Colin James Farrell was born in Dublin Ireland on 31st March 1976. The son of an Irish football player, he grew up in relative comfort, however, he began to earn the bad boy image he is now famous for from early on. Abandoning his early aspiration to be a footballer because training was too much hassle he went off the rails, drinking heavily, chasing girls and dabbling with drugs. His taste for sex drugs and rock and roll even landed him in jail for a night after being caught driving over the limit.

Nor did the young Farrell take his schooling seriously. He preferred going to the pub to studying and was often to be found at the back of his class listening to his walkman. Eventually his lack of respect and fiery temper got him expelled from the Gormanston School at the age of 17 because he threw a teacher against a wall. Farrell reveled in all this though, saying later that it made him feel like a rock star.

After school Farrell dabbled in a variety of menial jobs. However, he reached a crossroads when he wound up performing in a line dancing troupe. He quickly realized that cowboy hats and chaps weren’t really part of his rock star persona and decided to enroll in the Gaiety School of Drama in 1996. His tenure was short, however, as he soon grew tired of criticism and struck out on his own.

Good fortune followed Collin Farrell out of acting school. He scored a part in ‘Ballykissangel’ and then landed enough work in commercials and low budget Irish films to support him until he managed to land a role in ‘Blood Brothers’, a musical being performed in London’s West End. Theatre work quickly accumulated and his stature as an actor grew. Kevin Spacey took notice of the young Irishman and cast him in ‘Ordinary Decent Criminals’, a movie about a Dublin gang.

 Farrell’s meteoric rise had begun. Joel Schumacher was next to snap him up in ‘Tigerland’. Increasingly prestigious roles followed and soon Farrell was playing alongside actors like Bruce Willis in ‘Hart’s War’ and Tom Cruise ‘In Minority Report’. Further success came with the blockbusters ‘Phone Booth’, ‘Daredevil’ and ‘SWAT’. By the summer of 2003 Collin Farrell had become a real hot property. He stayed true to his roots though and managed to find time to appear in several low-budget Irish films.

However, Farrell is as well known for his off screen behaviour as for the roles he plays. He has earned a bad boy reputation for his hard drinking, crude openness and foul mouthed tirades. Ever the ladies man Farrell was briefly married to Amelia Warner in 2001 and has a child by his girlfriend Kim Bordenave. Never satisfied he has also been romantically linked with Britney Spears and Demi Moore.
The young Dublin heart-throb looks set for more conquest in the future as he stars in Oliver Stone’s ‘Alexander’.

FILMOGRAPHY

  • The New World (2005)

 • Alexander (2004)

 • A Home at the End of the World (2004)

 • Intermission (2004)

 • Daredevil (2003)

 • Phone Booth (2003)

 • The Recruit (2003)

 • S.W.A.T. (2003)

 • Veronica Guerin (2003)

 • Hart's War (2002)

 • Minority Report (2002)

 • Ordinary Decent Criminal (2002)

 • American Outlaws (2001)

 • Tigerland (2000)