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Ian Bannen

Ian Bannen began his acting career at The Gate Theatre in Dublin, followed by four seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre company including a tour of Australia and New Zealand. During this time Bannen appeared in Hamlet, As You Like It opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Othello with Sir John Geilgud and Romeo and Juliet.

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Bannen has appeared in more than 70 films, most notably Flight of the Phoenix, with James Stewart, for which Bannen received an Academy Award nomination; Sidney Lumet's The Offence with Sean Connery, for which he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor; Lumet's The Hill, again with Connery; John Huston's The Mackintosh Man opposite Paul Newman; The Driver's Seat co-starring Elizabeth Taylor; The Voyage with Sophia Loren; Penelope with Natalie Wood; Richard Attenborough's Gandhi; Gorky Park, directed by Michael Apted; John Boorman's Hope & Glory, for which Bannen received a nomination for a Peter Sellers Award for Comedy and a BAFTA nomination; Sidney Poitier's Ghost Dad with Bill Cosby; Louis Malle's Damage; and Mel Gibson's Braveheart.

Bannen's other theater credits include The Iceman Cometh, Long Days Journey Into Night, View from the Bridge, Hedda Gabler, All My Sons and Brian Friel's Translations, at the National Theatre London for which he received the critics award for Actor of the Year. Additionally, he appeared in A Moon for the Misbegotten in London, at the American Rep Theatre at Harvard and on Broadway.

His television work includes appearances in Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth, Uncle Vanya with Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio and Ian Holm, the Emmy Award-winning Ashenden, the long-running mini-series Dr. Finlay and the award-winning The Politician's Wife.

Bannen recently completed filming To Walk with Lions.


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Ian Bannen Facts

OccupationActor
BirthdayJune 29, 1928
SignCancer
BirthplaceAirdrie, Scotland, United Kingdom
Date of deathNovember 3, 1999 (age 71)

Selected Filmography

Waking Ned Devine
Gandhi
Eye of the Needle
Inglorious Bastards
Hope and Glory
P.D. James
The Watcher in the Woods
The Flight of the Phoenix
Damage
From Beyond the Grave
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