english actor

Jack O’Connell ( bear 1 August 1990 ) is an english actor. He is well known for his function In This Is England as Pukey Nicholls and as James Cook in Skins ( 2009–2010, 2013 ), which was followed by other conduct roles in the slasher film Eden Lake ( 2009 ) and the television receiver drama Dive ( 2010 ) and United ( 2011 ).

O’Connell gave critically applaud performances in the independent films Starred Up ( 2013 ) and ’71 ( 2014 ), and subsequently starred as war hero Louis Zamperini in the war film Unbroken ( 2014 ), for which he received the BAFTA Rising Star Award. He has since starred in the thriller Money Monster ( 2016 ) and the Netflix westerly specify series Godless ( 2017 ) .

early life [edit ]

O’Connell was born on 1 August 1990 into a wage-earning family in Alvaston, Derbyshire. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] His church father, Johnny Patrick O’Connell, was an irish immigrant from Ballyheigue who worked on the british railways for Bombardier until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2009. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] His mother, Alison ( née Gutteridge ), who is English, was employed by the airline British Midland before taking on management of her son ‘s career. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] His younger sister, Megan, is an actress. [ 8 ] As the grandson of Ken Gutteridge, a player and subsequently director at Burton Albion FC, O’Connell aspired to become a professional football player. [ 5 ] He played as a striker for Alvaston Rangers and was late scouted by Derby County FC, where he had trials. [ 4 ] [ 7 ] After a series of injuries ended his career, he wanted to join the british Army, [ 5 ] believing it to be his entirely realistic choice to make an honest be. [ 9 ] His parents sent him to the Army Cadet Force when he was 12 with the bearing of teaching him discipline, [ 6 ] but his juvenile criminal record prevented him from enlisting in the united states army. [ 7 ] As a youth, O’Connell was in and out of court on charges related to alcohol and ferocity, and he received a annual young wrongdoer ‘s referral order when he was 17. [ 2 ] [ 6 ] Regarding his past transgressions, he has described himself as “ a product of [ his ] environment ”. [ 6 ] [ 10 ] At old age 16, O’Connell left Saint Benedict Catholic School with two GCSEs in drama and English. [ 1 ] [ 6 ] He later reflected on his “ brutal ” know at Saint Benedict : “ What I learnt apart from anything academician at school was probably very valuable lessons in terms of how to lie, how to play the game, how to play authority against itself. ” [ 6 ] He took an interest in acting during the compulsory drama classes, and from age 13 he attended the absolve Television Workshop in Nottingham, where he trained in drama doubly a week. [ 6 ] [ 9 ] He began attending auditions in London, where he sometimes slept outside because he was ineffective to afford a hotel. He finally moved to Hounslow in London, working in between acting parts as a farmhand in Cobham, Surrey. [ 6 ]

career [edit ]

