Brendan Gleeson Filmography

The Green Zone

Actors: Matt Damon, Amy Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: United 93 director Paul Greengrass explores the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in this feature adaptation of author Rajiv Chandrasekaran's literary expose of the same name. A one-time Baghdad bureau chief of the Washington Post, Chandrasekaran was present as American forces attempted to set up a Read More

Beowulf

Actors: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: Inspired by the epic Old English poem of the same name, director Robert Zemeckis's digitally rendered film follows the Scandinavian hero Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he fights to protect the Danes from a ferocious beast named Grendel (Crispin Glover). Though at first Grendel seems invincible, Beowulf Read More

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes

Synopsis: Young wizard-in-training Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) returns to Hogwarts for his fifth year of studies, only to find that the magical community seems to be in a curious state of denial about his recent encounter with the sinister Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in the fifth installment of the Read More

Black Irish

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Michael Angarano, Tom Guiry, Emily VanCamp, Melissa Leo, Michael Rispoli

Synopsis: A young man struggles to grow up with principles as his family begins to self-destruct around him in this coming of age drama. Cole McKay (Michael Angarano) is a boy in his middle-teens growing up in an Irish-Catholic family in Boston. While Cole has dreams of playing major league baseball some Read More

The Tiger's Tail

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Kim Cattrall, Ciarán Hinds, Sinéad Cusack, John Kavanagh

Synopsis: Deliverance and Tailor of Panama director John Boorman returns to the director's chair for this tale of a hawkish businessman who slowly finds his life being taken over by the twin brother he never knew he had. Liam O'Leary (Brendan Gleeson) is a no-nonsense real-estate developer who isn't above Read More

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes

Synopsis: Directed by Mike Newell, the fourth installment to the Harry Potter series finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) wondering why his legendary scar -- the famous result of a death curse gone wrong -- is aching in pain, and perhaps even causing mysterious visions. Before he can think too much about it Read More

Breakfast on Pluto

Actors: Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, Eva Birthistle

Synopsis: An Irish boy becomes an emotional and sexual outcast as the 1960s fade into the 1970s in this period drama from director Neil Jordan. When he was just a baby in the early '60s, Patrick Braden (Conor McEvoy) was abandoned by his mother and left on the doorstep of a church overseen by Father Bernard Read More

Kingdom of Heaven

Actors: Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: Ridley Scott directed this epic-scale historical drama inspired by the events of the Crusades of the 12th century. Balian (Orlando Bloom) is a humble French blacksmith who is searching for a reason to go on after the death of his wife and children. Balian is approached by Godfrey of Ibelin (Liam Neeson Read More

In My Country

Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Juliette Binoche, Brendan Gleeson, Menzi Ngubane, Sam Ngakane

Synopsis: The many emotional scars left by South Africa's history of institutionalized racism come under the microscope in this drama. As South Africa comes to terms with the legacy of apartheid, their government has created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which the perpetrators of racial Read More

Studs

Actors: Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: Locked into a steady losing streak thanks to their hapless coach, their flimsy defense, and their dispirited team captain, Emmett Rovers Football Club receives a much-needed blast of motivation in the form of a new coach that promises to lead them all the way to the championships. Now, as the Read More

The Village

Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver

Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan, the creative mind behind The Sixth Sense and Signs, wrote and directed this characteristically atmospheric thriller. The rustic village of Covington is a small town in rural Pennsylvania that is home to 60 souls. The citizens of Covington lead a quiet and peaceful life, but not Read More

Troy

Actors: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Peter O'Toole

Synopsis: Homer's sprawling tale of love and war in ancient Greece comes to the screen in all its grandeur in this epic-scale adventure. In 1193 B.C., Paris, Prince of Troy (Orlando Bloom), has fallen in love; however, the beautiful woman who has beguiled him is Helen, Queen of Sparta (Diane Kruger), who is Read More

Six Shooter

Actors: Brendan Gleeson

Cold Mountain

Actors: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Charles Frazier, Anthony Minghella's star-studded Cold Mountain is a sweeping tale set in the final days of the American Civil War. Jude Law stars as Inman, a young soldier who, despite an injury, is struggling to make his way home to Cold Mountain, NC, where his beloved Ada (Nicole Kidman Read More

Dark Blue

Actors: Kurt Russell, Brendan Gleeson, Scott Speedman, Michael Michele, Ving Rhames

