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
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.'
I'm more rooted in new plays and new writing.
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.
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.
Am I a household name? I still can't get my head around that.