys private school Castleknock College, and then Gormanston College in County Meath. He unsuccessfully auditioned for the boy band Boyzone around this time. He was inspired to try acting when Henry Thomas' performance in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) moved him to tears. With his brother's encouragement, he attended the Gaiety School of Acting, but dropped out when he was cast as Danny Byrne in the BBC drama Ballykissangel. While travelling in Sydney at the age of 18, Farrell became a suspect in an attempted murder case. The police sketch looked remarkably like him and he had even described blacking out during the night in question; his only alibi was a journal kept by his friend, which explained that the two had been taking MDMA on the other side of town that night.
