James Nesbitt

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William James Nesbitt, (born 15 January 1965) is an actor and presenter from Northern Ireland. Nesbitt grew up in Broughshane, County Antrim, before heading to Coleraine, County Londonderry.

He wanted to be a mentor like his father, so he began a French degree at the University of Ulster.

He dropped out after a year as he decided to be an actor and attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

He spent seven years in theaters that ranged from the musical Up on the Roof (1987, 1989) to the political drama Paddywack (1994).

Fintan O'Donnell, his debut as a casting talent agent, appeared in Hear My Song (1991). Nesbitt's breakthrough television role in the romantic comedy-drama Cold Feet (1998–2003), which earned him a British Comedy Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and the National Television Award for his role.

In Waking Ned (1998), he appeared as pig farmer "Pig" Finn.

Nesbitt was nominated for a Screen Actor Guild Award along with the rest of the cast.

He made his debut as a film lead in Lucky Break (2001), portraying jailer Jimmy Hands.

Ivan Cooper appeared in the television film Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 shootings in Derry, next year.

The film was a turning point in his career, with a departure from his previous "cheeky chappie" roles.

He was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor and received a British Independent Film Award. Nesbitt has also appeared in Murphy's Law (2001-2007) as undercover investigator Tommy Murphy, a part that was also created for writer Colin Bateman.

The film received two Nesbitt Best Actor nominations at the Irish Film & Television Awards (IFTA).

In 2007, he appeared in both Tom Jackman and Mr Hyde in Steven Moffat's Jekyll, earning him a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Nesbitt has since appeared in numerous more dramatic roles; he appeared in Five Minutes of Heaven (2009) with Liam Neeson; and he was one of three main actors in the television miniseries Occupation (2009).

He appeared in Outcast (2010) and The Way (2010).

In the Hobbit film series (2012-2014), he portrayed Bofur.

Nesbitt appeared as Tony Hughes in the acclaimed BBC One drama series The Missing in 2014. Nesbitt was married to actress Sonia Forbes-Adam, with whom he has two children, from 1994 to 2016.

He is a promoter of many charities, and in 2010 he accepted the University of Ulster's ceremonial position.

Early life

William James Nesbitt was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, on January 15, 1965. James "Jim" Nesbitt, his father, was the headmaster of Lisnam's primary school (near Broughshane), while his mother, May Nesbitt, was a public servant. Margaret, Kathryn, and Andrea, three older siblings, are all of whom have since become teachers. The family lived in the one-room school where Nesbitt was one of 32 students taught by his father, while the other students were all farmers' children. He grew up "fully" around women and spent a lot of time alone, "kicking a ball against a wall." He wanted to play football for Manchester United or become a tutor like his dad. His parents were Protestants, and Lisnamurrican was born in "Paisley country." Around the piano on Sunday evenings, the family spent Sunday evenings singing hymns. Jim marched in the Ballymena Young Conquerors flute band, and Nesbitt joined him on the flute. They stopped marching with the band after the Drumcree clashes. The family's home in the countryside left them virtually unaffected by the Troubles, though Nesbitt, his father, and one of his sisters only survived a car bomb explosion outside Ballymena County Hall in the early 1970s.

The family migrated to Coleraine, County Londonderry, where May worked for the Housing Executive when Nesbitt was 11 years old. He began his primary education at Blagh primary school and then moved to Coleraine Academical Institution (CAI). As he was 13, his parents took him to audition for Oliver's Christmas production in San Diego. At the audition, Nesbitt sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" and gained the role of the Artful Dodger in his debut. He continued to perform and perform with Riverside until he was 16, and appeared in festivals and as an extra in Play For Today: The Cry (1984). When the actor playing Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio broke his ankle two days before the game, he received his Equity card, and Nesbitt stepped in to take his place. Acting had not appealed to him at first, but he later "felt a light go by" after seeing the film The Winslow Boy (1948). He started working at Barry's Amusements in Portrush as a 15-year-old bingo caller. He was paid £1.25 an hour for the summer job and would also serve as the brakeman on the big dipper attraction on occasion.

Nesbitt left CAI at the age of 18 and began a French degree at Ulster Polytechnic (now Ulster University) in Jordanstown. He stayed for a year before deciding to leave. "I had the essential in my head in my head, but I couldn't be bothered," he said in a 1999 interview. Being 18 years old is the worst time for people to learn about computers. Girls and football are among other things that should be dealt with. In Les Mains Sales at 4 a.m., he decided against writing an overdue essay on existentialism, so Nesbitt enrolled in the Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD). "I felt lost and misrepresented when he first arrived in London because of his Northern Irish roots: "I was a Paddy the minute I stepped in." I remember going to drama school and they all said to me, 'Aww, yeah, Brits out,' and I was like, 'It's a wee bit more complicated than that,'" I'm sure.' He graduated in 1987 at the age of 22.

Cold Feet and early films

Nesbitt auditioned to play Adam Williams, the male lead in Cold Feet, an ITV Comedy Premiere starring three couples in various stages of their intimate lives. Declan Lowney, a mutual friend of Nesbitt's and the producer, was able to attend the audition. Christine Langan, a film director, had also remembered his appearances in Hear My Song and Go Now. Adam did not set out with an Irishman in mind to play him—but Nesbitt wanted to participate in a modern story as an ordinary man from Northern Ireland with no connection to the Troubles, particularly after the Troubles-based plot of Love Lies Bleeding. Cold Feet was a critical success; it received the 1997 Golden Rose of Montreux and the 1997 British Comedy Award for Best ITV Comedy, and it was then ordered to produce a complete series. Cold Feet's first series debuted at the end of 1998 and was followed by the second series in 1999. Adam was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which led Nesbitt to become a supporter of the charity Action Cancer.

