Dermot Mulroney facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dermot Mulroney
Mulroney in 2018
Born	Dermot Patrick Mulroney (1963-10-31) October 31, 1963 (age 61) Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Alma mater	Northwestern University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Spouse(s)	Catherine Keener ​ ​ (m. 1990; div. 2007)​ Prima Apollinaare ​ (m. 2008)​
Children	3

Dermot Patrick Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in romantic comedy, western, and drama films.

Mulroney is known for his work in various films such as Long Gone (1987), Young Guns (1988), Staying Together (1989), Where the Day Takes You (1992), Point of No Return (1993), The Last Outlaw (1993), Angels in the Outfield (1994), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), About Schmidt (2002), The Wedding Date (2005), Zodiac (2007), August: Osage County (2013), Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), Scream VI and Anyone but You (2023).

Mulroney played the main antagonist Francis Gibson in NBC's Crisis (2014), Dr. Walter Wallace in Pure Genius (2016–2017), Sean Pierce in Showtime's Shameless (2015–2017), and Bobby Sheridan in USA's The Purge (2018–2019).

Early life

Mulroney was born in Alexandria, Virginia on Halloween Day in 1963. His father, Michael Mulroney, from Elkader, Iowa, was a law professor at Villanova University School of Law beginning in the 1990s, prior to which he had a private practice in tax law for thirty years in Washington, D.C. His mother, Ellen, originally from Manchester, Iowa, was a regional theater actress. Mulroney is of Irish and German descent, and is the middle child among five siblings. He has two older brothers, Conor and Sean; a younger brother, Kieran Mulroney, who is an actor and screenwriter; and a younger sister, Moira.

Mulroney attended Matthew Maury Elementary School and played cello in school and city youth orchestras, as well as acted in children's community theater. He finished 9th and 10th grades at George Washington High School, before attending T. C. Williams High School (class of 1981) in Alexandria, Virginia. During his sophomore year in high school, he attended the Interlochen Arts Camp as a cellist. Beginning at age 18, Mulroney studied communications at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and graduated in 1985.

Mulroney has a scar on his upper lip from a childhood accident, about which he explained, "I was 3½ and I was carrying a dish for our pet rabbits. And I tripped and it broke, and I fell on it."

Career

1986–1996

Mulroney at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival

In his senior year in college, Mulroney responded to a sign-up sheet and auditioned in front of WMA agent Barbara Gale, who offered him a contract and asked him to relocate to Hollywood. There, Mulroney auditioned for three months before landing the role of the male lead in his debut in Sin of Innocence. In his first decade acting, Mulroney appeared in a slew of drama films often dealing with heavy subject matter: Sin of Innocence (1986), in which he played a stepbrother romantically involved with his stepsister after their parents marry; Daddy (1987), in which he played the boyfriend in a couple struggling with teenage parenthood; the Lee Grant sibling family drama Staying Together (1989); Unconquered (1989), in which he portrayed the son of Richmond Flowers Sr., an opponent of Alabama Governor George Wallace's segregationist policies; Longtime Companion (1989), in which he portrayed the first HIV/AIDS patient to die of the disease in a widely released film; Where the Day Takes You (1992), in which he plays the leader of a group of teenage runaways trying to survive in the streets of Los Angeles; and a supporting role in the Emmy Award-nominated Family Pictures (1993), which dealt with the struggles of raising a child with autism.

In 1988, Mulroney appeared in the baseball flick Long Gone, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie at the CableACE Awards. In 1989, he appeared in Survival Quest, during which he met Catherine Keener. While filming, in 1986, Keener was caught in a river current and floated precariously close to whitewater rapids when Mulroney jumped in and the pair were picked up half a mile downstream. The two eventually married in 1990. The couple would go on to appear together in four other films: Living In Oblivion (1995), Heroine of Hell (1996), Box of Moonlight (1996) and Lovely & Amazing (2001). Mulroney's roles in Samantha (1991) and Where The Day Takes You (1992) awarded him Best Actor at the Seattle International Film Festival. In 1993, he wrote the song "Someone Else's Used Guitar" for Peter Bogdanovich's The Thing Called Love, in which he also starred. Mulroney also had a cameo in the Joaquin Phoenix–directed video "Tired of Being Sorry" for Balthazar Getty's band Ringside.

