Aiden Gillen

Aidan Murphy (born 24 April 1968), better known as Aidan Gillen (), is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of three Irish Film & Television Awards and has been nominated for a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award, and a Tony Award.

On television, he played Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 series '' Queer as Folk'' (1999–2000), Tommy Carcetti in the HBO series ''The Wire'' (2004–2008), John Boy in the RTÉ series '' Love/Hate'' (2010–2011), Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2017), and Dr. J. Allen Hynek in The History Channel's ''Project Blue Book'' (2019–2020). In 2021, he appeared in the crime dramas ''Mayor of Kingstown'' and ''Kin''.

His film roles include Miles Jackson in '' 12 Rounds'' (2009), CIA operative Bill Wilson in ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012), Janson in '' Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials'' (2015) and '' Maze Runner: The Death Cure'' (2018), Robert in ''The Lovers'' (2017), Queen's manager John Reid in ''Bohemian Rhapsody'' (2018), and Jack Blackwell in ''Those Who Wish Me Dead'' (2021). He also provided the voice and motion capture for Paul Serene in the 2016 video game ''Quantum Break''.

Early life

Gillen was born Aidan Murphy in the Drumcondra area of Dublin on 24 April 1968, the youngest of six children born to Patricia (née Gillen) and Denis Murphy. He was educated at St. Vincent's C.B.S. in Dublin's Glasnevin neighbourhood.

Gillen began his acting career as a teenager, joining the National Youth Theatre at the age of fourteen and playing Nick Bottom in a production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at the Project Arts Centre when he was sixteen. The name Aidan Murphy was already registered so he began using his mother's maiden name as a stage name. He moved to London in 1987 when he was nineteen.

Career

Gillen played Stuart Alan Jones in the Channel 4 television series '' Queer as Folk'' and its sequel, for which he received a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Actor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for his Broadway role in Harold Pinter's play ''The Caretaker'' and has also been nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award for his portrayal of Teach in the Dublin Gate Theatre's 2007 production of David Mamet's ''American Buffalo''.

In 2004, having been spotted by producers in ''The Caretaker'', Gillen was cast as Tommy Carcetti in the HBO series ''The Wire'', for which he received an Irish Film & Television Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Television. In 2008, he was named an "Irish cult hero" by the ''Sunday Tribune''. He appeared in the 2009 film '' 12 Rounds'', and in July of that year, he appeared in the one-off BBC2 drama ''Freefall''. He co-starred as Phil Hendrick in the British drama '' Thorne''.

In 2011, Gillen began playing Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish on the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', for which he received his second Irish Film & Television Award nomination. He appeared in seven seasons, until his character's death in the season 7 finale "The Dragon and the Wolf". He starred as cop killer Barry Weiss in the British crime-thriller ''Blitz'' and in the British horror film ''Wake Wood''. Gillen played crime boss John Boy in the acclaimed Irish crime-drama '' Love/Hate'', for which he received his third Irish Film & Television Award nomination and second win.

In 2012, he played CIA operative Bill Wilson (the character's name is from the novelisation; his name is not directly said in the film's script) in ''The Dark Knight Rises'', his first role in a major Hollywood film. Gillen said he enjoyed playing the role, but preferred low-budget lead roles to blockbuster bit-parts. Gillen's character was particularly noted by some Internet circles for his delivery of supposedly awkward dialogue in the film's opening plane scene, especially by users of 4chan's /tv/ board. Thus, he subsequently became the subject of an Internet meme popular among /tv/ users known as "Baneposting", which references the dialogue between Wilson and Tom Hardy's character Bane in said scene. The same year, Gillen also starred in the British spy-drama '' Shadow Dancer'', and was announced as the new host of the music show '' Other Voices''.

He starred in the BBC
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