Castleknock, spelt c-a-s-t-l-e-k-n-o-c-k, is a village 8km west of Dublin, the capital city of Ireland. Its name means ‘Castle on the Hill’. It isn’t particularly famous as a village, although it does have the largest tennis centre in Ireland. So Castleknock is probably most famous because the Hollywood actor Colin Farrell was born here.
On May 31st 1976 his proud parents celebrated the birth of Colin, although they were also a little worried as he weighed only 1 pound 6 ounces, which is less than one kilo! His father, Eamon, was a good footballer who played for the biggest club in Ireland, Shamrock Rovers and his mother, Rita, was a housewife. She was busy looking after Colin’s brother and two sisters.
As a teenager it seemed that Colin was to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a footballer too. He was a good goalkeeper and played for the local team, Castleknock Celtic. At this time he also auditioned for the pop group Boyzone, but fortunately for him he wasn’t chosen. Instead, he went to acting school and in 1998 he got his first chance when he appeared in the BBC television series Ballykissangel.
Very soon he went to America and started to make films. The first few weren’t particularly successful films but he received good reviews for his acting. His first big film was Phone Booth, an original thriller where he spends most of the film talking on a public phone with somebody who wants to shoot him. Then, in 2002, he made a huge box office hit with Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg – Minority Report. This is a futuristic film where he plays a police officer who is trying to catch Tom Cruise’s character.
Two years after Minority Report he made another big film, this time with another famous American director Oliver Stone. He played the title role in Alexander, the biography of the Macedonian king who became the most powerful man on the earth. It was a controversial film that didn’t have as much success in America, although around the world it made a large profit.
His next big hit was the film version of the 1980’s television series, Miami Vice. It was directed by Michael Mann and co-starred Jamie Foxx, who won an Oscar the previous year for the film Ray. This was Colin’s most commercially successful film to date and in America it took more than $25 million in the first weekend!
Finally, Hollywood has a reputation for unsuccessful marriages and Colin also had one. In 2001 he married an English actress and they got divorced only 4 months later – hardly time enough to unpack the suitcases after the honeymoon.