Nesbitt and the other cast members were expected to influence the show's development by the time of the third series's release; instead, Nesbitt and Adam's stag weekend was to be shot in Belfast and Portrush. Several scenes were shot at Barry's Amusements, although they were removed from the broadcast episode. Nesbitt resigned and moved on to other projects at the end of the fourth series in 2001. Andy Harries, an executive producer, persuaded him to remain in one more series by implying that Adam be killed off, so Nesbitt committed to the fifth series. During the fifth series's pre-production, Mike Bullen decided to murder Adam's wife Rachel (played by Helen Baxendale) instead.

Cold Feet ran for five years from 1998 to 2003, with Nesbitt winning the British Comedy Award for Best TV Actor in 2000, the National Television Award for Best Comedy Actor of the Year in 2002, and the 2003 Television Industry Club Award for Best Actor in 2003. Nesbitt attributes his rise in public esteem to the job. In the first two seasons of Kay Mellor's Playing the Field, John Dolan (appearing alongside his Cold Feet co-star John Thomson), investigative journalists Ryan and David Laney in Resurrection Man (Marc Evans, 1998), and Women Talking Dirty respectively, with womaniser Stanley.

Kirk Jones, the first-time screenwriter and film director who starred him in his 1998 feature film Waking Ned, was also impressed by Nesbitt's appearance in Hear My Song. The playing of amiable pig farmer "Pig" Finn in a Theatrical Motion Picture received international recognition, particularly in the United States; the cast was named for the 1999 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast. Billy Wilson, the Most Fertile Man in Ireland, appeared as the 'Mad Dog' in 1999 (Dudi Appleton). He appeared in Declan Lowney's debut film Wild About Harry the following year. Lowney had personally requested him to appear in the supporting role of cross-dressing Unionist politician Walter Adair. He made his debut as a lead actor in Peter Cattaneo's Lucky Break in 2001. Jimmy Hands, an incompetent bank robber who masterminds a prison escape from a jail by staging a musical as a distraction, was a failure. "Short of robbing a bank, there wasn't much analysis I could have done," Nesbitt said, "but we did spend a day in Wandsworth Prison, which revealed the horrible monotony of prisoners' lives." I didn't interview any of the prisoners because it was a little patronizing, but also because we were going home every night in our luxury sedans to sleep in our luxurious hotels." Despite receiving positive feedback from test audiences in the United States, the film was a complete failure.

Personal life

Nesbitt married Sonia Forbes-Adam, the daughter of Reverend Sir Timothy Forbes Adam. The two people met at Loughborough Hall in 1989, when Nesbitt got to the final call-back for Hamlet. They broke up for a year after the debut of Hear My Song, but they reunited and married in 1994. They had two children, Peggy and Mary, both of whom appeared in Bard the Bowman's final two Hobbit films as the daughters. Nesbitt and his wife divorced after 19 years in October 2013. In 2016, they were divorced.

Nesbitt is a patron of Wave, a charity that was established to assist those affected by the Troubles. Since 2005, he has been a UNICEF ambassador, working with HIV and AIDS sufferers, as well as former child soldiers in Africa. He characterized the position as "a privilege." Nesbitt wrote in The Independent about his visit to Zambia in 2006. He found that the children he encountered had a social and moral responsibility. In the Evening Standard, the essay was characterized as "moving and notably well-written." Since 1999, he has been a patron of Action Cancer, owing to both his father's and his father's affliction with prostate cancer as well as a plotline in the second series of Cold Feet, where his protagonist suffered testicular cancer. Since 2007, he has been an honorary patron of Youth Lyric, one of Ireland's top theatre schools, since 2007.

Nesbitt is a fan of football teams Coleraine F.C., Rangers F.C., and, perhaps most notably, Manchester United F.C. He also supports the Northern Irish national football team. After the team came close to bankruptcy, he donated "thousands of pounds" to Coleraine in 2003. He has dubbed Coleraine's "heartbeat" and has encouraged more people to watch Irish League football. Nesbitt, a vocal critic of Malcolm Glazer's 2005 takeover of Manchester United, was criticized by fans, who intervened in television commercials promoting executive boxes at Old Trafford. He promised half of his £10,000 fee to the Manchester United Supporters' Trust and the other half to UNICEF in an attempt to combat the criticism.

In March 2010, Nesbitt accepted the post of Chancellor of Ulster University, succeeding former Lord Mayor Sir Richard Nichols of London. Nesbitt is expected to "bring a great deal of enthusiasm, dynamism, and dedication" to the role, according to Gerry Mallon, then-chairman of the university governing council. Following his official installation on June 8, 2010, Nesbitt said, "I think I would serve as an ambassador rather than being an informal function officiating at ceremonies." Because of my work, I have a lot of people and places. I want to be a voice heard not just at the university but also outside of education policy, which promotes the importance of education funding. I'd be able to do it if it meant being at Stormont. These public spending cuts are obviously going to have an effect, and it's important to fight for funding because it is about investing in students and investing in the future of Northern Ireland. "I think I can contribute to that, otherwise I wouldn't have taken this seriously."

In the 2016 New Year Honours for services to drama and to the people of Northern Ireland, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Nesbitt was born into a Unionist family but now identifys himself as "an Irishman from the north of Ireland"; he holds both British and Irish passports.

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