Harry Brown in November 2009 O’Connell at the premier ofin November 2009 Since the start of his career, O’Connell has chiefly played young delinquents ; [ 6 ] The New York Times writer John Freeman noted retrospectively, “ If a british film called for a bad case, a grapnel, person with a morsel of grit, chances were O’Connell got the contribution. [ He ] has delivered one gripping physical performance after another, bringing an electric authenticity to the portrait of angry, trouble oneself young person. ” [ 2 ] O’Connell made his professional act debut in 2005 when he played a runaway with anger issues in an sequence of Doctors, followed by a recurring function as a boy accused of rape in The Bill. [ 1 ] [ 11 ] His stagecoach debut came that lapp year after a rendition of the act The Spider Men by the Television Workshop was selected to be performed at the Royal National Theatre in London. [ 12 ] O’Connell played his debut movie character in This Is England ( 2006 ), a critically acclaimed coming-of-age play set in the skinhead subculture of the early 1980s. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] At age 15, he was deemed excessively old to play the main character, leading film maker Shane Meadows to write the supporting function of the aggressive Pukey specifically for him. [ 12 ] [ 15 ] During 2007, O’Connell appeared in television episodes of Waterloo Road, Holby City and Wire in the Blood. [ 1 ] He played a 15-year-old pupil involved in a sexual relationship with his teacher in the gambling Scarborough, foremost performed at the Edinburgh Festival before its transfer the follow year to London ‘s Royal Court Theatre. [ 16 ] Variety ‘s David Benedict wrote of his stage operation, “ His earnest grip of Daz ‘s innocent tenderness is, paradoxically, a sign of the character’s—and the actor’s—unexpected adulthood. ” [ 17 ] In the horror–thriller Eden Lake ( 2008 ), which received positive reviews, [ 18 ] O’Connell played a psychopathic gang drawing card who terrorises a young marital pair. [ 19 ] He next starred as a adolescent delinquent in “ Between You and Me ” ( 2008 ), an educational film produced by the Derbyshire Constabulary, [ 20 ] followed by a minor function in the ITV consecutive Wuthering Heights ( 2009 ). [ 1 ] O’Connell first found fame, chiefly among people his age, as the trouble oneself and hard-living James Cook in the third and fourth series of the E4 adolescent play Skins ( 2009–10 ). [ 2 ] Grantland writer Amos Barshad opined that among his co-stars, which included Dev Patel and Nicholas Hoult, none “ always quite matched the luminescent, leering mania of O’Connell ‘s Cook. As a laughably ramped up bad male child, Cook was about like a baby Tyler Durden. ” [ 21 ] He won a television receiver Choice Award for Best Actor for his operation in the fourthly serial. [ 22 ] O’Connell late reprised his function in the feature-length particular Skins Rise ( 2013 ), which follows a twenty-something cook on the run from authorities. [ 23 ] He has said of Cook, “ He ‘s credibly the most like fictional character to myself that I had the good luck of portray, ” though he noted that unlike Cook he had matured beyond adolescence. [ 21 ]
In the vigilante thriller Harry Brown ( 2009 ), which polarised critics, [ 24 ] O’Connell played an abused child turned poisonous gang member. [ 25 ] He impressed lead actor Michael Caine, who shouted “ Star of the future ! ” at him during filming. [ 5 ] His portrayal of a adolescent father in the BBC Two play Dive ( 2010 ) earned him critical praise ; Euan Ferguson of The Guardian described it as “ a performance that is of an actor twice his years : hypnotize, comedic and soulful. ” [ 26 ] The Daily Telegraph critic Olly Grant concurred, writing, “ He was a disclosure ; nuanced, understate, wise beyond his years. ” [ 27 ] Following a lead function in the Sky1 consecutive The Runaway ( 2011 ), set in the criminal hell of 1970s London, [ 13 ] O’Connell starred as football player Bobby Charlton in another well-received BBC Two drama, United ( 2011 ), which chronicles the 1958 Munich atmosphere crash that killed eight players of Manchester United. [ 27 ]