Mulroney appeared in a number of western films throughout this period, namely Young Guns in 1988, Silent Tongue and The Last Outlaw in 1993, and Bad Girls in 1994. The Sam Shepard-directed Silent Tongue would mark the second in a series of four collaborations, with the two previously appearing together on screen in Bright Angel (1990), for which Mulroney won the Jury Special Prize at the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema. Mulroney co-starred in the comedy-drama films: Staying Together (1989); The Thing Called Love (1993), the second of two collaborations with River Phoenix before his death; and There Goes My Baby (1994), originally filmed in 1990. Mulroney appeared in the thriller films Point of No Return in 1993; Copycat in 1995; the Palme d'Or-nominated Kansas City, and The Trigger Effect in 1996. He was nominated for Best Kiss, with Winona Ryder, for How to Make an American Quilt (1996) at the MTV Movie Awards.

1997–present

Mulroney in 2016

Several of his lead performances have been in romantic comedy films. Mulroney has appeared in many films, including as the male lead in My Best Friend's Wedding alongside Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz. In 1993 Mulroney played "J.P", the boyfriend of star "Maggie" (played by Bridget Fonda) in Point of No Return. Mulroney also played the love interest of Madeleine Stowe in the western Bad Girls. In 2005, he played a male escort alongside Debra Messing in The Wedding Date, and co-starred in the ensemble film The Family Stone, with Sarah Jessica Parker. He was also in the film Abduction (2011) as Martin Price.

In 2003, Mulroney played Gavin Mitchell on the TV series Friends. He appeared in three episodes of the ninth season, his character briefly dating Rachel. This would mark Mulroney's last on-screen appearance on television for a number of years, later revealing in a May 2007 interview that he had turned down TV series roles in favor of film. In 2007, Mulroney appeared in the fifth season of The Batman as Green Lantern / Hal Jordan. In 2011, he directed the feature film Love, Wedding, Marriage.

In 2012, Mulroney played the love interest of Zooey Deschanel, Russell, in the Fox series New Girl. In 2013, he played the title starring role in the psychotronic horror film The Rambler, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. He also starred alongside Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, and Stefanie Scott in the 2015 horror sequel Insidious: Chapter 3. He is the narrator of Legends & Lies (2015-2016) executive produced by Bill O'Reilly for Fox News Channel. He also appeared in the hit Showtime series Shameless as Sean. In 2023, Mulroney starred in the sixth installment of the Scream franchise and starred in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Secret Invasion.

Personal life

Dermot Mulroney in 2018

Mulroney married actress Catherine Keener in 1990 after they met in 1986 when filming Survival Quest. They have a son named Clyde Keener Mulroney (born June 21, 1999) who is a singer. The couple separated in May 2005 and Mulroney filed for divorce on June 11, 2007, citing irreconcilable differences. Their divorce became final on December 19, 2007. In 2008, he married Italian Tharita Cesaroni, who changed her name to Prima Apollinaare in 2015. They have two daughters, and the family lives in Los Angeles.

Mulroney is an accomplished cellist. In 1996, he was part of a band called the Low and Sweet Orchestra that released an album in 1996, "Goodbye to All That". In 2005 he appeared alongside Boyd Tinsley for Alanis Morissette's show at the House of Blues in Hollywood. He played the cello in the films The Thing Called Love, where he portrayed an aspiring country singer, the 1987 made-for-TV movie Daddy, and Samantha, where he portrayed a college student studying music. He played cello in the song "Place Your Hand" from Melissa Etheridge's 1992 album Never Enough, on the EP for Rain Phoenix's band Papercranes, and on the scores for Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). In 2016 his band, Cranky George, released its debut album Fat Lot of Good. Most recently, he portrayed a cello soloist in the second and third seasons of Mozart in the Jungle.

