# John Lynch (actor)

John Lynch is an Irish actor and novelist. He won the AFI (AACTA) Award for Best Actor for the 1995 film Angel Baby. His other film and television appearances include Cal (1984), The Secret Garden (1993), In the Name of the Father (1993), Sliding Doors (1998), The Fall (2013–2016), Medici (2019), The Head (2020–2024), The Banishing (2021), and Blue Lights (2023).
Lynch has also written two novels, Torn Water (2005) and Falling Out of Heaven (2010).

## Early life

Lynch was born in Ireland to an Irish father, Fin Lynch, and an Italian mother, Rosina Pavone, better known as Rose. His mother was from Trivento, a town in the Province of Campobasso in Molise, Southern Italy. His parents met in London, where his mother was a teacher. He is the eldest of five children, and was raised as a Catholic.
In 1968, when he was seven years old, his family moved to the townland of Corrinshego, where his father was from, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Corrinshego, where he spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years, is on the western outskirts of Newry. Lynch later attended St. Colman's College in Newry. He began acting in Irish language plays at school during the early years of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. His sister Susan Lynch and his nephew Thomas Finnegan are also actors.

## Career

Lynch has appeared in numerous films related to Northern Ireland's problems. These include Cal (1984) with Helen Mirren, for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, The Railway Station Man (1992) with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, In the Name of the Father (1993) with Daniel Day-Lewis, Nothing Personal (1995) and Some Mother's Son (1996), also with Mirren, as well as the Irish-themed film Evelyn (2002). In Some Mother's Son, he played the role of Irish Republican hunger strike leader Bobby Sands.
He was a supporting actor in Derek Jarman's Edward II (1991), as Lord Craven in Agnieska Holland's film The Secret Garden (1993), as Tadhg in The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), and as Gerry in Sliding Doors (1998).
Lynch played the lead in the Australian feature Angel Baby, winning the Australian Film Institute award for best leading actor and the Australian Film Critics award for best actor of 1995. He was nominated for a Satellite Film Award for the film Moll Flanders in 1996. He worked with acclaimed Belgian director Marion Hänsel on her adaptation of Booker Prize-nominated author Damon Galgut's novel, The Quarry (also known as La Faille; 1998), which won Best Film at the Montreal World Film Festival. Lynch played the part of football legend George Best in the 2000 film Best. He won Best Actor for his role in Best at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival in 2000. He wrote and co-produced the film.
In 2005, Lynch was nominated for an IFTA for his role in The Baby War. He starred in Five Day Shelter as Stephen, which won a European Film Award and was in competition at the Rome Film Festival. In 2011, he played the lead in Craig Vivieros' first feature film, the prison drama Ghosted. He played the role of Wollfstan in Black Death, and appeared in the 2012 film version of Michael Morpurgo's novel, Private Peaceful.
Lynch is also a novelist. His first novel, Torn Water, was published in November 2005 by 4th Estate, a literary imprint of HarperCollins. His second, Falling Out of Heaven, was released on May 2010 by the same publisher.

