Stephen Rea
Stephen Rea (born 31 October 1946) is an Irish actor. He came to the attention of international film audiences in Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan's 1992 film The Crying Game, and subsequently starred in many more of Jordan's films, including Interview with the Vampire (1994), Michael Collins (1996), Breakfast on Pluto (2005), and Greta (2018). He also played a starring role in the Hugo Blick 2011 TV series The Shadow Line.
Also recorded as Graham Rea
Stephen Rea

Dublin International Film Festival · YouTube: https– View/save archived versions on archive.org · CC BY 3.0
- Name
- Stephen Rea
- Born
- 31 October 1946
- Birthplace
- Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Education
- * Queen's University Belfast
- Occupation
- Actor
- Nationality
- United Kingdom
- Honours
- Theatre World Award · Sitges Film Festival Best Actor award · honorary doctorate
- Languages
- Irish
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Documentary summary
Stephen Rea (born 31 October 1946) is an Irish actor. He came to the attention of international film audiences in Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan's 1992 film The Crying Game, and subsequently starred in many more of Jordan's films, including Interview with the Vampire (1994), Michael Collins (1996), Breakfast on Pluto (2005), and Greta (2018). He also played a starring role in the Hugo Blick 2011 TV series The Shadow Line.
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wikidata · Q313042 · wikipedia · Stephen Rea
In this article
Biography
Biography
Rea worked across stage actor, film actor, television actor and actor. This article rests on 8 published texts and 18 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

Stephen Rea at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025
Lloyd Tudor
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Stephen Rea • Born — 31 October 1946 • Birthplace — Belfast, Northern Ireland • Education — * Queen's University Belfast • Abbey Theatre School • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1962–present • Children — 2
Early life and education
Early life and education
Stephen Rea was born on 31 October 1946 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a bus driver and his mother a housewife. His family was Protestant but sympathetic to Irish nationalism. Rea has described his upbringing as nonreligious. He studied English at the Queen's University Belfast and drama at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin.
Stage
Stage
Rea's association with playwright Stewart Parker began when they were students together at the Queen's University Belfast. In the late 1970s, he acted in the Focus Company in Dublin with Gabriel Byrne and Colm Meaney. Rea helped establish the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980 with Tom Paulin, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney, and Seamus Deane. Rea's friendship with American playwright and actor Sam Shepard dates back to the early 1970s, and he starred in Shepard's directorial début of his play Geography of a Horse Dreamer at the Royal Court Theatre in 1974. In 2007, Rea began a successful and acclaimed relationship with both the Abbey Theatre and Sam Shepard, appearing in Kicking a Dead Horse (2007) and Ages of the Moon (2009), both penned by Shepard and also both transferred to New York. Rea returned to the Abbey in 2009 to appear in the world première of Sebastian Barry's Tales of Ballycumber. Rea starred in Enda Walsh's 2014 play Ballyturk and portrayed Jordan in Out of the Dark, in which he co-stars alongside Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman and Alejandro Furth.
Screen
Screen
• Illustration — Stephen Rea in 2010 Rea came to international attention when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Irish film-maker Neil Jordan's film The Crying Game in 1992. He is a frequent collaborator with Jordan, starring in his other films Interview with the Vampire (1994), Michael Collins (1996), The End of the Affair (1999), Breakfast on Pluto (2005), and Greta (2018). In 2011, Rea featured in the BBC crime drama The Shadow Line, playing antagonist Gatehouse. In 2023, Rea appeared as Frank, husband to Eileen (played by Kathy Bates), in the film The Miracle Club.
Voice
Voice
Rea was hired to speak the words of Gerry Adams when Sinn Féin was under a broadcasting ban from 1988 to 1994. In April 2012, Rea read James Joyce's short story "The Dead" on RTÉ Radio 1. He also narrated for the BBC Radio 4 production of Ulysses for Bloomsday, 16 June 2012.
Personal life
Personal life
From 1983 until their divorce in 2003, Rea was married to Dolours Price, a former Provisional Irish Republican Army bomber and hunger striker who later became a critic of Sinn Féin. They had two sons. Rea had already met Price in the 1960s but ten years before their marriage, Price attended a performance by Rea in The Freedom of the City at the Court Theatre in London in 1973, the night before she took part in a car bombing that injured 200 people. As of 2012, Rea was an Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland. As of 2020, Rea lives in County Donegal.
