Colm Meaney (1953)

 early life

Meaney was born in Dublin. He started studying acting when he was fourteen years of age, and entered the Abbey Theatre School of Acting after secondary school. He became a member of the Irish National Theatre and spent the next eight years in England, touring with several theatre companies.

 career

Meaney's first television appearance was in Z-Cars on BBC1 in 1978. He guest-starred on shows such as Remington Steele and Moonlighting before embarking on a successful film career; he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for his role in The Snapper.

Meaney first appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation in its 1987 pilot episode, "Encounter At Farpoint", as an unnamed helm officer. His character became a frequently recurring one, and was given the name of Miles O'Brien. In 1993, Meaney left The Next Generation for a more prominent regular role in its spin-off Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and remained on that show until its final episode in 1999. With 225 total appearances on Star Trek , he has made more appearances on the franchise than any other actor except Michael Dorn . Meaney appeared in two Star Trek pilot episodes , a distinction shared only with Patrick Stewart and Armin Shimerman. Meaney is also one of only six actors to appear in the finales of two different Star Trek series.

He played Colum O'Hara in the 1994 miniseries Scarlett, the sequel to Gone With the Wind.

He has played a minor recurring role as Cowen, leader of the Genii on the Sci-Fi Channel series Stargate Atlantis, guest-starred on Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and appeared as Bob O'Donnell on the ABC show Men In Trees.

He was the only actor to appear in all three film adaptations of Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy wherein he played the father of the Rabbitte family; however due to rights issues the family name changed from film to film.

His stage appearances include the Old Vic production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten.

Meaney starred in British comedy film Three and Out released in the UK on 25 April 2008. In July of the same year An Post issued a postage stamp showing Colm Meaney as Joe Mullen in the film Kings.

In 2009 Meaney co-starred with Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx in Law Abiding Citizen wherein he played Detective Dunnigan.

In March 2009 Meaney guest-starred as an Irish bartender on the St. Patrick's Day episode of The Simpsons, "In the Name of the Grandfather". In the same month the British film The Damned United was released, chronicling the 44-day period in which Brian Clough was manager of Leeds United. Meaney played the former Leeds manager Don Revie.

He also co-starred in Soldiers of Fortune with Christian Slater and Ving Rhames.

 personal life

Meaney was married to Irish actress Bairbre Dowling, but they are now divorced. He married a second time in March 2007 to Ines Glorian. He currently lives in the Majorcan town of Sóller. He is unrelated to the science fiction writer John Meaney, though the latter's brother is also named Colm Meaney.

Meaney is an outspoken supporter of the Irish Republican political party Sinn Féin and, while not currently a member, has stated that he had joined the party when he was 14. In October 2011, Colm supported Sinn Féin politician Martin McGuinness in his Irish presidential election bid.