Filmography

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Reference(s)
1988	Sunset	Michael Alperin
	Young Guns	Dirty Steve Stephens
1989	Staying Together	Kit McDermott
	Survival Quest	Gray Atkinson
	Longtime Companion	John
1990	Bright Angel	George Russell
1991	Career Opportunities	Nestor Pyle
	Samantha	Henry
1992	Where the Day Takes You	King
1993	Silent Tongue	Reeves McCree
	Point of No Return	J. P.
	The Last Outlaw	Eustis
	Thing Called Love, TheThe Thing Called Love	Kyle Davidson
1994	Bad Girls	Josh McCoy
	There Goes My Baby	Pirate
	Angels in the Outfield	Mr. Bomman
	Scene Six, Take One	Wolf	Short film
1995	Copycat	Reuben Goetz
	How to Make an American Quilt	Sam
	Living in Oblivion	Wolf Überman	Also associate producer
1996	God's Lonely Man	N/A	Cellist
	Kansas City	Johnny O'Hara
	Trigger Effect, TheThe Trigger Effect	Joe
	Box of Moonlight	Wick
	Bastard Out of Carolina	Lyle Parsons
1997	My Best Friend's Wedding	Michael O'Neal
1999	Goodbye Lover	Jake Dunmore
2000	Trixie	Dexter "Dex" Lang
	Where the Money Is	Wayne MacKay
2001	Safety of Objects, TheThe Safety of Objects	Jim Train
	Lovely & Amazing	Kevin McCabe
2002	About Schmidt	Randall Hertzel
2004	Undertow	John Munn
	Hair High	Rod	Voice
2005	Wedding Date, TheThe Wedding Date	Nick Mercer
	Must Love Dogs	Bob Connor
	Family Stone, TheThe Family Stone	Everett Stone
2006	Mission: Impossible III	N/A	Cellist
	Griffin & Phoenix	Henry Griffin
2007	Dante's Inferno	Dante Alighieri	Also cellist Voice
	Zodiac	Captain Marty Lee
	Georgia Rule	Dr. Simon Ward
	Gracie	Bryan Bowen
2008	Jolene	Uncle Phil
	Burn After Reading	Star of "Coming Up Daisy"
	Flash of Genius	Gil Previck
2009	Kisses Over Babylon	Warden	Short film
	Star Trek	N/A	Cellist
2010	Inhale	Paul Stanton
2011	Abduction	Martin Price
	J. Edgar	Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.
	Family Tree, TheThe Family Tree	Jack Burnett
	Love, Wedding, Marriage	N/A	Director
	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol	N/A	Cellist
2012	Struck by Lightning	Neal Phillips
	Grey, TheThe Grey	Jerome Talget
	Big Miracle	Colonel Scott Boyer
	John Carter	N/A	Cellist
	Trade of Innocents	Alex Becker
	Beyond	Officer Jack Musker
2013	Space Warriors	Andy Hawkins
	Stoker	Richard Stoker
	Rambler, TheThe Rambler	The Rambler
	Jobs	Mike Markkula
	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Doctor
	August: Osage County	Steve Heidebrecht
	Star Trek Into Darkness	N/A	Cellist
2014	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	N/A	Cellist
2015	Careful What You Wish For	Elliott Harper
	Tomorrowland	N/A	Cellist
	Truth	Lawrence Lanpher
	Insidious: Chapter 3	Sean Brenner
	Jurassic World	N/A	Cellist
	Inside Out	N/A	Cellist
	D Train, TheThe D Train	Himself
2016	Dirty Grandpa	David Kelly
	Lavender	Patrick
	Zootopia	N/A	Cellist
	Star Trek Beyond	N/A	Cellist
	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	N/A	Cellist
2017	Sleepless	Stanley Rubino
	Spider-Man: Homecoming	N/A	Cellist
	War for the Planet of the Apes	N/A	Cellist
	The Mountain Between Us	Mark Robertson
2018	I Still See You	August Bittner
	Incredibles 2	N/A	Cellist
	Cats and Peachtopia	Blanket	Voice
2019	Sgt. Will Gardner	Buddy
	Spider-Man: Far From Home	N/A	Cellist
	The Courier	Special Agent Roberts
2020	Hard Luck Love Song	Rollo
2021	The Blazing World	Tom Winter
	Deadly Illusions	Tom Morrison
	Christmas Is Cancelled	Jack Lockhart
2022	Along for the Ride	Robert West
	Gone in the Night	Nicholas Barlow
	Umma	Danny
	The Inhabitant	Ben Haldon
	Agent Game	Harris
	Section Eight	Sam Ramsey
2023	Scream VI	Detective Wayne Bailey
	You're Killing Me	Congressman Schroder
	Shooting Stars	Keith Dambrot
	Breakwater	Ray Childress
	The Dirty South	Jeb Roy
	The Warrant: Breaker's Law	Yule Bronson
	Ruthless	Harry
	Anyone but You	Leo
2024	Lights Out	Sage Parker
	Guns & Moses	Alan Rosner
	Blackwater Lane	Matthew Anderson
	Depravity	Mr. Evers
2025	Laws of Man	Benjamin Bonney
	Like Father Like Son	Gabe McKennan
	When I'm Ready	Keith
TBA	The Gettysburg Address	Andrew Gregg Curtin	Voice; post-production
	Play Dirty	0TBA	Post-production
	Dead and Breakfast	0TBA	Post-production
	Long Shadows	Dallas Garrett
	Perfectly Imperfect	Jake
	Killing Mary Sue	TBA	Post-production

Television

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Dermot Mulroney para niños