Adrian Dunbar

Early life

Dunbar was born and brought up in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland, the eldest of seven siblings. He has two brothers, John and Liam, and four sisters, Roisin, Cristina, Madeline and Moira. Raised in a Catholic family, he was educated at St Joseph's College in Enniskillen before attending the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Career

Dunbar has appeared in such notable films as My Left Foot, The Crying Game and The General. He has also had leading roles in the films Triggermen, Shooters, How Harry Became A Tree (with Colm Meaney), Richard III and Widows' Peak.

On television, he starred in the first episode of Cracker, playing an innocent murder suspect with amnesia, and also the last episode of A Touch of Frost. He has been in many British productions, including Tough Love, Inspector Morse, Kidnapped, Murphy's Law, Murder in Mind, Ashes to Ashes and the 2005 re-staging of The Quatermass Experiment.

Dunbar's theatre credits include The Shaughraun and Exiles at Dublin's Abbey Theatre; Real Dreams and The Danton Affair at the Royal Shakespeare Company; King Lear, Pope's Wedding, Saved and Up to the Sun And Down to the Centre at Royal Court Theatre and Conversations on a Homecoming at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast; A Trinity of Two (as Oscar Wilde) at Dublin's Liberty Hall Theatre; and Boeing Boeing (London, 2007). He has directed a production of Philadelphia Here I Come!.

In 2008, he starred in and co-directed Brendan at the Chelsea by Janet Behan, playing Brendan Behan. The play was the first to be staged in the Naughton Studio in the new Lyric Theatre in Belfast after it reopened in 2011, and it was revived for a tour to Theatre Row in New York City in September 2013.

Dunbar played the role of Tullus Aufidius in the BBC Radio production of Coriolanus. He also made a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series Baldi and appeared on stage as Vermeer in an adaptation of Girl with a Pearl Earring.

In 2008, Dunbar played the role of Philip Conolly in The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce. He starred alongside fellow Northern Irish actor Ciarán McMenamin in the remote rainforests of north-west Tasmania. He joined the cast of the police procedural television series Line of Duty in 2012, portraying the role of Superintendent Ted Hastings; he continued in this role for all subsequent series.

Dunbar is also a theatre director and has staged productions for the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival. In 2020 he founded the multi-disciplinary arts company Unreal Cities with composer Nick Roth, whose work includes two Beckett Biennales (Beckett: Confined 2022, Beckett: Unbound 2024) as well as settings of poems by T.S. Eliot, Dermot Healy and Seamus Heaney.

He played the mysterious character Martin Summers in the second series of Ashes to Ashes. In 2014, he played the title character in a BBC comedy drama, Walter.

Dunbar also starred as Jim Hogan in the Virgin Media Television original drama Blood.

He starred in the stage musical Kiss Me, Kate opposite Stephanie J. Block in 2024 at the Barbican Theatre.

Other media

• He was cast as Bail Organa for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and appeared in costume in publicity stills, but his scene was cut; the character was recast with Jimmy Smits for later films. Dunbar's likeness was retconned into the appearance of the character Bail Antilles.
• He fronts his own band, which has played in such American locations as Nashville, Tennessee, and Austin, Texas.
• He sings "The Curragh of Kildare" with Brian Kennedy on Kennedy's On Song and fronts this song with his own band.
• He narrates the TV series The Estate as well as an audiobook production of Eoin Colfer's novel Artemis Fowl.
• He played a minor role in The Dawning (1988), alongside Anthony Hopkins and Hugh Grant, which led to further early roles in his acting career.

Awards and nominations

BAFTA Awards

Irish Film & Television Academy Awards

National Television Awards

TV Choice Awards

GQ Men of the Year Awards

Personal life

Dunbar has a daughter and stepson from his 1986 marriage to Australian actress Anna Nygh. He lives in Crouch End, North London. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Ulster in June 2009 in recognition of his services to acting.

Dunbar believes a United Ireland is possible in the future, saying: "I expect Ireland to be unified and at peace with herself. Irish unification and freedom after hundreds of years is in our DNA, it is in effect a big part of who we have become to ourselves and the world".

Filmography

Film

Television

References

References

1. Maslin, Janet. (19 January 1992). "Hear My Song (1991) Review/Film; Irish Tenor Is Focus Of Intrigue and Blarney". [[The New York Times]].
2. (9 July 2007). "Eye of the Dolphin Star Biographies – Adrian Dunbar".
3. "Adrian Dunbar on Beckett: 'I seemed to be getting knocked around emotionally but didn't know how he was doing it'". [[The Irish Times]].
4. (15 April 2015). "Beckett festival to feature play in the dark". BBC News.
5. Slater, Sasha. "Going to the Opera".
6. Thorpe, Vanessa. "Sophie Hunter: The opera director who has to dodge paparazzie".
7. Kennedy, Maev. (15 April 2015). "Happy Days festival's Beckett treats to include a German Godot".
8. "Programmes". BBC.
9. (5 August 2016). "Adrian Dunbar as Bail Antilles- Deleted Scene- STAR WARS: EP I: PHANTOM MENACE- Alderaan in Senate.".
10. Guardian Staff. (14 August 2000). "Adrian Dunbar linked to 'strange' Star Wars".
11. [http://www.daracu.ie Adie Dunbar and the Jonahs] {{webarchive. link. (28 September 2007)
12. "The Curragh of Kildare". [[BBC Music]].
13. Colfer, Eoin. (2001). "Artemis Fowl". Puffin Audiobooks.
14. (30 June 2009). "Honorary Degree for Leading Ulster Actor Dunbar".
15. Murphy, Eoin. (15 February 2020). "Line of Duty star says Sinn Fein will be able to deliver 32-county republic". Irish Mirror.
16. Young, David. (10 May 2021). "Adrian Dunbar and top Orangeman Mervyn Gibson split over Ireland in 2121". [[Belfast Telegraph]].
17. (11 January 2022). "Adrian Dunbar detective series Ridley starts filming in Lancashire". ITV.
18. (2 February 2023). "DNA Journey".