Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan (/ˈmʊlən/; born 2 November 1959)[1] is a Scottish actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his role in Ken Loach's My Name Is Joe (1998), for which he won Best Actor Award at 1998 Cannes Film Festival, and The Claim (2000). He is also winner of the World Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performances at 2011 Sundance Film Festival for his work on Paddy Considine's Tyrannosaur (2011). Mullan appeared as supporting or guest actor in numerous cult movies, including Riff-Raff (1991), Braveheart (1995), Trainspotting (1996), Young Adam (2003), Children of Men (2006), War Horse (2011) and the Harry Potter film series (2010–11).

Peter Mullan
Mullan at BAFTA in Scotland, 2005
Born	2 November 1959 Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Occupation	Actor filmmaker
Years active	1988–present
Spouse(s)	Ann Swan ​ ​ (m. 1989; div. 2006)​
Children	4

Mullan is an acclaimed art house movie director. He won a Golden Lion at 59th Venice International Film Festival for The Magdalene Sisters, listed by many critics among the best films of 2003 and nominated for BAFTA Award for Best British Film and European Film Award for best film, and a Golden Shell at San Sebastián International Film Festival for Neds. He is the only person to win top prizes both for acting (Cannes best actor award) and for the best film (Golden lion for The Magdalene Sisters) at major European film festivals.

In television, Mullan appeared in Gerard Lee's and Jane Campion's acclaimed miniseries Top of the Lake as Matt Mitcham, head of the Mitcham family and father of Tui Mitcham, whose disappearance is the main topic of the series. He was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for his work in the series. He played a lead role in the 2008 ITV series The Fixer. Beginning in 2017, he has appeared in the first two seasons of the Netflix series Ozark opposite Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. Since 2016, Mullan has starred in the BBC Two sitcom Mum. Since 2018, he starred in the second and third season of HBO's Westworld in recurring and guest capacity respectively, and in 2020 in the first season of the Netflix series Cursed, and yet to be released miniseries The North Water. As in late 2020, he also joined the ensemble cast of upcoming 2021 The Lord of the Rings television series.

Mullan is also politically active, supporting left-wing causes and protests.

Early life

Mullan was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Patricia (a nurse) and Charles Mullan (a lab technician at Glasgow University).[2][3] The seventh of eight children, Mullan was brought up in a working class Roman Catholic family.[4][5] They later moved to Mosspark,[6] a district in Glasgow. An alcoholic, Mullan's father became increasingly tyrannical and abusive; he died from lung cancer when Mullan was 17.[7] For a brief period, Mullan was a member of a street gang while at secondary school,[7][8] and worked as a bouncer in a number of south-side pubs.[9] He was homeless for short periods at the ages of 15 and 18.[10]

Career

Mullan went on to the University of Glasgow to study economic history and drama.[11] There he began acting and continued stage acting after graduation. He had roles in films such as Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, Braveheart and Riff-Raff. His first full-length film, Orphans, won an award at the Venice Film Festival. In 2002, he returned to directing and screenwriting with the controversial film The Magdalene Sisters, based on life in an Irish Magdalene asylum. Mullan won a Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival.

Mullan's role as a recovering alcoholic in My Name Is Joe won him the Best Actor Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.[12]

Personal life

A self-described Marxist,[7] Mullan continues to support socialist causes and was a leading figure in the left-wing theatre movement that blossomed in Scotland during the Conservative Thatcher government. These included stints with the 7:84 and Wildcat Theatre companies. A passionate critic of Tony Blair's New Labour government, he told The Guardian "the TUC and the Labour Party sold us [the working class] out big style, unashamedly so".[13] Mullan took part in a 2006 occupation of the Glasgow offices of the UK Immigration Service, protesting against the UKIS's "dawn raid" tactics when deporting failed asylum seekers.[14]

In January 2009, Mullan joined other actors in protesting against the BBC's refusal to screen a Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for Gaza. They told BBC director general Mark Thompson: "Like millions of others, we are absolutely appalled at the decision to refuse to broadcast the appeal. We will never work for the BBC again unless this disgraceful decision is reversed. We will urge others from our profession and beyond to do likewise."[15] Mullan has agreed to appear in an adaptation of Iain Banks’ novel Stonemouth after the BBC aired a DEC appeal for Gaza in late 2014.[16]

Mullan was a supporter of the Yes Scotland campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.[17] In 2015, he criticised the BBC for "horrendous bias" against the Yes campaign and told the Radio Times that "to see the BBC used as a political cudgel against a legitimate democratic movement ... really broke my heart.”[18]