Television
Television
• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1964 — Crossroads — Pepe Costa • 1967 — Angel Pavement — Second Mate — Episode: "They Arrive" • 1967 — Sanctuary — Stephen Moriarty — Episode: "The Voice of His Calling" • 1969 — Z-Cars — Kenny — Episode: "Snout: Part 2" • 1970 — Softly, Softly: Task Force — Philip Conner — Episode: "Trust a Woman" • 1971 — Omnibus — Hubert Page — Episode: "Hail and Farewell-George Moore" • 1972 — The Moonstone — Major Frayne — Episode: "1.1" • 1974 — Thriller — Arden Buckley — Episode: "K is for Killing" (US Title: "Color Him Dead") • 1974–1979 — Play for Today — Peter / Chas / Shay — 3 episodes • 1975–1976 — I Didn't Know You Cared — Carter Brandon — 13 episodes - (series 1 & 2 only; not in series 3 & 4) • 1977 — BBC2 Play of the Week — Hollar — Episode: "Professional Foul" • 1978 — Play of the Month — Constantin — Episode: "The Seagull" • 1978 — The — Pellin — Episode: "In the Public Interest" • 1978 — Thank You, Comrades — Mayakovsky — TV film • 1980 — Caleb Williams (miniseries) — Tyrell — Episode: "1.1" • 1982 — Joyce in June — Stanislaus Joyce / McIntosh — TV film • 1984 — Minder — Roddy Allan — Episode: "Windows" • 1984 — Four Days in July — Dixie — TV film • 1986 — Boon — Frank Warren — Episode: "Fools Rush In" • 1986 — Screen Two — Frankie — Episode: "Shergar" • 1987 — Lost Belongings — Lenny — 2 episodes • 1987 — Scout — Marshall — TV film • 1989 — 4 Play — Paul — Segment: "Not As Bad as They Seem" • 1989 — Endgame — Clov — TV film • 1990 — Not with a Bang — Colin Garrity — 7 episodes • 1993 — Saturday Night Live — Fergus — (Uncredited) Episode: "Miranda Richardson/Soul Asylum" • 1993–1995 — Performance — Ejlert Lovborg / Seamus Shields — 2 episodes • 1995 — Citizen X — Lieutenant Viktor Burakov — TV film • 1996 — Crime of the Century — Bruno Hauptmann — TV film • 2001 — A — Dr. Roger St. Roctor — Episode: "Not What the Doctor Ordered" • 2001 — Snow in August — Rabbi Judah Hirsch — TV film • 2001 — Armadillo — Hogg — 3 episodes • 2001–2002 — Horrible Histories — Narrator (voice, UK dub) — 26 episodes • 2002 — Copenhagen — Niels Bohr — TV film • 2007 — Imeacht Na N'Iarlaí — Aodh Ó Néill, Tiarna Thir Eoghain — Episode: "1" • 2008 — 10 Days to War — Tim Cross — Episode: "These Things Are Always Chaos" • 2009 — Father & Son — Augustine Flynn — 4 episodes • 2009 — Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — Callum "Cal" Donovan — Episode: "Solitary" • 2009 — Heidi 4 Paws — The Doctor (voice) — TV film • 2010 — Single-Handed — Sean Doyle — Episodes: "The Lost Boys: Parts 1 & 2" • 2011 — Roadkill — Seamus — TV film • 2011 — The — Gatehouse — 6 episodes • 2013 — Utopia — Conran Letts — 5 episodes • 2014 — The — Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle — 8 episodes • 2015–2016 — Dickensian — Inspector Bucket — 16 episodes • 2016 — War & Peace — Prince Vassily Kuragin — 5 episodes • 2016 — Fir Bolg — Spencer — Episode: "Nochtadh" • 2018 — Counterpart — Alexander Pope — 7 episodes • 2018 — Thanksgiving — Melchior — 3 episodes • 2020 — The Stranger — Martin Killane — 8 episodes • 2020 — Flesh and Blood — Mark — 4 episodes • 2022 — The English — Sheriff Robert Marshall — 6 episodes • 2025 — Prime Target — Professor James Alderman — 5 episodes
Theatre
Theatre
• Year — Title — Playwright — Venue • 1967 — Shadow of a Gunman — Sean O'Casey — The Mermaid Theatre, London • 1969 — Captain Oates' Left Sock — John Antrobus — Royal Court Theatre, London • 1971 — Crete and Sargent Pepper — John Antrobus • 1973 — The Freedom of the City — Brian Friel • 1973 — The Duchess of Malfi — John Webster — 7:84 Theatre Company, London • 1973 — Sargent Musgraves — John Arden — The Gate, Dublin • 1973 — The White Devil — John Webster — Nottingham Playhouse • 1973 — Drums in the Night — Bertold Brecht — Hampstead Theatre, London • 1974 — Geography of a Horse Dreamer — Sam Shepard — Royal Court Theatre, London • 1974 — Comedians — Trevor Griffiths — Nottingham Playhouse • 1980 — Translations — Brian Friel — Field Day Theatre Company • 1981 — Three Sisters — Anton Chekhov adapt. Brian Friel • 1982 — The Communication Cord — Brian Friel • 1984 — High Time — Derek Mahon • 1984 — The Riot Act — Tom Paulin • 1986 — Double Cross — Thomas Kilroy • 1987 — Pentecost — Stewart Parker • 1989 — Saint Oscar — Terry Eagleton • 2014 — Ballyturk — Enda Walsh — Galway International Arts Festival • 2014 — A Particle of Dread — Sam Shepard — Field Day Theatre Company • 2016 — Cyprus Avenue — David Ireland — Royal Court Theatre, London • 2020 — The Visiting Hour — Frank McGuinness — The Gate Theatre, Dublin
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1946–2019
The full dated record · 7 entries
1946
Stephen Rea born at Belfast.