## Personal life

Lynch married film-maker Mary McGuckian in 1997, having met her on the set of Words Upon the Window Pane a few years earlier. They separated in 2008 and later divorced.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1984 | Cal | Cal | |
| 1990 | Hardware | Shades | |
| 1990 | 1871 | O'Brien | |
| 1991 | Edward II | Spencer | |
| 1992 | The Railway Station Man | Damian Sweeney | |
| 1993 | The Secret Garden | Lord Craven | |
| 1993 | In the Name of the Father | Paul Hill | |
| 1994 | The Secret of Roan Inish | Tadhg Coneelly | |
| 1994 | Princess Caraboo | Amon McCarthy | |
| 1994 | Words Upon the Window Pane | John Corbet | |
| 1995 | Angel Baby | Harry | |
| 1995 | Nothing Personal | Liam | |
| 1996 | Some Mother's Son | Bobby Sands | |
| 1996 | Moll Flanders | Jonathan (the Artist) | Nominated Best Supporting Actor - Satellite Awards |
| 1997 | This Is the Sea | Padhar McAliskey | |
| 1998 | Sliding Doors | Gerry | |
| 1998 | The Quarry | The Man | |
| 2000 | Best | George Best | |
| 2002 | Puckoon | O'Brien | |
| 2002 | Re-Inventing Eddie | Eddie Harris | |
| 2002 | Evelyn | Senior Counsel Mr. Wolfe | |
| 2003 | Conspiracy of Silence | Father Matthew Francis | |
| 2003 | Alien Hunter | Dr. Michael Straub | |
| 2004 | The Bridge of San Luis Rey | Captain Alvarado | |
| 2005 | Isolation | Dan | |
| 2005 | Lassie | Sam Carraclough | |
| 2008 | In Transit | Yakov | |
| 2009 | Holy Water | Tom Gaffney | Later renamed Hard Times |
| 2009 | The Tournament | Gene Walker | |
| 2010 | Five Day Shelter | Stephen | |
| 2010 | Black Death | Wolfstan | |
| 2010 | Night Wolf | McRae | Also known as 13Hrs |
| 2011 | Ghosted | Jack | |
| 2012 | The Hot Potato | Bill | |
| 2012 | Private Peaceful | Sergeant Hanley | |
| 2013 | Möbius | Joshua | |
| 2014 | The Hybrid | Powell | |
| 2016 | Detour | Frank | |
| 2016 | Alleycats | Redman | |
| 2016 | Upstream | Sean | |
| 2017 | Pilgrimage | Brother Ciarán | |
| 2017 | Kissing Candice | Donal | |
| 2017 | Number One | Gary Adams | |
| 2018 | Paul, Apostle of Christ | Aquila | |
| 2020 | Boys from County Hell | George Bogue | |
| 2021 | The Banishing | Malachi | |
| 2024 | Sew Torn | Hudson Armitage | |
| 2024 | The Watchers | Professor Kilmartin | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1988 | The Modern World: Ten Great Writers | Stephen Dedalus | Documentary |
| 1990 | Who Bombed Birmingham? | IRA man in cottage | Television film |
| 1990–1991 | Making Out | Gavin | 6 episodes |
| 1991 | Shrinks | Kevin Saunders | Episode #1.2 |
| 1991 | All Good Things | Vincent Gibney | 6 episodes |
| 1991 | Chimera | Peter Carson | 4 episodes |
| 1991 | The Play on One | Rudy | Episode: "Out of the Blue" |
| 1993 | Peak Practice | Father Davey | Episode: "Impulsive Behavior" |
| 1993 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Sean O'Casey | Episode: "Ireland, April 1916" |
| 2001 | The Seventh Stream | Tomas Dunhill | Television film |
| 2002 | Boston Public | Jerry | Episode: "Chapter Thirty-One" |
| 2005 | The Baby War | Pierce O'Carroll | Television film |
| 2005 | Bleak House | Nemo | 2 episodes |
| 2007 | The Yellow House | Paul Gauguin | Television film |
| 2007 | Spooks | Davie King | Episode: "Isolated" |
| 2008 | Trial & Retribution | Gary Webster | Episode: "Kill the King: Part 1" |
| 2008 | The Passion | Sagan | 4 episodes |
| 2009, 2012 | Merlin | Balinor | 2 episodes |
| 2010 | Silent Witness | Tom Flannery | 2 episodes |
| 2010 | Mo | Gerry Adams | Television film |
| 2010 | The Nativity | Gabriel | 3 episodes |
| 2011 | Vera | Edmund Fulwell | Episode: "The Crow Trap" |
| 2011 | The Jury | Alan Lane | 5 episodes |
| 2012 | Labyrinth | Simon de Montfort | Miniseries; 2 episodes |
| 2013 | Crossing Lines | Frankie | Episode: "The Terminator" |
| 2013–2016 | The Fall | Assistant Chief Constable Jim Burns | 17 episodes |
| 2014 | The Musketeers | Luca Sestini | Episode: "A Rebellious Woman" |
| 2014 | Shetland | Frank Blake | 2 episodes S2 E5; E6 |
| 2014 | The Assets | Vitaly Yurchenko | 4 episodes |
| 2015 | The Trials of Jimmy Rose | DI Steve McIntyre | 3 episodes |
| 2016 | One of Us | Bill Douglas | 4 episodes |
| 2018 | The Terror | John Bridgens | 5 episodes |
| 2019 | Tin Star | Pastor Johan Nickel | 7 episodes |
| 2019 | Harlots | Jonas Young | Episode #3.1 |
| 2019 | Medici | Pope Sixtus IV | 3 episodes |
| 2020–2022 | The Head | Arthur Wilde | Main role |
| 2023 | Blue Lights | James McIntyre | 6 episodes |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1985 | British Academy Film Awards | BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer To Film | Cal | Nominated |
| 1995 | Australian Film Institute Awards | AFI Best Actor in a Lead Role | Angel Baby | Won |
| 1996 | Film Critics Circle of Australia | Best Actor - Male | Angel Baby | Won |
| 1997 | Satellite Awards | Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Moll Flanders | Nominated |
| 2000 | Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival | Jury Award for Best Actor | Best | Won |
| 2005 | IFTA Film & Drama Awards | Best Supporting Actor in Television | The Baby War | Nominated |