Colin Farrell

Colin James Farrell (born May 31, 1976) is an Irish actor, best known for appearing in a series of high-profile Hollywood films, as well as for his controversial off-screen lifestyle.

Early life

Farrell was born in Castleknock, Dublin to Rita Monaghan and Eamonn Farrell, who is an FAI Cup winner and played with, as well as managed, Shamrock Rovers FC; he has two sisters, Claudine and Catherine, and a brother, Eamonn Jr.

Farrell was educated at Castleknock College and Gormanstown College. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was a promising young soccer player for Dublin side Castleknock Celtic, even playing at goal. Farrell attended The Gaiety School of Acting, but dropped out and was cast in the part of "Danny Byrne" on Ballykissangel, a popular BBC television drama set in Ireland. Farrell appeared on the show from 1998 until 1999.

Career

Farrell subsequently had a number of small parts in various TV shows and movies, until 2000, when he was cast in the part of "Private Roland Bozz" in Tigerland, an American film directed by Joel Schumacher. Although the film received only a limited release in the United States, Farrell has since been cast in a number of high-profile productions, and is considered one of Ireland's rising stars in Hollywood. Farrell's first American films, "American Outlaws" (2001) and Hart's War (2002), were not commercially successful, but his 2003 films, including The Recruit, S.W.A.T. and Phone Booth, were well received and were box office successes [1], cementing Farrell as a commercial draw. Farrell is also a proven supporting actor, given his performances as a cop trying to expose potential mistakes in Minority Report (2002) and as a bald villain in Daredevil (2003).

In 2004, Farrell appeared in several films that received only a limited theatrical release, including Intermission and A Home at the End of the World, both of which received some positive reviews. According to press reports, Audiences at a test screening of "World" were visibly distracted (with audible gasps) by a brief frontal nude scene of Farrell, during which he walked naked down a hallway. The film's producers claimed to have deleted this scene due to the threat that it might distract viewers from the real content of the film. The removed clip was later leaked to the internet.

Farrell appeared in the title role of 2004's Alexander, which was considered a financial and critical disappointment. His next film was 2005's The New World, also a historical epic that was met with mixed reviews. The film was released on a limited number of screens and had a low box office gross [2].

Private life

Farrell was married to English actress Amelia Warner from July 2001 to November 2001. He later had a son, James (born September 12, 2003), with Los Angeles-based model Kim Bordenave.

Farrell is known for his reported sexual promiscuity, hard drinking, chain smoking. His heavy profanity during interviews is often edited from his talk show appearances. In December 2005, Farrell voluntarily checked into a treatment center for dependency to prescription painkillers. His publicist commented that Farrell was originally given pills for dealing with back injury pain. He was released in January 2006.

Farrell maintains a home in his native Ireland while not travelling frequently for work.

Sex tape dispute

In July 2005, Farrell sued his former girlfriend, Playboy Playmate Nicole Narain, and porn producer David Hans Schmidt over the rights to a thirteen-minute sex tape that Farrell had made with Narain in 2003. The tape was made at Narain's apartment and features the two engaged in intercourse and oral sex. Farrell claims he understood the tape as being "strictly private and confidential between them," but it was leaked to Schmidt and others, who tried to release it publicly. A Los Angeles judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Narain and Schmidt from selling, distributing or showing the tape. In the past, Schmidt had distributed or tried to distribute nude material of other celebrities, including Tonya Harding, Paula Jones, and Fred Durst [3].

Narain claimed that she did not give the tape to anyone and was not sure if or how copies were taken from her. She had originally said that she would work with Farrell to ensure that it remained private, but Farrell claimed the opposite. He said Narain was trying to release it along with Schmidt, but Narain said she had nothing to do with him. Part of the conflict may have also come when Narain refused to grant full ownership of the tape to Farrell. Later in an appearance on MSNBC, Narain said that she and Farrell should commercially release the tape together themselves so that they could profit instead of others who had copies [4].

On January 10, 2006, the tape surfaced on a website called dirtycolin.com. The site was shut down on the same day because of server overload, but re-opened a week later. The tape was then pirated through bittorrent and other file-sharing systems. Both Farrell's and Narain's lawyers denounced the site. While dirtycolin.com was shut down again a few days later for unknown reasons, Farrell's legal team added it and other sites that hosted parts of the tape as defendants in the lawsuit. A trial date was set for July 17, 2006. The judge allowed lawyers for Farrell and Narain to mediate the dispute until April 20.

Selected filmography

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Colin Farrell".