Gabriel Byrne - biography

“And then, I suppose, there’s also a cinematic reality on top of that.  Because it was extremely difficult to keep tabs on, it was quite confusing acting that.”

“What is that song that Willie Nelson sang?  ‘Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few.’ I think of that.  No big deal.  I’ve reached a stage in my life where I am content.”

“I’m not a very gregarious person.  I can’t bear attention being called to me in a public place, which is ridiculous in a business that pays you to be noticed.”

“From doing A Moon for the Misbegotten, I’ve learned that nobody’s love can save anybody else.  There are people who want to die, and nothing or nobody will stop them.  The only one who can save you is yourself.”

“It was either Voltaire or Charlie Sheen who said, ‘We are born alone.  We live alone.  We die alone.  And anything in between that can give us the illusion that we’re not, we cling to.’”

“I think there’s a bit of the devil in everybody.  There’s a bit of a priest in everybody, too, but I enjoyed playing the devil more.  He was more fun.”

“I don’t think we’re living in great times for movies, to tell you the truth.”

“The only way you can continue to make artistic films is to make an occasional one of those.  They kind of keep your marketability going to the extent that people will employ you.”

“I had one of the best days of my life.  I spent the afternoon with my two kids and my ex-wife at Serendipity.  Then I came to the theater, and you know, I think I did the play the best I’ve ever done it.”

“I thought to myself, there’s a man who gave up his life to serve others - to touch people in that way is probably the greatest thing you can do as a human being.”

“Presents don’t really mean much to me.  I don’t want to sound mawkish, but - it was the realization that I have a great many people in my life who really love me, and who I really love.”

“A completely disrespectful photographer was asked to stop taking photographs, and then said, ‘I’ve got what I want.  What are you going to do about it?’ How would you feel if somebody walked up and started taking your photograph?  I don’t think you’d be very happy.”

“I would like to break out of this dark, brooding image, cause I’m actually not like that at all.”

“It’s actually pretty complex, because there’s two levels of reality in the narrative.  One is what really took place, and the other is Spider’s poisoned version of what took place.”

“Not to oversimplify it, somebody once said a good rule of thumb in interpreting a character is to find the good in the bad people that you portray and the bad in the good.”

“O’Neill presents a very complex multi-layered kind of challenge.  His characters are always deeply complex and, to a great extent, inaccessible.”

Gabriel Byrne has appeared in the following films:
On a Paving Stone Mounted (1978)
Excalibur (1981)
Hanna K. (1983)
The Keep (1983)
Reflections (1984)
Gothic (1986)
Defence of the Realm (1986)
Siesta (1987)
Giulia e Giulia (1987)
Hello Again (1987)
Lionheart (1987)
A Soldier’s Tale (1988)
The Courier (1988)
Diamond Skulls (1989)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Shipwrecked (1990)
Cool World (1992)
Into the West (1992)
Point of No Return (1993)
A Dangerous Woman (1993)
The Usual Suspects (1994)
Prince of Jutland (1994)
Little Women (1994)
A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)
Trial by Jury (1994)
Dead Man (1995)
Frankie Starlight (1995)
Irish Cinema: Ourselves Alone? (1995)
Mad Dog Time (1996)
Somebody Is Waiting (1996)
The Last of the High Kings (1996)
Smilla’s Feeling for Snow (1997)
The End of Violence (1997)
This Is the Sea (1997)
Quest for Camelot (1998)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)
Enemy of the State (1998)
Pirates (1998)
Polish Wedding (1998)
The Brylcreem Boys (1998)
End of Days (1999)
Stigmata (1999)
Canone inverso - making love (2000)
Spider (2002)
Emmett’s Mark (2002)
Ghost Ship (2002)
Virginia’s Run (2002)
Shade (2003)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)
P.S. (2004)
Vanity Fair (2004)
Wah-Wah (2005)
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Jindabyne (2006)
Emotional Arithmetic (2007)
Perrier’s Bounty (2009)
Attack on Leningrad (2009)
I, Anna (2012)


Gabriel Byrne contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
The Last of the High Kings (1996)