Colin Farrell Biography

"I don't go to the gym or practice yoga. And the closest thing I have to a nutritionist is the Carlsberg Beer Company. I just have the appetite of a pigeon."
- Colin Farrell

This statement typifies Colin Farrell. Hollywood was missing the real bad boys after the departure of the triumvirate of Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. After a "bad boy less" generation enter Colin Farrell. Colin James Farrell was born on March 31st, 1976 in the Castleknock area of Dublin. His family was a typical Irish middle class family.

Colin’s father Eamon and his uncle Tommy Farell were star players for the Shamrock Rovers football team. They both played in the team that beat the mighty Yugoslav team Red Star Belgrade in 1961. Colin had three elder siblings. Football fever got to Colin and he enrolled in coaching camp. The discipline and devotion required to succeed at the highest level was lacking in Colin from the very beginning. He not only dropped out from football camp but also from school. He headed off to Australia with his friends to make up for the time spent at school and football camp.

Once he returned to Dublin Colin Farrell began working. All his stints were very short lived. There did not seem to be any way that he would stick to a regular type of a day job. He worked in a bank, restaurant, warehouse and a circus. He even auditioned for Boyzone and failed miserably. Colin Farrell’s elder brother Eamon persuaded him to try acting. Colin joined the National Performing Arts School. He immediately decided that he would become an actor. In 1996 he joined the Gaiety School of Drama along with his sister Catherine. During his stint at the Gaiety School of Drama, Colin Farrell won a number of bit parts in the local theatre productions but they didn’t do much to further his career. The big break happened in 1998 after he quit the Gaiety School of Drama. He was playing the part of semi-autistic teenager Richard Delamere in Gary Mitchell's In A Little World Of Our Own at the Donmar Warehouse.

In the audience was Kevin Spacey. He was rehearsing for The Iceman Cometh in the West End. Spacey and Farrell hit it off. Kevin Spacey changed Colin Farrell’s life forever when he recommended his name to the producers of "Ordinary Decent Criminal" that was set in Dublin. The movie did not do too well commercially but it led the way for Farrell’s next role as Bozz in "Tigerland." The project was helmed by Joel Schumacher and was set in an Advanced Infantry Training Camp in Louisiana. The movie was a success with the critics and Colin Farrell was voted as Best Actor of the year by the Boston Society of Film Critics. Farrell was beginning to hit the big league. He landed a part alongside Bruce Willis in Hart’s War.

The next move was the one that prompted Farrell to make the statement that, he skipped "at least 100 rungs of the ladder." He received a call from Steven Spielberg’s office that the part opposite Tom Cruise in "Minority Report was his. The movie was based on a Philip K. Dick and was a hit all over the world. During the period that he was reaching for the stars there was a lot happening in his personal life. Colin Farrell married Amelia Warner, daughter of TV actress Annette Ekblom. In no time they divorced each other. His relationship with the model Kim Bordenave, bore him a son. In 2003, GQ magazine gave him the award of Leading Man of the Year.

Post "Minority Report" Farrell was seen in Joel Schumacher's "Phone Booth," alongside the legendary Al Pacino in "The Recruit," with Cate Blanchett in "Veronica Guerin," along with Samuel L. Jackson in S.W.A.T. and in Oliver Stone’s epic "Alexander."

The Farrell family still resides in Dublin. Colin’s brother Eamon runs a performing arts school while both his sisters have acted in small roles in Colin’s movies. One of the best things about Colin Farrell is that he has no pretensions as to how he has made it big. He is the first to admit that a lot of his success had to do with luck.

In 2003 he admitted that he seeked casual sex, enjoyed the company of prostitutes and had tried heroin. His outspoken nature has got him into trouble in the past but it seems to endear him to his fans even further.