Jonathan Rhys Meyers is an
irish actor who, even though he's been on some big movies, is still waiting for his
break-through. He usually plays
villains and has exceptionally
expressive eyes. His good
androginous looks help too.
Jonathan was born July 27, 1977, in
Dublin,
Ireland. He was born with a
heart condition and his family feared he would
not survive. After several months on the
hospital, he finally got out of danger and grew up as a healthy child.
His family moved to
Cork when he was a toddler and grew up there. After a
troubled childhood following his parents'
divorce, Jonathan was expelled of
school at the age of 16. Having nothing better to do, he used to hang around Cork pool hall and was finally discovered by Hubbard Casting there.
They were looking for
young talents for the David Puttnam production of '
The War of the Buttons'. After days of auditions, Jonathan lost the part to
Gregg Fitzgerald. Even though he was very discouraged at the time, soon after he was hired to do a
Knorr soup commercial. This drove him to find his first
real acting job, on the movie '
A Man of No Importance'.
His next role was much more significant: he got the
lead part on "
The Disappearance of Finbar". This lead him to the role of the assassin on "
Michael Collins", the irish saga by
Neil Jordan.
After that, he got several roles in small
independent movies, like "
The Killer Tongue", and
TV movies, like "
Samson and Delilah". He was partnered with
Matthew Modine in "
The Maker", which made its debut on
HBO in 1997. He also worked with
Brad Renfro in "
Telling Lies in America". In 1998, he got a part in "
The Governess", as the
young man who falls in
love with
Minnie Driver.
The next movie he was in granted him lots of praise and
fans:
Todd Haynes'
Velvet Goldmine. Jonathan plays the lead
glam rock star,
Brian Slade. The movie explored his androginy and his
beauty, also highlighting his acting talents. He was partnered with
Ewan McGregor (as his
lover,
Curt Wild),
Toni Collette (as his
wife,
Mandy Slade) and
Christian Bale (as the
journalist who uncovers it all,
Arthur Stuart). Jonathan also sang for the movie and his perfomance can be found at the
soundtrack.
He's been in several
films since then, including
Mike Figgis' "
The Loss of Sexual Innocence",
Michael Radford's "
B. Monkey",
Ang Lee's "
Ride With the Devil" and
Julie Taymor's "
Titus", where acts side by side with
Anthony Hopkins and
Jessica Lange.
According to
IMDB, Jonathan's
filmography is:
-
A Man of No Importance (1994)
-
The Killer Tongue (1996)
-
The Disappearance of Finbar (1996)
-
Samson and Delilah (1996)
-
Telling Lies in America (1997)
-
The Maker (1997)
- The
Tribe (1998)
-
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
-
The Governess (1998)
-
B. Monkey (1998)
- The
Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999)
-
Ride with the Devil (1999)
-
Titus (1999)
-
Gormenghast (2000)
-
Happy Now (2001)
-
Prozac Nation (2001)
-
The Magnificent Ambersons (2002)
-
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
-
Tangled (2002)
-
The Emperor's Wife (2003)
-
Octane (2003)
-
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)
Sources:
http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/bio/celeb/1677555
http://www.geocities.com/jonathanrhysmeyersonline/bio.html
http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Rhys-Meyers,%20Jonathan