Synopsis: A cop's personal code of justice begins to change after a number of incidents lead his city to a tragic wave of violence in this police drama. Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell) is a veteran cop with the LAPD's Special Investigations unit, a man who isn't above bending the law if it means putting people Read More

28 Days Later

Actors: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston

Synopsis: Animal rights activists free a group of infected chimpanzees to horrifying results in this speculative sci-fi horror effort from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. Waking from a coma in a deserted London hospital 28 days later, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) takes to the deserted city Read More

Harrison's Flowers

Actors: Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Elias Koteas, Adrien Brody, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: French director Elie Chouraqui adapts the novel of the same name into this drama, that, although set in 1991, became tragically topical in the weeks before its release due to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Andie MacDowell stars as Sarah, a photo editor for Newsweek and Read More

Gangs of New York

Actors: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly

Synopsis: The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to Read More

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence

Actors: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson, William Hurt

Synopsis: Based on the 1969 short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, by Brian Aldiss, this science fiction fantasy bears similarities to Pinocchio (1940) and originated as a long-gestating project of director Stanley Kubrick that passed to his friend Steven Spielberg after Kubrick's death. Haley Joel Osment Read More

The Tailor of Panama

Actors: Dylan Baker, Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine McCormack, Leonor Varela

Synopsis: Set amidst the controversy of the handover of the Panama Canal from Panama to America in late 1999, this espionage thriller follows seductive British spy Andrew Osnard (Pierce Brosnan), who has found himself recently banished to Panama. When Osnard stumbles into a tailor shop, he meets Harry Read More

Mission: Impossible II

Actors: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Anthony Hopkins

Synopsis: Director John Woo brings Hong Kong-style martial arts action to this comic book-flavored sequel that eschews the complicated plot and political maneuverings of its predecessor in favor of pure, adrenaline-charged thrills. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, an operative for the top-secret government Read More

Wild About Harry

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Amanda Donohoe, Adrian Dunbar, James Nesbitt, George Wendt

Synopsis: A woman who wants to get rid of her husband has second thoughts when he's suddenly not the man he once was in this romantic comedy shot in Ireland. Harry McKee (Brendan Gleeson) is the host of a long-running television series called "What's Cooking?" in which he shares recipes with celebrity Read More

Saltwater

Actors: Peter McDonald, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: Trendy young playwright and screenwriter Conor McPherson (I Went Down, 1997) makes his directing debut with this understated comedy. Widowed fish-and-chips shop owner George Beneventi (Brian Cox) lives in a sleepy coastal town along with his three children. Eldest son Frank (Peter McDonald) helps Read More

Lake Placid

Actors: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Brendan Gleeson, Oliver Platt, Betty White

Synopsis: So what's under the water in that lake deep in the Maine woods? No one is sure what it could be, but a dead and severely mutilated body was found near the shore, and the only clue is a large tooth which appears to be from a prehistoric animal resembling a huge crocodile. Jack Wells (Bill Pullman) Read More

This is My Father

Actors: Aidan Quinn, James Caan, Stephen Rea, John Cusack, Moya Farrelly, Jacob Tierney, Colm Meaney, Gina Moxley, Moira Deady

Synopsis: Paul Quinn scripted and made his directorial debut with this period drama about middle-aged schoolteacher Kieran Johnson (James Caan), who finds evidence indicating that his real father was an Irish farmer and not a French seaman as he had been told. Since his mute and paralyzed mother offers no Read More

The General

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Adrian Dunbar, Jon Voight, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Angeline Ball, Sean McGinley

Synopsis: John Boorman, who won the 1998 Cannes Film Festival's Direction award for this film, previously won the same Cannes award almost three decades earlier for his Leo the Last (1969) about an alienated aristocrat in a London slum. Shot in widescreen color (but printed in sharp black-and-white), The Read More

I Went Down

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Peter McDonald, Peter Caffrey, Tony Doyle, Antoine Byrne

Synopsis: This Irish-British road movie follows the misadventures of some Irish ex-cons. When Dublin hood Tom French (Tony Doyle) comes down hard on slow-witted Anto (David Wilmot), Git (Peter McDonald) intervenes and then is assigned a mission. He is ordered to travel to Cork to bring back French's friend Read More

