page_title: Liam Cunningham
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Liam Cunningham / Career
caption_attribution_description: Liam Cunningham at the Game of Thrones exhibition.
context_page_description: Liam Cunningham is an Irish stage and screen actor. He is known for playing Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series Game of Thrones.
  Cunningham has been nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award, the British Independent Film Award, has won two Irish Film & Television Awards, and shared a BAFTA with Michael Fassbender, for their crime-drama short film Pitch Black Heist. His film roles include A Little Princess, Jude, Dog Soldiers, The Crooked Man, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Hunger, The Escapist, Good Vibrations, Let Us Prey and The Childhood of a Leader. In 2020, he was listed at number 36 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
context_section_description: Cunningham's debut film role came in Into the West (1992), where he played a police officer. His on-screen acting continued with roles in War of the Buttons (1994), and A Little Princess (1995), before making his role as Phillotson in Jude (1996). He continued with character roles in Falling for a Dancer (TV, 1998), RKO 281 (1999), Shooting the Past (TV, 1999), When the Sky Falls (2000) and Stranded (2002). Cunningham came to international prominence with his role as Captain Ryan in the critically acclaimed, independent horror film, Dog Soldiers (2002).
  Cunningham starred in well-received films such as The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; Hunger; The Escapist (both 2008); The Guard ; and Black Butterflies (both 2011). He also had roles in many high budget British and American films including The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), Harry Brown (2009), Clash of the Titans, Centurion (both 2010). On television, he appeared as President Richard Tate in the BBC programme Outcasts. Cunningham was producer Philip Segal’s first choice to portray the Eighth Doctor in the TV movie of Doctor Who (1996), but was vetoed by Fox executives.
  In 2012, Cunningham joined the main cast for the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones portraying former smuggler Davos Seaworth, and in 2013 he starred in The Numbers Station alongside John Cusack. He was also cast in season 5 of the BBC series Merlin as a sorcerer. He featured in the music video for "High Hopes" by Irish alternative rock band Kodaline from their EP The High Hopes. In April 2013, he appeared in the seventh series of the BBC One series Doctor Who in the episode "Cold War", where he played Captain Zhukov, the commander of a Russian submarine in 1983 facing one of the Ice Warriors. He guest starred in the second season of the VH1 television series Stay Closer, with Sandra Bullock and Jessica Chastain. In 2015, he played the father in Brady Corbet's directorial debut film, The Childhood of a Leader.
  In February 2020, it was announced that Cunningham would voice Man-At-Arms in the Netflix animated series Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
caption: Cunningham at the Game of Thrones exhibition in May 2013
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