His adjacent film, the stagily released Weekender ( 2011 ), showcased the Manchester rave scene of the early 1990s. [ 13 ] Though the film received hapless reviews, [ 28 ] O’Connell ‘s “ dumb but sparky buddy ” was called “ a boom ” by Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph. [ 29 ] similarly, the thriller Tower Block ( 2012 ), about flat tenants under attack from a sniper, received blend reviews, [ 30 ] but The Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer singled out O’Connell as “ the standout [ of the roll ] ” as the construct ‘s protection racketeer. [ 13 ] [ 31 ] Following his bend as a soldier in Private Peaceful ( 2012 ), an adaptation of a fresh of the like appoint by Michael Morpurgo, he co-starred as the apprentice of a gunman played by Tim Roth in The Liability ( 2012 ), both of which met with interracial critical reception. [ 32 ] [ 33 ] O’Connell ‘s career breakthrough came when he starred in the independent prison drama Starred Up ( 2013 ). [ 5 ] His depiction of a violent adolescent incarcerated in the like prison as his father received widespread critical acclaim ; Entertainment Weekly critic Chris Nashawaty wrote, “ O’Connell bristles with terrifying hair-trigger capriciousness. Watching him, you feel like you ‘re witnessing the arrival of a modern movie headliner. ” [ 34 ] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone agreed, describing his “ mad-dog bodied ” depicting as “ a star-is-born operation. ” [ 35 ] O’Connell next starred in another applaud independent film, ’71 ( 2014 ), portraying a soldier deployed to Belfast at the acme of political violence in Northern Ireland. [ 5 ] [ 36 ] He was director Yann Demange ‘s beginning and only choice for the separate. [ 5 ] Writing for Empire, Nev Pierce opined, “ In a superb ensemble, O’Connell is great, ” adding, “ We know he can do violence, but hera he holds the screen with no swagger—just a dim-witted desire to survive. ” [ 37 ] He received consecutive nominations for the british Independent Film Award for Best Actor. [ 38 ] [ 39 ] Following a supporting character as an athenian warrior in his inaugural blockbuster, 300: Rise of an Empire ( 2014 ), O’Connell played his first run role in a major Hollywood picture, Unbroken ( 2014 ), directed by Angelina Jolie. [ 5 ] He portrayed Louis Zamperini, an Italian-American Olympic distance runner who, as a bombardier in the second World War, survived a flat barge in over the Pacific and was held for two years in japanese prisoner-of-war camps. To prepare for the function, he underwent a nonindulgent diet to lose about 30 pounds and worked with a dialect coach to mask his slurred Derbyshire stress. [ 40 ] The resulting performance was positively received ; Richard Corliss of Time concluded, “ Jolie has made a deluxe, solid movie of the Zamperini narrative, but O’Connell is the part of Unbroken that was sincerely worth the wait. ” [ 41 ] For his work in Starred Up and Unbroken, O’Connell received the Breakthrough Award from the National Board of Review. [ 42 ] He additionally became the one-tenth recipient role of the publicly vote BAFTA Rising Star Award. [ 43 ]

personal life [edit ]

O’Connell has said that he does not consider himself british, alternatively identifying specifically with his Derbyshire upbringing and irish inheritance. [ 3 ] [ 5 ] He has lived in East London since 2014. [ 6 ] After his church father died when O’Connell was 18, he coped in share by engaging in self-destructive behavior, late commenting that he “ did n’t stop partying for like seven years ”. [ 2 ] While living in Bristol during his tenure on Skins, he acquired a reputation in the tabloids as a “ party boy ”, a “ regretful boy ”, and a “ bit of roughly ”. [ 5 ] He regularly gave interviews while hungover. [ 6 ] His childhood dub “ Jack the Lad ” ( a phrase meaning “ a conspicuously self-assured, carefree, brash young man ” ) [ 44 ] is tattooed on his sleeve. [ 8 ] [ 45 ] O’Connell ‘s disruptive youth has influenced his work, resulting in him playing chiefly delinquents for the beginning decade of his career, [ 6 ] while his juvenile condemnable commemorate initially prevented him from being cast in Hollywood productions as he was ineffective to obtain a U.S. visa. [ 2 ] [ 10 ] By old age 24, he had largely changed his life style, saying, “ I ‘m not trying to have the most fun I ‘ve ever had ever, anymore. That used to be the mentality every time I left the house. ” [ 6 ] [ 45 ] He has credited Angelina Jolie, who directed him in his first Hollywood film Unbroken, with influencing his mentality and described working with her as an “ interposition ”. [ 2 ]

philanthropy [edit ]

On 20 June 2016, World Refugee Day, O’Connell, a well as Holliday Grainger, featured in a film from the United Nations ‘ refugee representation UNHCR to help raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. [ 46 ] The film, titled Home, has a family take a change by reversal migration into the middle of a war zone. Inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR ‘s # WithRefugees crusade, which besides includes a request to governments to expand refuge to provide further tax shelter, integrating job opportunities, and department of education. [ 47 ] Home, written and directed by Daniel Mulloy, went on to win a BAFTA Award and a Gold Lion at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity among many other awards. [ 48 ]

Filmography [edit ]

Films [edit ]

television [edit ]

stagecoach [edit ]

Accolades [edit ]

References [edit ]