# Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan (/ˈmʊlən/; born 1959) is a Scottish actor and filmmaker. His credits include Riff-Raff (1991), Shallow Grave (1994), Braveheart (1995), Trainspotting (1996), My Name Is Joe (1998), The Claim (2000), Neds (2010), War Horse (2011), The Fixer (2008), Top of the Lake (2013), Mum (2016-2019), Ozark (2017-2018), Westworld (2018-2020), Cursed (2020), The North Water (2021), The Underground Railroad (2022), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022–2024), After the Party (2023), and Baghead (2023).
He won a Golden Lion at 59th Venice International Film Festival for his direction of The Magdalene Sisters (2002).

## Early life and education

Peter Mullan was born in 1959 in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Patricia (a nurse) and Charles Mullan (a lab technician at Glasgow University). The seventh of eight children, Mullan was brought up in a working class Roman Catholic family. They later moved to Mosspark, a district in Glasgow. An alcoholic, Mullan's father became increasingly tyrannical and abusive; he died from lung cancer when Mullan was 17.
For a brief period, Mullan was a member of a street gang while at secondary school, and worked as a bouncer in a number of south-side pubs. He was homeless for short periods at the ages of 15 and 18.
Mullan went on to the University of Glasgow to study economic history and drama, where he began acting on stage.

## Career
### Acting

Mullan continued stage acting after graduation. He had roles in films alongside actors such as Robert Carlyle in Riff-Raff (1991), Shallow Grave (1994), with Mel Gibson in Braveheart (1995), and with Ewan McGregor in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting (1996).
Mullan's role as a recovering alcoholic in My Name Is Joe (1998) won him the Best Actor Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
As a director, his film, Orphans (1998), won awards at the Venice Film Festival 1998 and Festival du Film de Paris 1999.
He won the World Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performances at 2011 Sundance Film Festival for his work on Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur (2011).
Mullan has appeared as supporting or guest actor in numerous cult movies, including Session 9 (2002), Young Adam (2003), Children of Men (2006), the final two Harry Potter films (2010–2011), and War Horse (2011).
In television, he played a lead role in the 2008 ITV series The Fixer. Mullan appeared in Gerard Lee's and Jane Campion's 2013 miniseries Top of the Lake as Matt Mitcham, head of the Mitcham family and father of Tui Mitcham, whose disappearance is the main topic of the series. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his work in the series. From 2016 to 2019, he starred in the BBC Two sitcom Mum, and from 2017 to 2018, Mullan appeared in the first two seasons of the Netflix series Ozark. In 2018 and 2020, he starred in the second and third season of HBO's Westworld, in a recurring and guest capacity respectively. Also in 2020, he starred in the first season of the Netflix series Cursed.
Mullan appeared in the 2021 miniseries The North Water (2021), and The Underground Railroad. He also starred as Dwarf king Durin III in the Amazon Prime Video series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which premiered in 2022.
In 2023 he starred in the New Zealand drama series After the Party, and alongside Freya Allan in Baghead (2023).

### Directing

Mullan is an art house movie director. In 2002, he returned to directing and screenwriting with the controversial film The Magdalene Sisters, based on life in an Irish Magdalene asylum. He won a Golden Lion at 59th Venice International Film Festival for the film, listed by many critics among the best films of 2003 and nominated for BAFTA Award for Best British Film, and European Film Award for best film.
He also won a Golden Shell at San Sebastián International Film Festival for Neds (2010).
He won top prizes both for acting (Cannes Best Actor award for My Name Is Joe) and for the best film (Golden Lion for The Magdalene Sisters) at major European film festivals.

## Personal life

Mullan married Ann Swan, an actress and scriptwriter, in 1989; they divorced in 2006. He has four children – three with Swan, including one son with autism, and one with former girlfriend, activist Robina Qureshi. He is in a relationship with New Zealand actress Robyn Malcolm, whom he met while filming Top of the Lake in 2013.
A self-described Marxist, Mullan continues to support socialist causes and was a leading figure in the left-wing theatre movement that blossomed in Scotland during the Margaret Thatcher and John Major Conservative governments in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s. These included stints with the 7:84 and Wildcat Theatre companies. An outspoken critic of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s New Labour governments, he told The Guardian "the TUC and the Labour Party sold us [the working class] out big style, unashamedly so". Ahead of the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, Mullan pledged support for the new Scottish Socialist Party and their leader Tommy Sheridan. Mullan took part in a 2006 occupation of the Glasgow offices of the UK Immigration Service, protesting against the UKIS's "dawn raid" tactics when deporting failed asylum seekers.
In January 2009, Mullan joined other actors in protesting against the BBC's refusal to screen a Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza. They told BBC director general Mark Thompson: "Like millions of others, we are absolutely appalled at the decision to refuse to broadcast the appeal. We will never work for the BBC again unless this disgraceful decision is reversed. We will urge others from our profession and beyond to do likewise." Mullan has agreed to appear in an adaptation of Iain Banks's novel Stonemouth after the BBC aired a DEC appeal for Gaza in late 2014.
Mullan was a supporter of the Yes Scotland campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. In 2015, he criticised the BBC for "horrendous bias" against the Yes campaign and told the Radio Times that "to see the BBC used as a political cudgel against a legitimate democratic movement ... really broke my heart."

