Brendan Coyle

Known for ActingBorn 1963-12-02 (age 62)Corby, Northamptonshire, England, UK

Brendan Coyle (born 2 December 1962) is a British-Irish 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, which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Brendan Coyle was born David Coyle in Corby, Northamptonshire, on 2 December 1962, the son of a Patrick B Coyle and Bedelia M B Anderson. He has an older brother named Shaun Due to his British birth and Irish heritage, he holds both British and Irish citizenship. He is the great-nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby. He studied drama in Dublin in 1981 and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 1983. Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC. From 2008 he played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle, and it won him nominations for a BAFTA and IFTA as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Awards as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2012. He also won three Screen Actors Guild Awards 2013–16. Coyle also played the character of Terry Starling in the short-lived Sky comedy series Starlings. Read more

Movies & web series

Saving Lives at Sea

The Bombmaker

Mapmaker

Lark Rise to Candleford

Downton Abbey

North & South

Me Before You

A Merry Murdoch Christmas

Prime Suspect

Shameless

12 Monkeys

Silent Witness

The Glass Virgin

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Jericho

Rebel Heart

Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

Conspiracy

Toxic Town

Waking the Dead

Paths to Freedom

Starlings

True Dare Kiss

Dangerfield

Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robbery

The Jacket

Blue Murder

Spotless

Mary Queen of Scots

The General

The Bill

Noble

Omagh

The Commander

Requiem

The Raven

Tomorrow Never Dies

Finders Keepers

Riches

Soft Sand, Blue Sea

Wedding Belles

The Ghost Squad

Perrier's Bounty

Offside

The Mark of Cain

Unless

Perfect Parents