Liam Cunningham

Liam Cunningham
Cunningham in 2013
Born	(1961-06-02) 2 June 1961 East Wall, Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Education	St Davids, Artane, Dublin
Occupation	Actor, director, producer, Electrician
Years active	1992–present
Spouse(s)	Colette Cunningham;
Children	3

Liam Cunningham (born 2 June 1961) is an Irish stage and screen actor. He is best known for his roles in the films A Little Princess, Jude, Dog Soldiers, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Hunger, Centurion, Clash of the Titans, The Escapist, Black Butterflies and The Guard. Since 2012 he has portrayed Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series Game of Thrones.^[1] He has been nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award, the British Independent Film Award, has won two Irish Film & Television Awards, and shared a BAFTA with Michael Fassbender, for their crime-drama short film Pitch Black Heist.^[2][3]

Early life

Cunningham was born in East Wall, which is an inner city area of the Northside of Dublin.^[4] He has three sisters and a brother, and was brought up in a Roman Catholic household. Cunningham dropped out of secondary school at 15 and pursued a career as an electrician. In the 1980s, Cunningham moved to Zimbabwe for three years where he maintained electrical equipment at a safari park and trained Zimbabwean electricians. After returning to Ireland, Cunningham became dissatisfied with his work as an electrician and decided to pursue his interest in acting. He attended acting classes and began to work in local theatre. He appeared in a production of 'Studs' at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London.

Career

Cunningham's debut film role came in Into the West, where he played a police officer. His on-screen acting continued with roles in War of the Buttons, and A Little Princess, before making his first major break-out role in Jude, playing Phillotson. He continued with character roles in RKO 281, Falling for a Dancer, Shooting the Past, When the Sky Falls and Stranded. Cunningham came to international prominence with his role as Captain Ryan in the critically acclaimed, independent horror film, Dog Soldiers. Since then, he has starred in acclaimed films roles including, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Hunger, The Guard, Black Butterflies and The Escapist, and in numerous high budget British and American films including The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Clash of the Titans (2010), Centurion, and Harry Brown. On television, he appeared as President Richard Tate in the BBC programme Outcasts.

In 2012, Cunningham joined the main cast for the second season of HBO's acclaimed, award-winning series Game of Thrones portraying former smuggler Davos Seaworth,^[5] and in 2013 he starred in The Number Station alongside John Cusack.^[6] He was also cast in season 5 of the BBC series Merlin as a sorcerer.^[7] He featured in the music video for "High Hopes" by Irish alternative rock band Kodaline from their EP The High Hopes.^[8] In April 2013 he was cast in the seventh season of the hit BBC1 series Doctor Who in the episode Cold War, where he played Captain Zhukov, the commander of a Russian submarine in 1983 facing one of the Ice Warriors. 2015 was Guest of Manchester based Grimmfest.^[9]

Personal life

Cunningham currently resides in Dublin with his wife Colette, with whom he has three children, daughter Ellen and sons Liam Jr. and Sean.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Liam Cunningham at the Internet Movie Database