Colm Meaney facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Colm Meaney
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Meaney at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
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| Born | 30 May 1953 Dublin, Ireland
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| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 2 |
Colm J. Meaney (born 30 May 1953) is an Irish actor. He is very well known for playing Miles O'Brien in the TV shows Star Trek: The Next Generation (from 1987 to 1994) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (from 1993 to 1999).
Colm Meaney has also appeared in many other TV shows, like Law & Order and The Simpsons. He also starred as Thomas C. Durant in the TV series Hell on Wheels (from 2011 to 2016). In movies, he has been in films such as Layer Cake, The Damned United, and all three movies based on Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy books. In 2017, he won an IFTA award for Best Actor for his role as Irish politician Martin McGuinness in the film The Journey. In 2020, he was named one of Ireland's greatest film actors by The Irish Times newspaper.
Contents
Early Life and Beginning Acting
Colm Meaney was born in Finglas, a part of Dublin, Ireland. He started learning to act when he was 14 years old. After finishing secondary school, he joined the Abbey Theatre School of Acting. The Abbey Theatre is also known as the Irish National Theatre.
He worked there for eight years and then toured England with different theatre groups. One of these groups was called 7:84, which was started by John McGrath.
Acting Career Highlights
Colm Meaney's first time on television was in a show called Z-Cars on BBC One in 1978. Before becoming a successful movie actor, he also guest-starred on shows like Remington Steele and Moonlighting. He even received a Golden Globe award nomination for Best Actor for his role in the movie The Snapper.
Star Trek Adventures
Colm Meaney first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation in its very first episode in 1987. At first, his character didn't even have a name! He was just a helm officer. But his character became more important over time and was given the name Miles O'Brien. He became the Transporter Chief on the spaceship.
In 1993, Colm Meaney moved from The Next Generation to a new show called Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He was a main character on this show until its last episode in 1999. He has appeared in Star Trek shows 225 times in total. This makes him the actor with the second most appearances in the whole Star Trek series!
Other Notable Roles
Meaney played Colum O'Hara in the 1994 TV miniseries Scarlett, which was a follow-up to the famous story Gone With the Wind. He also had a small, repeated role as Cowen, a leader of the Genii people, in the series Stargate Atlantis. He has appeared in popular shows like Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
In movies, Colm Meaney was the pilot of a plane in Die Hard 2. He was also the only actor to appear in all three movies based on Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy books, playing the father of the Rabbitte family. In 2009, he voiced an Irish bartender in a special St. Patrick's Day episode of The Simpsons. That same year, he played Don Revie, a famous football manager, in the movie The Damned United.
From 2011 to 2016, Colm Meaney starred for five seasons as Thomas C. Durant, a powerful railroad builder, in the TV drama series Hell on Wheels. He also appeared in the BBC crime story The Driver in 2014.
Personal Life
Colm Meaney married Irish actress Bairbre Dowling in 1977. They had a daughter in 1984, but they divorced in 1994. He then married French costume designer Ines Glorian in March 2007. They have a daughter who was born in 2005. Today, Colm Meaney and his family live in the town of Sóller on the island of Mallorca in Spain.
Images for kids
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Meaney at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
See also
In Spanish: Colm Meaney para niños
