John Lynch (actor)

Early life

Lynch was born in Northern Ireland to an Irish father, Fin Lynch, and an Italian mother, Rosina Pavone, better known as Rose. His mother was from Trivento, a town in the Province of Campobasso in Molise, Southern Italy. His parents met in London, where his mother was a teacher. He is the eldest of five siblings, all of whom were raised as Catholics.

In 1968, when he was seven years old, his family moved to the townland of Corrinshego, where his father was from, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Corrinshego, where he spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years, is on the western outskirts of Newry. Lynch later attended St. Colman's College in Newry. He began acting in Irish language plays at school during the early years of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. His sister Susan Lynch and his nephew Thomas Finnegan are also actors.

Career

Lynch has appeared in numerous films related to Northern Ireland's history and the Troubles in particular. These include Cal (1984) with Helen Mirren, The Railway Station Man (1992) with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, In the Name of the Father (1993) with Daniel Day-Lewis, Nothing Personal (1995) and Some Mother's Son (1996), also with Mirren, as well as the Irish-themed film Evelyn (2002). In Some Mother's Son, he played the role of Irish Republican hunger strike leader Bobby Sands.

He was a supporting actor in Derek Jarman's Edward II (1991), as Lord Craven in Agnieska Holland's film The Secret Garden (1993), as Tadhg in The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), and as Gerry in Sliding Doors (1998).

Lynch played the lead in the Australian feature Angel Baby, winning the Australian Film Institute award for best leading actor and the Australian Film Critics award for best actor of 1995. He was nominated for a Satellite Film Award for the film Moll Flanders in 1996. He worked with acclaimed Belgian director Marion Hänsel on her adaptation of Booker Prize-nominated author Damon Galgut's novel, The Quarry (also known as La Faille; 1998), which won Best Film at the Montreal World Film Festival. Lynch played the part of football legend George Best in the 2000 film Best. He won Best Actor for his role in Best at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival in 2000. He wrote and co-produced the film.

In 2005, Lynch was nominated for an IFTA for his role in The Baby War. He starred in Five Day Shelter as Stephen, which won a European Film Award and was in competition at the Rome Film Festival. In 2011, he played the lead in Craig Vivieros' first feature film, the prison drama Ghosted. He played the role of Wollfstan in Black Death, and appeared in the 2012 film version of Michael Morpurgo's novel, Private Peaceful.

Lynch is also a novelist. His first novel, Torn Water, was published in November 2005 by 4th Estate, a literary imprint of HarperCollins. His second, Falling Out of Heaven, was released on May 2010 by the same publisher.

Personal life

Lynch married film-maker Mary McGuckian in 1997, having met her on the set of Words Upon the Window Pane a few years earlier. They separated in 2008 and later divorced.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

References

1. "John Lynch {{!}} Actor, Writer, Second Unit Director or Assistant Director".
2. "John Lynch - Biography".
3. (5 November 2016). "John Lynch – looking back on a 'wounding' past". irishnews.com.
4. (27 July 2015). "Actor Lynch is a citizen of Trivento". ansa.it.
5. (26 November 2014). "The other fall guy - Why John Lynch loves working with Gillian Anderson". belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
6. (29 October 2005). "After 'Cal', his first film, John Lynch ...". The Irish Times.
7. ''Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television'', vol 52 (2003), Gale, Detroit
8. "Film - Most Promising Newcomer To Film in 1985".
9. "John Lynch cv". Markham, Froggatt and Irwin.
10. "Angel Baby".
11. "Winners of the 3rd Annual Irish Film & Television Awards 2005".
12. Soufi, Daniel. (2023-01-04). "Actor John Lynch: 'Some people stop drinking when they realize alcohol is bad for them – I did the opposite'".
13. "The Hybrid".
14. "'Our humour is armour… a shield used to deflect doom and gloom': John Lynch on the dark comedy in his new film Boys from County Hell". belfasttelegraph.co.uk.
15. Tallerico, Brian. "The Banishing movie review & film summary (2021) {{!}} Roger Ebert".
16. ""MI-5" Isolated (TV Episode 2007) - IMDb".
17. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/11_november/26/nativity.shtml ''The Nativity, BBC''], November 2010; retrieved 21 December 2010.
18. (27 March 2023). "Blue Lights: Release date, cast and latest news for BBC police drama".
19. "John Lynch Awards". IMDb (Index source only).