Known for Acting
Brendan Coyle (born 2 December 1962) is a British-Irish actor. He won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for The Weir in 1999. He also played Nicholas Higgins in the miniseries North & South, Robert Timmins in the first three series of Lark Rise to Candleford, and more recently Mr Bates, the valet, in Downton Abbey, which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Brendan Coyle was born David Coyle in Corby, Northamptonshire, on 2 December 1962, the son of a Patrick B Coyle and Bedelia M B Anderson. He has an older brother named Shaun Due to his British birth and Irish heritage, he holds both British and Irish citizenship. He is the great-nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby. He studied drama in Dublin in 1981 and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 1983. Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC. From 2008 he played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle, and it won him nominations for a BAFTA and IFTA as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Awards as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2012. He also won three Screen Actors Guild Awards 2013–16. Coyle also played the character of Terry Starling in the short-lived Sky comedy series Starlings.
Born
December 2, 1963 (age 62)
Birthplace
Corby, Northamptonshire, England, UK
Filmography
28 films, 29 shows


The One-Minute Problem
2026 · 20m
When a Spanish immigrant who's trying to invent teleportation in his garage sucks too much power from the electrical grid, a Department of Water and Power inspector vows to shut him down, putting both his invention and his relationship with his pregnant wife at risk.


Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
2025 · 2h 3m · UK
When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal and the family faces financial strife, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future.


Downton Abbey: A New Era
2022 · 2h 4m · UK
The Crawley family goes on a grand journey to the south of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager countess's newly inherited villa. Meanwhile, a Hollywood director seeks to film his latest production at Downton.


Downton Abbey
2019 · 2h 2m · UK
The beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives. A royal visit from the King and Queen of England will unleash scandal, romance and intrigue that will leave the future of Downton hanging in the balance.


Mary Queen of Scots
2018 · 2h 4m · UK
In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne. Betrayals, rebellions, conspiracies and their own life choices imperil both Queens. They experience the bitter cost of power, until their tragic fate is finally fulfilled.


Unless
2016 · 1h 33m · CA
A writer struggles with her daughter's decision to drop out of college and live on the streets.


Me Before You
2016 · 1h 50m · US
Lou Clark, a directionless 26-year-old from the English countryside, takes a job at the local castle as a caregiver and companion to a wealthy young banker, Will Traynor. Wheelchair-bound from an accident two years prior, the once adventurous Will has all but given up — that is until Lou determines to show him that life is worth living.


A Merry Murdoch Christmas
2015 · 1h 28m · CA
While investigating the murder of a rich benefactor and the theft of children's presents at a Christmas charity pageant, Murdoch discovers suggestions that a Christmas monster, a Krampus, may be involved. A Merry Murdoch Christmas is the first stand-alone two hour Christmas special that aired on December 21, 2015 in Canada, and on December 20, 2015 in France.


Noble
2014 · 1h 40m · IE
Christina Noble overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon. A true story.


The Raven
2012 · 1h 51m · HU
A fictionalized account of the last days of Edgar Allan Poe's life, in which the poet is in pursuit of a serial killer whose murders mirror those in the writer's stories.


Perrier's Bounty
2010 · 1h 28m · IE
A gangster named Perrier looks to exact his revenge on a trio of fugitives responsible for the accidental death of one of his cronies.


The Mark of Cain
2007 · 1h 27m · UK
After a bomb kills their company commander in Iraq, British soldiers Treacle and Shane are ordered to round up suspects and use torture on the detainees. Back home, the press gets the story and the pair achieves instant infamy.


Damage
2007 · 2h
Set in affluent, contemporary, south-side Dublin, the Cahills appear to have the world at their feet. Dad Aidan, is a successful property tycoon, his wife Michelle, a successful estate agent and their fashion model daughter, Emma's 21st birthday party at the family home should be a night to remember. That night however, a rape at the party shatters their seemingly perfect lives. With the key suspect released on bail, and dark family secrets coming to the fore, Emma's life begins to free-fall. Slowly, having made radical changes to her life, Emma builds towards recovery - until a chance meeting with her rapist bolsters her conviction that she'll need to confront him in court before she can get on with her life.


Wedding Belles
2007 · 1h 35m · UK
A darkly humorous look at the lives and loves of four modern women, each with their own remarkable, intriguing and often tragic stories.