Mullan married Ann Swan, an actress and scriptwriter, in 1989; they divorced in 2006. He has four children - three with Swan and one with former girlfriend, activist Robina Qureshi.[19]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Writer	Notes
1990	The Big Man	Vince
1991	Riff Raff	Jake			European Film Award for Best European Film
1992	Sealladh	Sim			Short film
1993	Close	Vincent	Yes	Yes	Short film
1994	Shallow Grave	Andy
1995	Fridge	-	Yes	Yes	Short film
	Good Day for the Bad Guys	John	Yes	Yes	Short film
	Braveheart	Veteran
1996	Trainspotting	Swanney "Mother Superior"
1997	Poor Angels	Gordon			Short film
	Fairy Tale: A True Story	Sergeant Farmer
1998	Duck	Mick
	My Name Is Joe	Joe Kavanagh			Cannes Award for Best Actor
	Orphans	-	Yes	Yes
1999	Miss Julie	Jean
	Mauvaise passe	Patricia's husband
2000	Ordinary Decent Criminal	Stevie
	The Claim	Daniel Dillon
2001	Session 9	Gordon Fleming
2002	The Magdalene Sisters	Mr O'Connor	Yes	Yes	Winner of Golden Lion
2003	Young Adam	Les Gault
	Kiss of Life	John
2004	Out of This World	Jim
	Criminal	William Hannigan
	Blinded	Francis Black
	Waves	Him
2005	On a Clear Day	Frank Redmond
2006	Cargo	Brookes
	Children of Men	Syd
	True North	Riley
2007	The Last Legion	Odoacer
	Dog Altogether	Joseph			Short film
	Boy A	Terry
2008	Stone of Destiny	Ian's dad
2009	Red Riding: 1974	Martin Laws
	Red Riding: 1980	Martin Laws
	Red Riding: 1983	Martin Laws
	Connolly	James Connolly
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	Corban Yaxley
	Neds	Mr. McGill	Yes	Yes	Winner of Golden Shell
2011	Tyrannosaur	Joseph			World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Dramatic (Male)
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Corban Yaxley
	War Horse	Ted Narracott
2013	Sunshine on Leith	Robert Henshaw
	The Liability	Peter
	Welcome to the Punch	Roy Edwards
2014	Hercules	General Sitacles
2015	Sunset Song
	Hector	Hector McAdam[20]
2016	Tommy's Honour	Old Tom Morris
2017	Hostiles	Lieutenant Colonel Ross McCowan
2018	Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle	Akela
	Pearl	Al
2019	The Vanishing	Thomas
2020	Marionette[21]	Dr. McVittie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	The Steamie	Andy
1990	Opium Eaters	Willy
	Your Cheatin Heart	Tonto	Series 1, Episodes 3–5
	Taggart	Peter Latimer	Series 5, Episode 2 and Series 6, Episode 3
1991	Jute City	Mallet
1992	Rab C. Nesbitt	Peter the Warlock	Series 2, Episode 6
1993	Seeker Reaper[22]	George Campbell Hay	Bilingual drama about the life of Scottish poet George Campbell Hay (1915-1984).
1994	The Priest and the Pirate	Billy Hill
1995	Ruffian Hearts	Chez
	Harry	Jimmy	Series 2, Episode 6
1996	Nightlife	Billy
1997	The Longest Memory	Sanders Sr.	Whitbread First Novel Award for First Novel
	Bogwoman	Barry
2003	This Little Life	Consultant
	Richard & Judy	Himself
2004	Shoebox Zoo	Michael Scot
2005	Sunday Morning Shootout	Himself	Series 2, Episode 15
	Continuará...	Himself
2006	Continuará...	Himself
2007	British Film Forever	Himself	Series 1, Episode 3
	The Trial of Tony Blair	Gordon Brown
2008–2009	The Fixer	Lenny Douglas	Series 1–2
2009	Scotland on Screen	Himself
2012	The Fear	Richie Beckett
2013	Top of the Lake	Matt Mitcham	Equity Ensemble Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Miniseries or Telemovie Nominated - AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama Nominated – Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Movie/Miniseries Supporting Actor Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
2014	Olive Kitteridge	Jim O'Casey	HBO miniseries, episodes 1-3
2014–2018	Lily's Driftwood Bay	Captain Salty Dog	Voice role
2016	Quarry	The Broker
2016–present	Mum	Michael
2017–2018	Ozark	Jacob Snell
2017	Gunpowder	Henry Garnet
2018, 2020	Westworld	James Delos	Recurring role; Guest role
2020	Cursed	Father Carden	Recurring role; 9 episodes
TBA	The North Water
2021	The Lord of the Rings

References

1. Sources differ as to Mullan's exact birthdate; the Internet Movie Database states 2 November 1959.
2. "Peter Mullan Biography (1960–)" Yahoo.com (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
3. "Biography: Peter Mullan", FilmReference.com (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
4. Malcolm, Derek; "Sins of the sisters", Guardian.co.uk 16 September 2002 (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
5. Ramsey, Nancy (27 July 2003). "An Abuse Scandal With Nuns As Villains". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
6. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/jan/07/features.magazine
7. Matheou, Demetrios; "Local Hero" Guardian.co.uk, 7 January 2001 (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
8. "On a razor's edge: Neds portrays 70s Glasgow in one light, but what was it really like?". The Scotsman. 18 January 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
9. "Peter Mullan & Anne-Marie Duff" FutureMovies.co.uk, 9 July 2003 (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
10. Jones, Emma (11 December 2015). "Peter Mullan brings homeless reality to big screen" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
11. "Interview: Peter Mullan, a hard act to follow". www.scotsman.com.
12. "Festival de Cannes: My Name Is Joe". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
13. "The Players: Peter Mullan" Guardian.co.uk (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
14. "Protesters in 'asylum raid' demo" news.BBC.co.uk, 2 November 2005 (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
15. English, Paul; "Peter Mullan and other stars to boycott BBC over Gaza charity snub" DailyRecord.co.uk, 27 January 2009 (Retrieved: 15 August 2009)
16. "Peter Mullan among cast of BBC's adaptation of Iain Banks' Stonemouth - Inside Media Track". 20 October 2014.
17. "Peter Mullan: I would love to do more comedy in the future" Metro.co.uk (Retrieved: 14 September 2015)
18. "Peter Mullan: BBC showed 'horrendous bias' in Scottish referendum coverage" Guardian.co.uk (Retrieved: 14 September 2015)
19. Christie, Janet (5 June 2015). "Interview: Peter Mullan, a hard act to follow". The Scotsman.
20. Black, Stuart (11 December 2015). "Peter Mullan Makes Christmas Odyssey In New Film Hector". Londonist. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
21. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8237272/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2
22. "Seeker Reaper - BBC ALBA". BBC.

External links

• Peter Mullan at IMDb
• Peter Mullan at the BFI's Screenonline