Sweety Barrett

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Liam Cunningham, Lynda Steadman, Andy Serkis, Dylan Murphy

Synopsis: Stephen Bradley made his directorial debut with this Irish drama in which circus performer Sweety Barrett (Brendan Gleeson) loses his job swallowing objects and is hired by bootlegger Flick Hennessy (Tony Rohr) to do odd jobs in the port town of Dockery where the slow-witted Sweety meets Anne King Read More

Turbulence

Actors: Ray Liotta, Lauren Holly, Brendan Gleeson, Hector Elizondo, Ben Cross

Synopsis: Airplane travel is a precarious thing at best, and despite the billions of miles traveled safely, the notion of being trapped in a thin metal shell miles above the ground with someone who deliberately imperils lives never fails to chill. In this thriller, serial killer Ryan Weaver (Ray Liotta) Read More

A Further Gesture

Actors: Brendan Gleeson, Alfred Molina, Stephen Rea, Jorge Sanz, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Rosana Pastor

Synopsis: An IRA volunteer tries to leave his life of violence behind -- only to discover it's waiting for him in America -- in this drama based on a story by leading man Stephen Rea. Dowd (Rea) is a convicted terrorist with the Irish Republican Army who is serving a sentence in a prison in Northern Read More

Angela Mooney Dies Again

Actors: Mia Farrow, Brendan Gleeson, Lisa O'Reilly, Alan Devine, Patrick Bergin

Synopsis: A tale of lost-love, idealism and steadfast commitment that alternates between comedy and drama. Passionate and tragic Angela Mooney (Mia Farrow) is a woman prepared to die for her ideals and attempts suicide rather frequently, something that never fails to draw a crowd. Outwardly, her reason for Read More

Michael Collins

Actors: Paul Hickey, Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, Julia Roberts

Synopsis: The rise and fall of one of the most important and controversial figures in Ireland's struggle for independence is chronicled in this biographical drama. In 1916, the British government ruled Ireland with a firm and cruel hand, as they had for 700 years. When a group of Irish rebels staged a Read More

Trojan Eddie

Synopsis: Set in Ireland, this beautifully rendered drama offers a fascinating portrait of a nomadic peddler who travels about the countryside selling housewares from his van. Trojan Eddie's unusual moniker comes from the logo upon his van. He works for John Power, the owner of several such traveling vans. Read More

Braveheart

Actors: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Catherine McCormack, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: Mel Gibson, long-time heartthrob of the silver screen, came into his own as a director with Braveheart, an account of the life and times of medieval Scottish patriot William Wallace and, to a lesser degree, Robert the Bruce's struggle to unify his nation against its English oppressors. The story Read More

Into the West

Actors: Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Ruaidhri Conroy, Patrick Doyle, David Kelly

Synopsis: Mike Newell directs Jim Sheridan's screenplay (based on a story by Tim Palmer) in this enchanting and magical modern-day fairy tale. Gabriel Byrne plays Papa Reilly, a widower who lives with his two young sons, Ossie (Ciaran Fitzgerald) and Tito (Ruaidhri Conroy), in the slums of Dublin. There Read More

The Snapper

Actors: Colm Meaney, Tina Kellegher, Ruth McCabe, Fionnula Murphy, Pat Laffan

Synopsis: The Snapper is Stephen Frears' adaptation of the second book in Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy. The Curley family is a poor but eccentric and loving Irish family. Oldest daughter Sharon (Tina Kellegher) announces she is pregnant, but refuses to reveal the identity of the father to anyone. Her Read More

Far and Away

Actors: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Thomas Gibson, Robert Prosky, Barbara Babcock

Synopsis: In this epic Ron Howard film, Joseph Donelly (Tom Cruise) is an impoverished 19th-century Irish tenant farmer who has recently lost both his father and his home to the agents of his unscrupulous landlord. On a mission to avenge his family's injustice at the hands of the ruthless land baron Joseph Read More

The Field

Actors: Richard Harris, John Hurt, Tom Berenger, Sean Bean, Frances Tomelty

Synopsis: Richard Harris was nominated for several awards (including the Oscar and Golden Globe) for his performance in The Field. The time is the mid-1930s; the place, western Ireland. For many years rugged individualist Bull McCabe (Harris) has been cultivating a small plot of rented land, nurturing it Read More