Stephen Rea was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Neil Jordan's thriller The Crying Game.
14 Facts About Stephen Rea
2.
Stephen Rea has had important roles in the Hugo Blick TV series The Shadow Line and The Honourable Woman, for which he won a BAFTA Award.
3.
Stephen Rea was born in Belfast; his father was a bus driver and his mother a housewife.
4.
Stephen Rea studied English at the Queen's University Belfast and drama at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin.
5.
Stephen Rea is a frequent collaborator with Irish film-maker Neil Jordan.
6.
Stephen Rea has long been associated with some of the most important writers in Ireland.
7.
Stephen Rea helped establish the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980 with Tom Paulin, Brian Friel, Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane.
8.
In recognition for his contribution to theatre and performing arts, Stephen Rea was given honorary degrees from both the Queen's University Belfast and the Ulster University in 2004.
9.
In 2007, Stephen Rea began a successful and acclaimed relationship with both the Abbey Theatre and Sam Shepard, appearing in Kicking a Dead Horse and Ages of the Moon, both penned by Shepard and both transferred to New York.
10.
Stephen Rea returned to the Abbey in 2009 to appear in the world premiere of Sebastian Barry's Tales of Ballycumber.
11.
In 2011, Stephen Rea featured in the BBC crime drama The Shadow Line, playing antagonist Gatehouse.
12.
Stephen Rea narrated for the BBC Radio 4 production of Ulysses for Bloomsday, 16 June 2012.
13.
Stephen Rea starred in Enda Walsh's 2014 play Ballyturk and portrayed Jordan in Out of the Dark, in which he co-stars alongside Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman and Alejandro Furth.
14.
Stephen Rea was married for 17 years to Dolours Price, a former Provisional Irish Republican Army bomber and hunger striker who later became a critic of Sinn Fein.