1993
Receives Theatre World Award.
1993
Stephen Rea received Theatre World Award in 1993.
1995
Receives Sitges Film Festival Best Actor award.
1995
Stephen Rea received Sitges Film Festival Best Actor award in 1995.
2019
Receives honorary doctorate.
2019
Stephen Rea received honorary doctorate in 2019.
Film
• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1970 — Cry of the Banshee — Villager • 1982 — Angel — Danny • 1984 — The Company of Wolves — Young Groom • 1985 — The — Timothy Broom • 1985 — Loose Connections — Harry • 1990 — Life Is Sweet — Patsy • 1992 — The — Fergus • 1993 — Bad Behaviour — Gerry McAllister • 1994 — Angie — Noel • 1994 — Princess Caraboo — Gutch • 1994 — Interview with the Vampire — Santiago • 1994 — Prêt-à-Porter — Milo O'Brannigan • 1995 — Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea — Nikos • 1995 — All Men Are Mortal — Fosca • 1995 — Citizen X — Lt. Viktor Burakov • 1996 — Michael Collins — Ned Broy • 1996 — Trojan Eddie — Eddie "Trojan Eddie" • 1996 — The Last of the High Kings — Cab Driver • 1997 — Fever Pitch — Ray • 1997 — The — Benny Brady • 1997 — The — Sean Dowd • 1997 — Double Tap — Cypher • 1997 — Hacks — Brian • 1998 — This Is My Father — Mission Priest — Cameo • 1998 — Still Crazy — Tony Costello • 1999 — In Dreams — Dr. Silverman • 1999 — Guinevere — Connie Fitzpatrick • 1999 — I Could Read the Sky — P.J. Doran • 1999 — The — Brian • 1999 — The — Henry Miles • 2000 — The King's Wake — King Connor Mac Neasa — (Voice) Short subject • 2001 — The — Cardinal Richelieu • 2001 — On the Edge — Dr. Figure • 2002 — FeardotCom — Alistair Pratt • 2002 — Evelyn — Michael Beattie • 2003 — Bloom — Leopold Bloom • 2004 — The — Dr. Newman • 2004 — The Halo Effect — "Fatso" • 2004 — The — McCaran • 2004 — Fluent Dysphasia — "Murph" — Short subject • 2004 — Proud — Barney Garvey • 2004 — Control — Dr. Arlo Penner • 2005 — Breakfast on Pluto — Bertie Vaughan • 2005 — River Queen — Francis • 2005 — Tara Road — Colm Maguire • 2006 — V for Vendetta — Chief Inspector Eric Finch • 2006 — Sisters — Dr. Philip Lacan • 2006 — Sixty Six — Dr. Barrie • 2007 — Until Death — Gabriel Callaghan • 2007 — The — Father Michael Costigan • 2007 — Stuck — Thomas Bardo • 2008 — The — Tyler • 2008 — Kisses — "Down Under" Dylan — Uncredited cameo • 2009 — Spy(ies) — M. Palmer • 2009 — Child of the Dead End — Patrick MacGill • 2009 — Nothing Personal — Martin • 2009 — The — Jameson Anawalt • 2009 — Ondine — Priest • 2011 — Blackthorn — MacKinley • 2011 — Stella Days — Brendan McSweeney • 2012 — Underworld: Awakening — Dr. Jacob Lane • 2012 — Werewolf: The Beast Among Us — Doc — Direct-to-DVD • 2013 — Tasting Menu — Walter • 2014 — Asylum — McGahey • 2014 — Styria — Dr. Hill • 2014 — Out of the Dark — Jordan • 2015 — Ruby Strangelove Young Witch — Danforth • 2015 — An — Danforth • 2018 — Black '47 — Conneely • 2018 — Greta — Brian Cody • 2018 — Unquiet Graves — Narrator — Documentary about the Troubles • 2021 — Nightride — Joe — Voice • 2023 — The Miracle Club — Frank Dunne
Context
Primary material
Context
The circumstances in which Stephen Rea stands. Established in Library of Congress under no95028097. Recorded as television actor. Rea received Sitges Film Festival Best Actor award in 1995. Rea received Theatre World Award in 1993. Rea received honorary doctorate in 2019. Recognition and collections. Rea received Theatre World Award, Sitges Film Festival Best Actor award and honorary doctorate.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Stephen Rea”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q313042: Stephen Rea
