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Brendan Gleeson was most recently seen as Alastor Mad-Eye Moody, the role he first played in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and reprised in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Gleeson has been seen in more than 40 films since he made his debut in Jim Sheridan's The Field. He then had small roles in films such as Mike Newell's Into the West and Ron Howard's Far and Away before landing the role of Hamish in Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning Best Picture Braveheart. He followed with the Neil Jordan films Michael Collins and The Butcher Boy, and also starred in the independent film Angela Moody produced by John Boorman. In 1998, Boorman directed Gleeson in the role of real- life Irish folk hero Martin Cahill in the acclaimed biographical drama The General. For his performance, Gleeson won several acting honors, including the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor. He has since collaborated with Boorman on The Tailor of Panama, In My Country and The Tiger's Tale.

Gleeson's additional credits include John Woo's Mission Impossible II, Harrison's Flowers, Wild About Harry, Steven Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain, Wolfgang Petersen's Troy, M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto and Black Irish. On television, Gleeson stars in the title role of HBO's upcoming Churchill at War.

Born in Ireland, Gleeson started out as a teacher but left the profession to pursue a career in acting, joining the Irish theater company Passion Machine. His stage credits include King of the Castle, The Plough and the Stars, The Prayers of Sherkin, The Cherry Orchard and Juno and the Paycock at the Gaiety Theatre, which was also presented at the Chicago Theatre Festival. In 2001, he returned to the stage at Dublin's Peacock Theatre in Billy Roche's play On Such as We directed by Wilson Milam.