Cillian Murphy
Birthdate: May 25, 1976 (50 Years Old)
Birthplace: Douglas, Cork, Ireland
Cillian (pronounced “Kill-ee-un”) Murphy, with his striking blue eyes and piercing expressions, has established himself as one of the most impressive big-screen Irish actors of his generation. After his earliest feature appearances in Irish movies like The Tale of Sweety Barrett (1998) and a starring role in writer-director Nelson Hume’s comedy-drama, Sunburn (1999), Murphy was cast by writer-director William Boyd for his co-produced U.K.-French WW1 drama, The Trench (1999), which included a cast of many future stellar Anglo-Irish stars including Daniel Craig, Paul Nicholls, James D’Arcy, and Ben Whishaw.
Murphy landed a starring role in his first movie to receive significant distribution, writer-director John Carney’s comedy-drama, On the Edge (2001), with Stephen Rea, released by Universal Focus. Cillian Murphy worked with his first world-class director, Serbian filmmaker Goran Paskaljević, for How Harry Became a Tree (2001), with Colm Meaney, Adrian Dunbar, and Kerry Condon, premiering at the Venice film festival, followed by Murphy starring in Edna Walsh’s drama, Disco Pigs (2001), with Elaine Cassidy.
The first major hit of Murphy’s career was marked by his starring role in Danny Boyle’s horror movie, 28 Days Later (2002), with Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, and Brendan Gleeson, and earning $84.6 million for Fox Searchlight Pictures. Murphy then joined a stellar Irish/Scots cast (Colin Farrell, Kelly Macdonald, Meaney, and Shirley Henderson) for the John Crowley-directed black comedy, Intermission (2003).
Cillian Murphy entered a new phase of his growing career in bigger international and Hollywood movies with a supporting role in the acclaimed, Peter Webber-directed period drama, Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), starring Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, and Essie Davis, and profiting with $31.4 million worldwide after a Telluride film festival premiere, and earning three Oscar nominations.
Murphy’s first role in a big Hollywood production was in writer-director Anthony Minghella’s version of Charles Frazier’s revered novel, Cold Mountain (2003), starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger (winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar), Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, and Ray Winstone, and grossing a solid $173 million, and earning six Oscar nominations and 13 BAFTA nominations.
Cillian Murphy’s first of several collaborations with filmmaker Christopher Nolan was his turn as Scarecrow in Nolan’s imposing DC Cinematic Universe movie, Batman Begins (2005), opposite Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkerson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, and Morgan Freeman, grossing a strong $373.7 million and launching The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Murphy’s first major bad-guy role in a Hollywood movie was opposite Rachel McAdams in the Wes Craven-directed airline thriller, Red Eye (2005), with Brian Cox and Angela Paton, earning a potent $96 million globally. Murphy was directed for the first time by leading Irish writer-director Neil Jordan as a transgender character in Breakfast on Pluto (2005), with Stephen Rea, Gleeson, Neeson, and Ruth Negga, and which premiered at the Telluride film festival.
Cillian Murphy’s greatest artistic triumph to that point in his career happened with his starring role in the Ken Loach/Paul Laverty drama on the Irish War of Independence, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, co-starring Liam Cunningham and Pádraic Delaney while earning Murphy multiple awards nominations including from the European Film Awards and the British Independent Film Awards.
Murphy starred in his second movie with director Danny Boyle, the sci-fi adventure, Sunshine (2007), with Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, and Mark Strong, but losing money for its U.K.-U.S. producers as well as distributor Fox Searchlight. Murphy’s second collaboration with Christopher Nolan was simply a cameo as Dr. Crane/Scarecrow in The Dark Knight (2008), followed by Murphy playing support to leads Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in the John Maybury-directed The Edge of Love (2008), with Matthew Rhys, and which premiered at the Edinburgh film festival.