Perfect Parents
2006 · 1h 32m · UK
After a violent incident in Lucy's public school, her atheist parents Stuart and Alison decide to find her a safe 'traditional' school. The only one they can afford is St. Mary of the Veil, run by nuns whose 'preference' for Catholic families is de facto exclusivity, given the waiting list. So they pose as devout, and get his murky mate Eddie to find them a priest they can 'bribe' for a parish reference, while Lucy is genuinely converted. It works, but when Stuart overhears a dark secret things take a tragic turn.


Offside
2006 · 1h 43m · SE
In the small Swedish town of Stensfors, the local football team faces dissolution unless it can win its remaining matches. Team member Kent recruits former 1980s Premier League star Duncan Miller to help, only to discover their hero is out of shape, alcoholic, and far from match-ready.


Soundproof
2006 · 1h 31m · UK
About the relationship between Dean, a young deaf man who is accused of murdering his flatmate, and Penny, the sign language interpreter assigned to his case.


Omagh
2005 · 1h 42m · IE
The movie starts at the 1998 bomb attack by the Real IRA at Omagh, Northern Ireland. The attack killed 31 people. Michael Gallagher one of the relatives of the victims starts an examination to bring the people responsible to court.


The Jacket
2005 · 1h 43m · DE
A military veteran goes on a journey into the future, where he can foresee his death and is left with questions that could save his life and those he loves.


Mapmaker
2001 · IE
Hired to draw a map of tourist sites in a small Northern Ireland town, cartographer Richie Markey (Brian F. O'Byrne) uncovers a dark secret and realizes that his map may hold the key to the mysterious disappearance of another surveyor. The missing man had been accused of informing on two IRA soldiers, and when Markey discovers his body, it doesn't take long for him to draw the conclusion that he may be next on the group's list.


Conspiracy
2001 · 1h 36m · UK
At the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, senior Nazi officials meet to determine the manner in which the so-called "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" can be best implemented.
The Bombmaker
The Bombmaker
2001 · 2h 24m · UK
Expert IRA bomb-maker turned police informant Andrea Hayes retires and starts a new life after four school-children are killed by one of her bombs. Ten years later, her blissful home life shattered when her daughter, Katie, is abducted from her bedroom in the dead of night. Andrea later discovers a ransom note, instructing her to leave her husband Martin and fly to London by herself. It also states that if the police are contacted, she and Martin will never see Katie again. In the hope of being reunited with Katie, Andrea obeys orders and follows instructions to meet with the kidnappers. Back in Dublin, Martin is powerless to help and becomes frantic with worry when he learns from Andrea that no ransom demand has been made, and that the kidnappers' request is something much more dangerous.


I Could Read the Sky
1999 · 1h 26m · IE
The film concerns an old Irish immigrant living in London who is looking back over his life. He recalls his early life in the west of Ireland, his first love, emigrating to England, searching for his brother Joe, who disappeared after he emigrated several years previously. His marriage and wife's later depth is also remembered.


Soft Sand, Blue Sea
1998 · 1h 40m · IE
13 year-old David and nine year-old Danni live in a children's home, where despite the best of adult intentions, there is conflict and sudden tragedy. When the pair escape the home, they embark upon a daring adventure in search of the beach.


The General
1998 · 2h 4m · IE
The real-life story of Dublin folk hero and criminal Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies in Ireland with his team, but attracted unwanted attention from the police, the I.R.A., the U.V.F., and members of his own team.


Tomorrow Never Dies
1997 · 1h 59m · UK
A deranged media mogul is staging international incidents to pit the world's superpowers against each other. Now James Bond must take on this evil mastermind in an adrenaline-charged battle to end his reign of terror and prevent global pandemonium.


The Last Bus Home
1997 · 1h 33m · IE
Though it is late in the punk rock movement, four Dublin youths get together in 1979 to form their own band. Accurately recounting the energy and rawness of the era, this drama follows their tumultuous and ill-fated journey on the rocky road to success. It takes three long years of unpaid performing for Reena, her lover Jessop, bassist Joe and drummer Petie to make a name for The Dead Patriots. Just as they are about to find real success, internal difficulties arise that leave each of them suspicious and mistrustful of the other.


Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robbery
1992 · 1h 33m · UK
A dramatized speculation of what happened in November 1983 when Micky McAvoy and some of his mates planned a heist and were surprised when they discovered they'd stumbled across a large stash of gold. But getting the gold away without getting caught is only the beginning of their troubles. Realizing the riches the gold represents is difficult, and honor among thieves may only be a myth.