Unverified · Wikidata
Recognition and awards
Rea is an Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Tony Award nominee, a BAFTA Award winner, and a three-time Irish Film and Television (IFTA) Award winner. He was nominated for a BAFTA Award and for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Crying Game (1992). He won a BAFTA Award for his role in The Honourable Woman in 2015. In 2004, in recognition for his contribution to theatre and performing arts, Rea was given honorary degrees from both the Queen's University Belfast and the Ulster University. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked Rea the 13th greatest Irish film actor of all time.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.20 Questions With…Stephen Rea. WhatsOnStage. 5 April 2004.
- 2.Auld, Tim. Stephen Rea: 'I never wanted to be a polite actor'. The Telegraph. 25 March 2016.
- 3.Stephen Rea: 'I can't imagine teams of loyalists rolling up to watch it'. The Irish Times.
- 4.Stephen Rea - The Tommy Tiernan Show. YouTube. 6 February 2021.
- 5.Lojek, Helen Heusner. "Too Clever for Belfast"? Stewart Parker's Joyce in June. New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua. 23. 2. 77–94. 2019. 1092-3977.
- 6.From Angel to Devil: The Real Byrne. Irishamerica.com.
- 7.Queen's University Belfast. Queen's prepares for graduation week. June 2004.
- 8.Abbey Theatre. Ages of the Moon by Sam Shepard, 24 February – 4 April 2009. 2009.
- 9.Abbey Theatre. Tales of Ballycumber. 2009.
- 10.Scare comes from Out of the Dark in this exclusive clip. Bloody Disgusting. 24 February 2012.
- 11.Barton, Steve. First clips emerge Out of the Dark. Dread Central. 26 February 2015.
- 12.Boiselle, Matt. Out of the Dark (2015). Dread Central. 27 February 2015.
- 13.Szalai, Georg. Stephen Rea to Receive Irish Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. The Hollywood Reporter. 6 March 2024.
- 14.How we made The Crying Game. The Guardian. 21 February 2017. 0261-3077.
- 15.Wolf, Matt. Actors lose jobs as ban on IRA voices is lifted. Austin American-Statesman. A3. 17 September 1994.
- 16.Raidió Teilifís Éireann. Rea reads The Dead on RTÉ Radio. RTÉ Ten. 2 April 2012.
- 17.BBC Radio 4 - James Joyce's Ulysses - About the production. BBC.
- 18.Awards. Bafta.
- 19.BBC News. Stephen Rea wins Best Supporting Actor Bafta TV award. 11 May 2015.
- 20.Ulster University. Honour for Stephen Rea. 15 December 2004.
- 21.Clarke, Donald. The 50 greatest Irish film actors of all time – in order. The Irish Times. 13 June 2020.
- 22.Radden Keefe 252
- 23.McDonald, Henry. Stephen Rea carries Dolours Price's coffin at funeral in Belfast: Former IRA hunger striker is buried after mass attended by Hollywood actor ex-husband. The Guardian. 28 January 2013.
- 24.Radden Keefe, Patrick (2018). Say Nothing. Penguin Random House. Pages 188, 252
- 25.Foy, Ken. Dolours Price, former IRA terrorist and ex-wife of actor Stephen Rea, dies of suspected overdose. Irish Independent. 24 January 2013.
- 26.Ex-IRA woman Dolours Price is found dead in Dublin. BBC News Online. 24 January 2013.
- 27.Radden Keefe, Patrick. Say Nothing. Penguin Random House. 2018.
- 28.Who Were the Real Dolours and Marian Price?. Uk.news.yahoo.com. 14 November 2024.
- 29.UNICEF. UNICEF Ireland Ambassadors & High Profile Supporters.
- 30.Actor Stephen Rea reveals he has found peace living in Donegal. 13 February 2020.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedauthority record
Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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