15 Facts About Paudge Behan

Paudge Rodger Behan is an Irish actor and writer.

The son of IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding and Beatrice Behan, the widow of playwright Brendan Behan, Paudge Behan worked briefly as a journalist for a Dublin newspaper before turning to acting.

Paudge Behan participated in various other plays in Dublin, but finding them "all very over the top, very amateurish, full of people turning up drunk or not turning up at all", he decided to leave Ireland and pursue art studies in Berlin.

However, Paudge Behan found he could not concentrate on his art in Germany as he was working too hard in the evenings in nightclubs and bars to earn money.

Paudge Behan resolved to go to London to study acting.

On 15 May 1991 at Dublin's Abbey Theatre, Paudge Behan played the lead character Connolly in the original production of Tom Murphy's play The Patriot Game, which charted the events of the Easter Rising of 1916.

Paudge Behan acted as a thug in the comedy film London Kills Me ; and made an appearance in the TV film Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, based on the 1956 satirical novel by Angus Wilson.

Paudge Behan was handpicked by English novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford to be the male protagonist of the made-for-television film A Secret Affair, based on her 1996 book.

Paudge Behan appeared in the short film Wake Up, in which he played the lead character Nathan.

On 12 July 2008, Paudge Behan was questioned by the Carabinieri in connection with the murder of a 72-year-old woman, Silvana Abate Francescatti, at her home on Monte Amiata, Arcidosso, in Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy.

Paudge Behan, who had been resident in Arcidosso for part of the year since 2006, was arrested after seeking treatment twice at a hospital near Arcidosso for a cut on his thigh.

Paudge Behan did not know what was happening at first as the police had no interpreter in the barracks.

Paudge Behan was only provided with a lawyer and interpreter 15 hours later when a magistrate from Grosseto came.

Paudge Behan was released, but was formally informed that he was under suspicion.

In November 2008, Paudge Behan was cleared of the crime and allowed full use of his home after a chef named Aldo Staiani was identified as the murderer from DNA retrieved from under Mrs Abate's fingernails.