What Is Brendan Gleeson's Net Worth?
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor, director, and producer who has a net worth of $8 million. Gleeson is probably best known for playing Alastor Moody in the "Harry Potter" film series (2005–2010), and he gave an Emmy-winning performance as Winston Churchill in the 2009 HBO movie "Into the Storm."
From 2017 to 2019, he starred as Bill Hodges on the Stephen King crime drama "Mr. Mercedes." Brendan has more than 100 acting credits to his name, including the films "Braveheart" (1995), "The General" (1998), "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000), "Gangs of New York" (2002), "Cold Mountain" (2003), "In Bruges" (2008), "The Guard" (2011), and "Calvary" (2014), the television series "The Lifeboat" (1994) and "State of the Union" (2022), and the miniseries "The Comey Rule" (2020). He also directed and produced the 2018 short film "Psychic." In 2020, "The Irish Times" ranked Gleeson #18 on its list of "The 50 greatest Irish film actors of all time – in order."
Early Life
Brendan Gleeson was born on March 29, 1955, in Dublin, Ireland. He is the son of Frank and Pat Gleeson, and his brother, Barry, is a singer. Brendan was an avid reader during his childhood, and he attended St Joseph's CBS, where he joined the school's drama group. Gleeson majored in Irish and English at University College Dublin, and after earning his Bachelor of Arts degree, he taught both languages at Catholic Belcamp College while also working as an actor. In 1991, he gave up teaching in order to focus on acting full-time. In a 2014 NPR interview, Brendan revealed that he was sexually abused by a Christian Brother as a primary school student, stating, "I remember a particular Christian Brother dropped the hand on me at one point. It wasn't very traumatic and it wasn't at all sustained, it was just one of these things where something odd happened." He added, "The same guy was in secondary school and I remember a couple of us starting trading stories and really that he was a bit off wasn't he. But nobody ever thought to tell anybody, nobody ever thought to tell even my parents, who would have been enraged and would not have taken it lightly. I never even thought about telling them."
Career
Gleeson appeared in several plays with the Passion Machine Theatre company, including "Brownbread" and "Home," and he wrote and directed the plays "The Birdtable" and "Breaking Up." His earliest onscreen work was the 1989 TV movie "Dear Sarah," and his first feature film was 1990's "The Field." Brendan then appeared in the TV movies "Saint Oscar" (1991), "The Treaty" (1991), "The Snapper" (1993), and "Kidnapped" (1995) and the films "Far and Away" (1992), "Into the West" (1992), "Michael Collins" (1996), and "Lake Placid" (1999). He starred as Leslie Parry on the 1994 TV series "The Lifeboat," then he played Hamish Campbell in 1995's "Braveheart" and Martin Cahill in 1998's "The General." Gleeson co-starred with Tom Cruise in 2000's "Mission: Impossible 2," which grossed $546.4 million at the box office, then he appeared in "The Tailor of Panama" (2001), "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" (2001), "28 Days Later…" (2002), "Dark Blue" (2002), "Troy" (2004), "The Village" (2004), "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005), and "Studs" (2006). He played Walter "Monk" McGinn in 2002's "Gangs of New York" and Stobrod Thewes in 2003's "Cold Mountain," and in 2005, he starred as Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Brendan reprised the role in 2007's"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and 2010's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1." The "Harry Potter" series includes eight films and earned $7.7 billion at the box office.
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Gleeson received a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA Award nomination for 2008's "In Bruges," and he won a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in 2009's "Into the Storm." He then starred in the films "Green Zone" (2010), "The Guard" (2011), "Albert Nobbs" (2011), "Safe House" (2012), "The Raven" (2012), "The Company You Keep" (2012), "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014), "Suffragette" (2015), and "Assassin's Creed" (2016), and he won a BAFTA Award for 2014's "Calvary." From 2017 to 2019, Brendan played the lead role of Bill Hodges on the Audience series "Mr. Mercedes," which aired 30 episodes over three seasons. Around this time, he also appeared in the films "Hampstead" (2017), "Paddington 2" (2017), "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" (2018), "Frankie" (2019), "Ghost in the Graveyard" (2019), and "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (2021). In 2020, Gleeson portrayed Donald Trump in the Showtime miniseries "The Comey Rule," which earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and in 2022, he starred on the Sundance TV comedy "State of the Union."
Personal Life
Brendan married Mary Weldon in 1982, and they have welcomed four sons, Brian, Domhnall Gleeson, Fergus, and Rory. All four sons co-starred with Gleeson in the 2012 TV movie "Immaturity for Charity," and Domhnall played Bill Weasley in the "Harry Potter" films. Brendan is a supporter of the Aston Villa Football Club, and he plays the mandolin and fiddle and is interested in Irish folklore.
Awards and Nominations
In 2009, Gleeson won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for "Into the Storm." He has received four Golden Globe nominations: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for "In Bruges" (2009) and "The Guard" (2012), Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television for "Into the Storm" (2010), and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role for "The Comey Rule" (2021). He also earned BAFTA Award nominations for "In Bruges" and "Into the Storm." Brendan has received four British Independent Film Award nominations, taking home the prize for Best Actor for "Calvary" (2014) and Best Supporting Actor for "Suffragette" (2015); his other nominations were for "In Bruges" and "The Guard." Out of 14 Irish Film and Television Award Nominations, he won for Best Actor in a Male Role for "The General" (1999), Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television for "Into the Storm" (2010), and Best Lead Actor – Film for "Calvary" (2014). Gleeson earned a Jacob's Award for Best Actor in a TV Series – Drama for "The Treaty" in 1992, a Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor for "The General" and "I Went Down" in 1998, and a London Critics Circle Film Award for British Actor of the Year for "The General" in 1999.
In 2008, Brendan received a Career Achievement Award at the Dublin International Film Festival, and in 2011, he was named Best Actor for "The Guard" at the Valladolid International Film Festival. In 2014, he won a Boston Online Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor for "Calvary," and in 2016, the film earned him a Días de Cine Award for Best Foreign Actor. Gleeson has received seven Satellite Award nominations, winning Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television for "Into the Storm" in 2009 and Best Actor in a Series, Drama/Genre for "Mr. Mercedes" in 2019. He earned two other Satellite Award nominations for "Mr. Mercedes," and he received nominations for "The General," "In Bruges," and "The Guard" as well. Gleeson has also earned nominations from the Canadian Screen Awards ("The Grand Seduction"), Chlotrudis Awards ("In Bruges"), European Film Awards ("Calvary"), Evening Standard British Film Awards ("The Guard" and "Trespass Against Us"), "Fangoria" Chainsaw Awards ("28 Days Later…"), Gold Derby Awards ("Into the Storm"), National Film Awards, UK ("Calvary" and "Suffragette"), National Society of Film Critics Awards ("I Went Down" and "The General"), and Online Film & Television Association ("Into the Storm").
