Junior's Eyes: Happy 45th Birthday James Nesbitt

January 15, 2010

Happy 45th Birthday James Nesbitt

Today we celebrate the birthday of one of Ireland's greatest actors. At 45 years old, James Nesbitt has a surprisingly long list of successful efforts in his body of work. He has created many memorable performances in high quality productions of comedy, drama, etc. via stage, television and film. Nesbitt has also been invovled with some very valuable charitable work.

Here's the Wikipedia introduction to James Nesbitt (Full article link):

James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is an actor from Northern Ireland. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in Broughshane and Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher, like his father, so began a degree in French at the University of Ulster. He dropped out after a year when he decided to become an actor, and transferred to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After graduating in 1987, he spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical Up on the Roof (1987, 1989) to the political drama Paddywack (1994). He made his feature film debut playing talent agent Fintan O'Donnell in Hear My Song (1991).

Nesbitt got his breakthrough television role playing Adam Williams in the romantic comedy-drama Cold Feet (ITV, 1998–2003), which won him a British Comedy Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and a National Television Award. His first significant film role came when he appeared as pig farmer "Pig" Finn in Waking Ned ['Waking Ned Devine' in North America] (1998). With the rest of the starring cast, Nesbitt was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. In Lucky Break (2001), he made his debut as a film lead playing prisoner Jimmy Hands. The next year, he played Ivan Cooper in the television film Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 shootings in Derry. A departure from his previous "cheeky chappie" roles, the film was a turning point in his career. He won a British Independent Film Award and was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.

Nesbitt has also starred in Murphy's Law (BBC One, 2003–2007) as undercover detective Tommy Murphy—a role that was created for him by writer Colin Bateman. The role twice gained Nesbitt Best Actor nominations at the Irish Film & Television Awards (IFTA). In 2004, he starred in the fact-based drama Wall of Silence as the father of a murdered boy, a role that gained him another IFTA nomination. In 2007, he starred in the dual role of Tom Jackman and Mr Hyde in Steven Moffat's Jekyll, which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination in 2008. Nesbitt has since appeared in several more dramatic roles; he starred alongside Liam Neeson in Five Minutes of Heaven (2009), was one of three lead actors in the television miniseries Occupation (2009), and is due to star in his first horror film Outcast (2010).

Nesbitt is married to former actress Sonia Forbes-Adam, with whom he has two daughters, and he is a patron of numerous charities.

I wanted to include some video of my favorite television and film work by James Nesbitt. It's sometimes frustrating trying to find good clips of the bits you'd think would definitely be available, but just aren't there. I just could not find a single one of the BBC America previews or trailer clips for the Jekyll TV miniseries, even though they were shown thousands of times before and during the airing of the Stephen Moffatt masterpiece. BBC Worldwide's YouTube channel has 12 clips available, but they aren't quite as good as the ones originally shown on US television. Very little of Cold Feet was available as well, and it ran for five series.

Cold Feet - End of Pilot Episode (1997 TV)
Adam (James Nesbitt) serenades Rachel (Helen Baxendale)
and Jenny (Fay_Ripley) has surprise for Pete (John Thompson).

Cold Feet - Clip from Episode 1 of Series 1 (1998 TV)
Pete plays golf with Karen's (Hermione Norris) husband
David (Robert Bathurst), while Jenny goes into labor.