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Writer | Notes |
| 1990 | The Big Man | Vince | | | |
| 1991 | Riff-Raff | Jake | | | European Film Award for Best European Film |
| 1992 | Sealladh | Sim | | | Short film |
| 1993 | Close | Vincent | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 1994 | Shallow Grave | Andy | | | |
| 1995 | Fridge | - | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 1995 | Good Day for the Bad Guys | John | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 1995 | Narance | Uncle Josef | | | |
| 1995 | Braveheart | Veteran | | | |
| 1996 | Trainspotting | Johnny "Mother Superior" Swan | | | |
| 1997 | Poor Angels | Gordon | | | Short film |
| 1997 | Fairy Tale: A True Story | Sergeant Farmer | | | |
| 1998 | Duck | Mick | | | Short film |
| 1998 | My Name Is Joe | Joe Kavanagh | | | Cannes Award for Best Actor |
| 1998 | Orphans | - | Yes | Yes | |
| 1999 | Miss Julie | Jean | | | |
| 1999 | The Escort | Patricia's Husband | | | |
| 2000 | Ordinary Decent Criminal | Stevie | | | |
| 2000 | The Claim | Daniel Dillon | | | |
| 2001 | Session 9 | Gordon Fleming | | | |
| 2002 | The Magdalene Sisters | Mr. O'Connor | Yes | Yes | Winner of Golden Lion |
| 2003 | Young Adam | Les Gault | | | |
| 2003 | Kiss of Life | John | | | |
| 2004 | Out of This World | Jim | | | Original title: Kono yo no sotoe - Club Shinchugun |
| 2004 | Criminal | William Hannigan | | | |
| 2004 | Blinded | Francis Black | | | |
| 2004 | Waves | Him | | | Short film |
| 2005 | On a Clear Day | Frank Redmond | | | |
| 2006 | Cargo | Brookes | | | |
| 2006 | Children of Men | Syd | | | |
| 2006 | True North | Riley | | | |
| 2007 | The Last Legion | Odoacer | | | |
| 2007 | Dog Altogether | Joseph | | | Short film |
| 2007 | Boy A | Terry | | | |
| 2008 | Stone of Destiny | Harris Hamilton, Ian's Father | | | |
| 2009 | King Bastard | Granddad | | | Short film |
| 2009 | Connolly | James Connolly | | | |
| 2010 | The Neighbours | Ernest | | | Short film |
| 2010 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | Death Eater Corban Yaxley | | | |
| 2010 | Neds | Mr. McGill | Yes | Yes | Winner of Golden Shell |
| 2011 | Tyrannosaur | Joseph | | | World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic (Male) |
| 2011 | Long Distance Information | Jack | | | Short film |
| 2011 | War Horse | Ted Narracott | | | |
| 2012 | The Man Inside | Gordon Sinclair | | | |
| 2013 | Sunshine on Leith | Robert 'Rab' Henshaw | | | A Musical, where he is singing in some of the songs |
| 2013 | The Liability | Peter | | | |
| 2013 | Welcome to the Punch | Roy Edwards | | | |
| 2014 | Hercules | General Sitacles | | | |
| 2015 | Sunset Song | John Guthrie | | | |
| 2015 | Hector | Hector McAdam | | | |
| 2016 | Edith | Jake | | | Short film |
| 2016 | Tommy's Honour | Old Tom Morris | | | |
| 2017 | Hostiles | Lt. Col. Ross McCowan | | | |
| 2018 | Pearl | Al | | | |
| 2018 | The Vanishing | Thomas | | | |
| 2018 | Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle | Akela (voice) | | | Voice and motion capture |
| 2019 | Chips | Chips (voice) | | | Short film |
| 2020 | Fatbaws | (unknown) | | | Short film |
| 2020 | Marionette | Dr. McVittie | | | |
| 2021 | Don vs Lightning | Don | | | Short film |
| 2022 | The Hanging Sun | Dad | | | |
| 2023 | Baghead | Owen Lark | | | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1988 | The Steamie | Andy | Television film |
