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Background:
"I'm not really a rebel, but I take chances. I have a good time, and I live life
the way I want to live it." Colin Farrell
Irish actor Colin Farrell gathered critical praise for his starring role of cool
Texan army recruit Pvt. Roland Bozz in Joel Schumacher's war drama Tigerland
(2000). Recently playing the title role in Alexander (2004), Farrell also
starred in 2001’s American Outlaws, 2002’s Hart's War, Minority Report, Phone
Booth and 2003’s The Recruit, S.W.A.T. and Daredevil. He will soon star in the
upcoming films Ask the Dust, The New World, Miami Vice and I'm Not There:
Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan.
The 5' 10” tall actor was one of People Magazine's “50 Most Beautiful People,”
Company Magazine’s “The World's Sexiest Man” and listed on Premiere's annual
“Power 100 List” (all in 2003). The ex-husband of actress Amelia Warner, Colin
Farrell has been linked to model Kim Bordenave, who gave him one son, and once
dated pop princess Britney Spears (born on December 2, 1981).
At the moment, Colin Farrell is facing a legal dispute with another former
girlfriend, Playboy Playmate Nicole Narain. They are accused of making a raunchy
15-minute sex tape 2 years ago. Farrell recently claimed that the tape was made
strictly for private use and not public viewing.
"I don't go to the gym or practice yoga. And the closest thing I have to a
nutritionist is the Carlsberg Beer Company. I just have the appetite of a
pigeon." Colin Farrell
Being Irish
Childhood and Family:
"Being Irish is very much a part of who I am. I take it everywhere with me."
Colin Farrell
In Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland, Colin James Farrell was born on March 31, 1976.
His mother is Rita Farrell and his father is Eamon Farrell. Colin’s father and
uncle (Jim Farrell) were soccer players for the Shamrock Rovers (one of Dublin's
major teams). The youngest of four children, Colin has one brother, Eamon
Farrell Jr. and two sisters, Catherine Farrell and Claudine Farrell (also his
personal assistant). Colin lived in Australia for one year (1993-1994) and
returned to Ireland to study at the Gaiety Drama School in Dublin. He later
dropped out to play Danny Byrne on the BBC series “Ballykissangel.”
On July 17, 2001, Colin Farrell tied the knot with actress Amelia Warner (born
on June 4, 1982), but they filed for divorced in November that same year. From
Farrell’s relationship with model Kim Bordenave, he has one son named James
(born on September 12, 2003).
“It's the most gorgeous, gorgeous thing. He's just my friend. He's a little
human who can't quite speak and say what he wants yet and it's wonderful. I
adore him. For me, fatherhood is the ultimate success." Colin Farrell
Alexander
Career:
"I'm in no hurry to get anywhere. I don't have any plans. I don't have a map. If
you did in this business, you'd destroy yourself." Colin Farrell
Originally considering following in his father and uncle’s footstep as a soccer
player and teaching country dancing, Colin Farrell switched to acting and
studied at the Gaiety Drama School in Dublin, Ireland. He began acting as an
extra in 1996’s The Disappearance of Finbar and followed it up with a bit part
in Drinking Crude (1997, premiered at the Dublin Film Festival). He then
appeared in the British miniseries Falling for a Dancer (aired in the USA on
Romance Classics) and left the Gaiety Drama School to play the regular role of
Danny Byrne in the popular Irish TV series "Ballykissangel" (Series 4-5,
1998-1999). He also debuted on stage playing a semi-autistic teenager in "In a
Little World of Our Own" at the Donmar Warehouse in London.
Farrell subsequently was cast in Tim Roth's directorial debut film based on an
acclaimed novel by Alexander Stuart, the family drama The War Zone (1999,
starring award winning actors Ray Winstone and Tilda Swinton) and Thaddeus
O'Sullivan's Irish gangster drama Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000, starring Kevin
Spacey and Linda Fiorentino). On television, he appeared in the segmented series
"Love in the 21st Century" (1999, with Ioan Gruffudd and Catherine McCormack)
and the TV movie David Copperfield, in which his cameo appearance as a milkman
was deleted.
The portrayal of brash army recruit Pvt. Roland Bozz in Joel Schumacher’s war
drama Tigerland (2000) was Farrell’s breakthrough screen role. The film, which
was set in a Louisiana boot camp in 1971, earned Farrell a London Critics Circle
Film’s British Newcomer of the Year and a Boston Society of Film Critics’ Best
Actor award.
"I couldn't care less about who sees my bits. My friends asked how I could do
scenes like that and not get excited, but it wasn't like that. My bits looked
the size of a cashew nut!" Colin Farrell (on appearing nude in Tigerland (2000)
More significant roles followed. He starred as young legend outlaw Jesse James
in Les Mayfield's western movie American Outlaws (2001) and costarred with Bruce
Willis, playing a law student enlisted in World War II, in Gregory Hoblit's war
drama film adopted from a novel by John Katzenbach, Hart's War (2002). Steven
Spielberg later paired him with Tom Cruise in his futuristic action film
inspired by a short story by Philip K. Dick, Minority Report, and Colin then
reunited with director Joel Schumacher to star as a media consultant who risks
his life in a phone booth, in the intense drama Phone Booth (both in 2002).
Farrell also teamed with his idol actor Al Pacino in Roger Donaldson's thriller
The Recruit (2003), portraying a brilliant young CIA trainee, and joined Ben
Affleck and Jennifer Garner in writer-director Mark Steven Johnson's sci-fi
action based on the popular Marvel Comics character, Daredevil (2003), playing
the lunatic killer Bullseye.
In the L.A.P.D thriller action S.W.A.T. (2003), filmmaker Clark Johnson cast
Farrell to costar with Samuel L. Jackson as officer Jim Street. Director John
Crowley then handed him the starring role of Lehiff, a thief trying to set his
life straight, in the Dublin's ensemble comedy Intermission (2003) and Farrell
later played dark, heterosexual hipster Bobby Morrow in Michael Mayer's
adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel, the romantic drama A Home at the End
of the World (2004). Farrell also hosted the "Saturday Night Live" show in
December of 2004.
Oliver Stone recently handed Farrell the title role of the King of Macedonia,
relentless conqueror Alexander the Great, in his biopic war movie Alexander
(2004). Farrell, who made his primetime TV debut in an episode of the NBC sitcom
“Scrubs” on January 25, 2005, will star as a first-generation Italian writer in
Robert Towne's screen version of John Fante's novel, the romantic drama Ask the
Dust (opposite Salma Hayek) and as the 17th century explorer John Smith in
writer-director Terrence Malick's classic adventure The New World (alongside
Christian Bale). He will also team with Jamie Foxx to play two stylish
detectives who take on the Florida drug world in writer-director Michael Mann's
film version of the 1980s television drama, Miami Vice, and will share the
screen with Cate Blanchett and Richard Gere in Todd Haynes' re-enactment of the
life of musician Bob Dylan, I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning
Dylan.
"It all goes back to [Joel Schumacher]. I wouldn't have done Phone Booth without
him. I wouldn't be doing Hart's War. I probably wouldn't have done American
Outlaws if he hadn't picked me out of obscurity. I've worked, but not at the
level of people I'm working with now if he hadn't taken a chance on an Irish kid
playing a Texan." Colin Farrell
Awards:
- IFTA: Audience Award - Best Actor in a Film, 2003
- London Critics Circle Film: British Newcomer of the Year, Tigerland,
2002
- Shanghai International Film Festival: Golden Goblet - Best Actor, Hart's
War, 2002
- Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Actor, Tigerland, 2000
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