Ciaran Hinds

Ciarán Hinds is an actor from Northern Ireland known for his extensive work across theater, film, and television. He has performed in a broad variety of screen and stage productions, earning recognition for both high-profile feature films and classical theatrical performances. In 2020, he was listed at number 31 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Born on February 9, 1953, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Hinds grew up in a Catholic family as the only son of five children. His father was a doctor and his mother was a schoolteacher and amateur actress. As a youth, he engaged in Irish dancing and was educated at Holy Family Primary School and St Malachy's College. He later attended the College of Business Studies and initially studied law at Queen's University Belfast before leaving his studies to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1975.

Hinds began his professional career at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre in 1976, where he remained a frequent performer into the mid-1980s. He also acted with several Irish theatrical groups, including the Abbey Theatre and the Field Day Theatre Company. He made his feature film debut in Excalibur in 1981. In 1987, he was cast in Peter Brook's international stage production of The Mahabharata, later appearing in its 1989 film adaptation. In the early 1990s, he performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including playing the title role in Richard III in 1993.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Hinds built a varied body of work on television and stage. His stage role as Larry in Patrick Marber's Closer in London and on Broadway earned him both a Theatre World Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award in 1999. On television, he portrayed Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre, Julius Caesar in the drama series Rome, and DCI James Langton in Above Suspicion. His film credits from this period include Persuasion, Road to Perdition, The Sum of All Fears, Munich, There Will Be Blood, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

Hinds remained prominent in major feature films and television series throughout the 2010s and 2020s. He played Aberforth Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Roy Bland in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Mance Rayder in Game of Thrones, and Captain Sir John Franklin in The Terror. He also provided the voice for Grand Pabbie in Frozen and Frozen II, and portrayed Steppenwolf in Zack Snyder's Justice League. His performance in the 2021 drama film Belfast earned him a National Board of Review Award and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Hinds is married to French-Vietnamese actress Hélène Patarot, whom he met in 1987 while performing in The Mahabharata. The couple lives in Paris and London and has a daughter, Aoife Hinds, who was born in 1991 and is also an actress.