Murphy starred opposite Brendan Murphy in the Irish crime comedy, Perrier’s Bounty (2009), with Jim Broadbent and Jodie Whittaker, launched at the Toronto Film Festival. With writer-director Michael Lander, Murphy starred with Elliot (then-Ellen) Page, Susan Sarandon, Josh Lucas, Bill Pullman, and Keith Carradine in the little-seen thriller, Peacock (2010), followed by the filmed but unreleased Beeban Kindron-directed British drama, Hippie Hippie Shake, in which Murphy starred with a notable cast including Sienna Miller, Max Minghella, Emma Booth, Hugh Bonneville, Chris O’Dowd, and Derek Jacobi, but cancelled by producers Working Title Films.
Cillian Murphy’s third project with Christopher Nolan was a supporting role in the visually stunning sci-fi drama, Inception (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine, which won eight Oscar nominations (and four Oscar wins) along with a major-league global gross of $837 million.
After Murphy starred in the British viral-themed thriller, Retreat (2011), from writer-director Carl Tibbetts and co-starring Thandiwe Newton and Jamie Bell, Murphy played support to co-stars Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake in director/writer/producer Andrew Niccol’s poorly-received “retrofuturist” sci-fi movie, In Time (2011), but grossing a profitable $174 million for New Regency/20th Century Fox.
Another badly reviewed movie—this time with Murphy in the lead—was Spanish director/writer/producer Rodrigo Cortés’ English-language supernatural thriller and commercial dud, Red Lights (2012), co-starring Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro, Toby Jones, Joely Richardson, and Elizabeth Olsen. Cillian Murphy then co-starred with Tim Roth in the acclaimed British coming-of-age drama, Broken (2012), launched at the Cannes Film Festival and based on Daniel Clay’s 2008 novel inspired by Harper Lee’s classic 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Once again, Murphy did a cameo for filmmaker Nolan in the third entry in the Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and then joined Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa for her first English-language film, Aloft/No Llores Vuela (2014), co-starring Jennifer Connelly and Melanie Laurent, and which premiered in competition in the Berlin film festival. Murphy then played a supporting role opposite star Johnny Depp in the expensive ($100 million) Wally Pfister-directed box-office bomb for Warner Bros., Transcendence (2014), with Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall, Kate Mara, Cole Hauser, and Paul Bettany.
Cillian Murphy joined director Ron Howard for In the Heart of the Sea (2015), an epic but commercially failed version of Nathaniel Philbrick’s book depicting the true story which partly inspired Herman Melville in his writing of Moby-Dick, or The Whale, co-starring Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson. Murphy then starred in writer-director Sean Ellis’ Czech-U.K.-France WW2 drama, Anthropoid (2016), with Jamie Dornan, Charlotte Le Bon, Harry Lloyd, and Toby Jones, which premiered at the Karlovy Vary film festival.
In a change of pace, Murphy joined indie British filmmaker Ben Wheatley’s raucous, violent Free Fire (2016), co-written by Amy Jump, with an ensemble including Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Jack Reynor, Sam Riley, and Noah Taylor, and launched at the Toronto film festival. British filmmaker Sally Potter picked Murphy for her black-and-white comedy, The Party (2017), alongside the stellar ensemble of Patricia Clarkson, Bruno Ganz, Cherry Jones, Emily Mortimer, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Timothy Spall, and winning the Guild Film Prize at the Berlin film festival.
Cillian Murphy reunited once again with Christopher Nolan for his meticulous and gripping IMAX-shot depiction of the pivotal WW2 battle, Dunkirk (2017), joining another powerhouse ensemble of young and veteran actors including Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, and Mark Rylance, winning three of eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and Nolan’s first Best Director nod), grossing a strong $527 million for Warner Bros.
Cillian Murphy joined producer/director/writer Luc Besson for his failed espionage thriller, Anna (2019), co-starring Sasha Luss, Luke Evans, and Helen Mirren, losing money for its international roster of production companies from France, the U.S., and Portugal and distributors Lionsgate and Pathé Distribution. For the strong sequel, A Quiet Place Part II (2020), the John Krasinski-written-and-directed horror movie, Murphy was a new cast member alongside Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Djimon Hounsou, and Krasinski, and grossing a strong $297.4 million globally.
In the grandest role of his career to date, Cillian Murphy was cast by his longtime filmmaking director mate, Christopher Nolan, in the complex role of nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Nolan’s IMAX-filmed epic, Oppenheimer (2023), based on Kai Bird’s and Martin J. Sherwin’s Pulitzer-winning biography, American Prometheus, and with an ensemble including Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh.
