Jim Norton

• Name — Jim Norton • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1969–present • Born — 4 January 1938 • Birthplace — Dublin, Ireland • Relatives — Betty Ann Norton (sister)

Jim Norton was born on 4 January 1938 in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at Synge Street CBS. From an early age he wanted to be an actor, and regularly attended performances at the Abbey Theatre. His mother, Frances, played the violin and his father, Eugene, was a baritone singer. Eugene worked as a bakery manager. Jim had one sibling, the late acting teacher Betty Ann Norton.

Norton has been acting for over fifty years in theatre, television, and film, and frequently plays clergymen, most notably Bishop Brennan in the sitcom Father Ted, as well as roles in The Sweeney (1975), Peak Practice (1993), Sunset Heights (1997), A Love Divided (1999), Rebus: Black and Blue (2000), Mad About Mambo (2000), Boxed (2003) and Jimmy's Hall (2014). Norton starred as Finian McLonergan in the critically acclaimed New York City Center's 2009 production of Finian's Rainbow, and in October 2009 reprised the role in the Broadway revival at the St. James Theatre. His co-stars were Cheyenne Jackson (Woody) and Kate Baldwin (Sharon).

As well as Bishop Brennan in Father Ted, Norton also played: Albert Einstein in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (namely "The Nth Degree" and "Descent"); the librarian Lieutenant James Porteous in the highly acclaimed 1970s British television drama series Colditz; Phil Harrister, a criminal involved in an intricate bank robbery, in The Sweeney episode "Contact Breaker"; O'Brady in the Minder episode "National Pelmet"; and Rory, a roguish but genteel Irishman who is diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, in The Royal episode "Beggars and Choosers". Norton also played the role of theatre director, Jeremy Williams, in the 1973 episode of Crown Court (TV series) called "Public Lives". Norton has appeared in two episodes of Van der Valk. On Babylon 5 he appeared in a number of roles, including that of Ombuds Wellington in the 1994 episodes "Grail" and "The Quality of Mercy"; a Narn in "Dust to Dust" (1996); and Dr. Lazarenn, a Markab doctor, in "Confessions and Lamentations" (1995). In Fall of Eagles he played Alexander Kerensky. Other television work includes: 1990, Agatha Christie's Poirot; Waking the Dead; Cheers; Frasier; Midsomer Murders; Maigret and Rumpole of the Bailey as Fig Newton, Stan Laurel in the BBC drama Stan (2006) and Larry Joyce in the 2013 television drama Deception, Silas Mitton, Brendan Robinson and Digger in the stop motion series The Treacle People (1996–1997) and as the timid Gardener in the first series of the long-running CITV children's series T-Bag: "Wonders in Letterland" (1985) He also appeared as a prison psychiatrist in "The Bill" titled Karma (Season 12, Episode 109) (1996)

Norton has a longtime partnership with playwright Conor McPherson, having originated roles in six of his plays in Dublin, London and New York, and for which he has won both the Tony and Olivier Award. Norton played Jack in The Weir (1997), Joe in Port Authority (2001), Matthew in Come on Over (2001), Richard in The Seafarer (2006–7), Reverend Berkeley in The Veil (2011), and Maurice in The Night Alive (2013). In 1990 he appeared in the original production of Frank McGuinness's The Bread Man at the Gate Theatre. In 2004 he took part in the touring production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman. In 2006/7 he appeared in Conor McPherson's The Seafarer at The National Theatre, and reprised the same role in the 2008 Broadway theatre production of the play. In 2012, he performed as The Chairman in a Broadway adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In 2013/2014 he played Maurice in Conor McPherson's The Night Alive, a Donmar Warehouse production, transferred to the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York. Norton starred as Candy in the 2014 Broadway revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (alongside James Franco and fellow Irishman Chris O'Dowd) at the Longacre Theatre. In 2016, he played Giles Corey in Ivo van Hove's production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible at the Walter Kerr Theatre. In 2022/2023, he portrayed Judge Taylor in To Kill A Mockingbird in London's West End.

Norton voiced Major Kennet in the 2003 Doctor Who animated serial, Scream of the Shalka. Norton has recorded the whole of James Joyce's Ulysses (with Marcella Riordan), Dubliners, Finnegans Wake (abridged with Marcella Riordan) and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for Naxos Records, released in 2004. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien 2009. Thorndyke: Forensic Investigator: for BBC Radio 4 Extra 2011. BBC Radio production of The Mustard Seed by Nick Warburton The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson: BBC Radio 4 Extra, May 2012 Mr Deasy in Ulysses: BBC Radio 4 production for Bloomsday 16 June 2012 Narrator: The Stack, short story by Rose Tremain, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra, 24 September 2012. Death in BBC Radio 4 production of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, December 2014. Silas Mitton and Brendan Robinson in The Treacle People: Still Sticky, April 2025.

Jim Norton is recorded as actor.