| 1990 | Your Cheatin' Heart | Tonto | Mini-series; Episodes 3–5 |
| 1990 | Taggart | Peter Lewis / Peter Latimer | Series 5, Episode 4: "Love Knot", and Series 6, Episode 7: "Rogue's Gallery" |
| 1991 | Jute City | Mallet | Episodes 1–3 |
| 1992 | Rab C. Nesbitt | Peter the Warlock | Series 2, Episode 6: "Life Has Meaning" |
| 1993 | Encounters | Willy | Series 2; Episode 3: "Opium Eaters" |
| 1993 | Seeker Reaper | George Campbell Hay | Bilingual drama about the life of Scottish poet George Campbell Hay (1915–1984) |
| 1994 | The Priest and the Pirate | Billy Hill | Television film |
| 1995 | Ruffian Hearts | Chez | Television film |
| 1995 | Harry | Jimmy | Series 2, Episode 6 |
| 1996 | Nightlife | Billy | Television film |
| 1997 | The Longest Memory | Sanders Sr. | Television film. Whitbread First Novel Award for First Novel |
| 1997 | Bogwoman | Barry | Television film |
| 2003 | This Little Life | Neonatologist | Television film |
| 2003 | Richard & Judy | Himself | Series 2; Episode 92 |
| 2004 | Shoebox Zoo | Michael Scot | Recurring role. Series 1; 12 episodes |
| 2005 | Sunday Morning Shootout | Himself | Series 2; Episode 15 |
| 2006 | Seanchaí | Calgach | Episode 3: "An Triall" |
| 2007 | British Film Forever | Himself | Mini-series; Episode 3: "Hardship, Humour and Heroes: The Story of British Realism" |
| 2007 | The Trial of Tony Blair | Gordon Brown | Television film |
| 2008–2009 | The Fixer | Lenny Douglas | Recurring role. Series 1 & 2; 12 episodes |
| 2009 | Red Riding: 1974 | Martin Laws | Television films |
| 2009 | Red Riding: 1980 | Martin Laws | Television films |
| 2009 | Red Riding: 1983 | Martin Laws | Television films |
| 2009 | Scotland on Screen | Himself / Actor / Director | Television film |
| 2012 | The Fear | Richie Beckett | Mini-series; Episodes 1–4 |
| 2013 | Top of the Lake | Matt Mitcham | Series 1; Episodes 1–7 Nominated – AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama Nominated – Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Movie/Miniseries Supporting Actor Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie |
| 2014 | Olive Kitteridge | Jim O'Casey | HBO mini-series; Episodes 1–3 |
| 2014–2017 | Lily's Driftwood Bay | Captain Salty Dog (voice) | Series 1 & 2; 3 episodes |
| 2015 | Stonemouth | Don Murston | Mini-series; Parts 1 & 2 |
| 2016 | Quarry | The Broker | Episodes 1–8 |
| 2016–2019 | Mum | Michael | Recurring role. Series 1–3; 18 episodes |
| 2017 | Gunpowder | Father Henry Garnet | Mini-series; Episodes 1–3 |
| 2017–2018 | Ozark | Jacob Snell | Recurring role. Series 1 & 2; 20 episodes |
| 2018, 2020 | Westworld | James Delos | Series 2 & 3; 4 episodes |
| 2020 | Cursed | Father Carden | Recurring role. 9 episodes |
| 2021 | The Underground Railroad | Ridgeway Senior | Mini-series; 5 episodes |
| 2021 | The North Water | Priest | Episodes 4 & 5: "The Devils of the Earth" and "To Live Is to Suffer" |
| 2022 | Skint | Donny | Episode 6: "The Taking of Balgrayhill Street" |
| 2022 | Chivalry | Fraser Schwartz | Episode 3 |
| 2022–2024 | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | King Durin III | Series 1 & 2; 9 episodes |
| 2023 | Liaison | Richard Banks | Episodes 1–6 |
| 2023 | Payback | Cal Morris | Episodes 1–6 |
| 2023 | After the Party | Phil | Episodes 1–6 |
| TBA | Lockerbie | TBA | Mini-series. Post-production |