Taking on the double role of star and producer, Murphy teamed with his Oppenheimer co-star Damon as a producer for screenwriter Enda Walsh’s screen adaptation (with Tim Mielants directing) of Claire Keegan’s superb, Booker-nominated 2021 novella, Small Things Like These (date to be announced), with Ciaran Hinds and Emily Watson. Murphy rejoined director Danny Boyle for the third installment in the 28 Months franchise, 28 Months Later (date to be announced), written by Alex Garland.
Personal life
Cillian Murphy was born in Douglas, Ireland (Cork County), and raised in Ballintemple, Ireland by his mother (French teacher) and Brendan Murphy (staffer in the Irish Department of Education). Murphy is the eldest sibling of four, including Páidi, Sile, and Orla Murphy. The Catholic-raised Murphy attended the Catholic school Presentation Brothers College, while songwriting and singing. Murphy pursued a rock n’ roll career with his Frank Zappa-influenced band with his brother Páidi, whose youth prevented the band from signing a long-term recording contract.
Murphy abandoned his study of law at University College Cork after failing his first-year exams, joined the university’s drama society, and landed lead roles. Outside of university, Murphy auditioned for and joined the Corcadorca Theatre Company. Murphy has been married to artist Yvonne McGuinness since 2004; the couple has two children, Aran and Malachy. Murphy’s height is 5’ 7¾”. ’s estimated net worth is $20 million.
Awards
Two-time Nominee, Rising Star/Lead Actor, BAFTA Awards (2007, 2023); Three-time Nominee, Best Actor/Best Supporting Actor, British Independent Film Awards (2006, 2007, 2012); Nominee, Best Actor—Comedy or Musical, Golden Globe Awards (2006); Nominee, European Actor, European Film Awards (2006); Three-time Nominee, Best Trans-Atlantic Breakthrough Performer/Breakthrough Male Performance/Best Villain, MTV Movie + TV Awards (2004, 2006).
Cillian Murphy Movies
Actor
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Previous (15)
- 2025 |
28 Years Later
A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
- 2024 |
Kensuke's Kingdom
asDad
Young Michael, shipwrecked on a remote island, must adapt to life alone. Over time, he feels another presence, learning that this world is home to both unimaginable danger and beauty.
- 2023 |
Oppenheimer
asJ. Robert Oppenheimer
A dramatization of the life story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who had a large hand in the development of the atomic bombs that brought an end to World War II.
- 2021 |
A Quiet Place Part II
asEmmett
Following the events at home, the Abbott family now face the terrors of the outside world. Forced to venture into the unknown, they realize the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats lurking beyond the sand path.
- 2019 |
- 2018 |
- 2017 |
- 2016 |
Anthropoid
asJosef Gabcík
Based on the extraordinary true story of Operation Anthropoid, the WWII mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution and the Reich's third in command after Hitler and Himmler.
- 2015 |
In the Heart of the Sea
asMatthew Joy
A recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick.
- -- | as Bill Furlong
- -- | Transcendenceas Agent Buchanan
- -- | In Timeas Raymond Leon
- -- | Inceptionas Robert Fischer
- -- | The Dark Knightas Scarecrow
- -- | Batman Beginsas Dr. Jonathan Crane
Producer
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Previous (1)
- 2024 |
Small Things Like These
In 1985 devoted father Bill Furlong discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent and uncovers shocking truths of his own.
Facts About Cillian Murphy
AKA: Cillian Murphy’s nickname is “Cilly.”
Career Goals?: Murphy has admitted in interviews that his initial interest in getting involved in acting was to party and meet women.
Causes: Cillian Murphy has supported causes such as Rock the Vote Ireland, the homeless campaign Focus Ireland, and served as a patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland Galway.
Beliefs: Murphy is staunchly private and rarely discusses his personal life and beliefs, though he has noted that, while he was raised Catholic (which he’s noted guided his morality), he became agnostic as he grew into adulthood, and then became atheist after doing research for his role in Sunshine.
