Brendan Coyle
Brendan Coyle
Brendan Coyleis a British actor. He won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for The Weir in 1999. He also played Nicholas Higgins in the miniseries North & South, Robert Timmins in the first three series of Lark Rise to Candleford, and more recently Mr Bates, the valet, in Downton Abbey. The last role earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a BAFTA nomination for...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth2 December 1963
acting family meant missed missing start terrified
Sometimes I think I missed out on things like travelling. I'd have been terrified of missing an audition. I didn't start a family because that's not something I take lightly. Acting meant so much to me.
hard relationship time
When I was in my 30s, I was at the end of a long-term relationship and going through a very hard time. I'd had about 15 different addresses and a series of relationships. I thought, 'It's time to have a look at yourself.'
life
I can pretty much say all of us know when 'Downton' is going to end. This is a show with a finite life.
specific time
By the time you've been single for quite a long time, you can get quite specific about what you can and can't put up with.
coming finding funny mediums people
Britain's a funny place and there's a lot of funny people coming out of there and a lot of people are finding mediums to express themselves.
seen
I'd seen a play of 'Richard III' in Coventry when I was 15, which sowed the seeds that you could act for a living.
success tv twenties wished
If this TV success had come in my twenties and I'd become a heart-throb, I would have been very stupid. I would have got into a lot of situations that I really wished I hadn't.
applies greek performer
I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.
butcher cooking dad enjoy left love master perhaps time trained
My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn't enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now, so perhaps I would have been a chef.
casual funny humorous observer relationship work
You can't be a casual observer of something humorous - you have to engage, you have to find it funny for the relationship between actor and audience to work.
accept age bad early footballer generation good great kids knew loved luckily matt quite uncle
I would have loved to have been a footballer like my great uncle Matt Busby, but I knew quite early on that I wasn't going to make the grade. Luckily I was told by the age of 13 that I wasn't good enough. That's not a bad thing. You see this 'X Factor' generation of kids now who don't accept that they're not good enough.
meaningful
I'm single, I'm looking for something meaningful.
dream jobs actors
I took a gamble in becoming an actor and my dream job has been realised.
drama lying thinking
I think great humor lies in playing the truth of a situation. I see myself as a performer and that applies to a Greek drama or a modern comedy.