Cillian Murphy, one of the best-loved actors of this generation celebrated his 44th birthday earlier this week. To celebrate, we look back on his amazing career so far.
Cillian Murphy is best known for playing Thomas Shelby in the hit BBC series Peaky Blinders. However, he has appeared in some of the biggest films in recent years such as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Inception.
Murphy was born in the village of Douglas in County Cork, Ireland on May 25, 1976. In his late teens he pursued a career as a musician and even landed a five-album record deal. He played the guitar and sang in lots of different bands alongside his brother Paidi.
They were both massive fans of The Beatles and took inspiration from the Fab Four. Ultimately, Murphy is glad that his musical career never took off, later saying, “I’m very glad in retrospect we didn’t sign because you kind of sign away your life to a label,” which he told the Evening Herald in Dublin.
In 1996, Murphy’s acting career slowly got underway as he appeared in productions at the University College Cork – where he was studying law. Whilst at University, he appeared in amateur productions of Observe the sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and Little Shop of Horrors.
His first professional role was in a play called Disco Pigs and it was this role that made him quit university, his band and started taking acting seriously. After appearing in several short films including the adaptation of Disco Pigs, he landed the lead role in 28 Days Later – directed by the famous Danny Boyle. (Boyle had risen to fame after directing Trainspotting in 1996)
This was Murphy’s big break and he even went on to win Best Newcomer at the Empire awards and Breakthrough Male Performance at the 2004 MTV Awards. After this Murphy never looked back and began to become an increasingly household name.
He went on to appear in three successive Batman films, where he formed a friendship with director Christopher Nolan. Murphy originally auditioned for the role of Batman. However, that role went to Christian Bale, but Murphy landed the role of Dr. Jonathan Crane, the villain.
The film Inception was released in 2010, and Murphy once again appeared with Christopher Nolan in the director’s chair. Other members of the cast included Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hardy. The film won four Oscars and was a massive success, once again putting Murphy in the public eye.
Murphy’s most recent outing with Nolan was in the blockbuster hit Dunkirk. In this Murphy brilliantly played the part of a soldier suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder. He really encapsulates the fear that a soldier returning to the beaches of Dunkirk. In this film he once again appears alongside Tom Hardy.
On September 12, 2013 Cillian Murphy appeared for the first time as Tommy Shelby as the first episode of Peaky Blinders hit British screens. Tommy is the leader of the Birmingham gang the Peaky Blinders. Tommy is in the gang with his two brothers, Arthur (Paul Anderson) and John (Joe Cole).
The Peaky Blinders were a real gang that operated between the wars in Birmingham. They were best known for having razor blades in their caps and using them was weapons.
We have followed Tommy and his gang for five series with the audience increasing series on series. According to Metro the last episode of the fifth series was watched live by 3.84 million people.
The gang have come into confrontations with leader of two London gangs Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) and Darby Sabini (Noah Taylor), the Russians, a New York mafia boss (Adrien Brody) and most recently British fascist Oswald Mosely (Sam Claflin).
Image Credit: BBC
This series is one of the rare occasions where the audience is on the side of the bad guys. But do we care? No. The way Murphy plays Shelby is brilliant; he is intimidating yet vulnerable, keeping the viewer gripped.
The Irish Times described Murphy’s performance, “in the role, the actor’s magnetic focus and ageless, frankly eerie good looks are both compelling and unsettling.”
Peaky Blinders is set for another two series, what they will hold for Tommy we are not sure. But the fact they will be watched by millions of Brits is in no doubt.
It is testament to Murphy’s success as an actor that he has been rumoured as a possible replacement for Daniel Craig as James Bond. He described the rumours as “flattering.” I’m not sure whether he will land the role, but if he did, I have little doubt he would ace it.
By Alex Brinton
Feature image: Sharp Magazine