Jonathan Rhys Meyers (born Jonathan Michael Francis O'Keeffe; July 27, 1977) is an Irish actor, singer, musician, and model. He portrays Bishop Heahmund in the History Channel series Vikings.
Biography[]
Meyers and his family moved to County Cork, Ireland when he almost a year old. At the age of three his father left the family. Meyers was born with a heart condition, and was baptized rather quickly for fear he would not live long. He had a tumultuous childhood and was permanently expelled from school at sixteen. He spent his time at a local pool hall where he was discovered by Hubbard Casting. His first acting work was a commercial at age fifteen, which he was paid 500 pounds. His movie acting debut was a very small role in the film A Man of No Importance. His first lead role was in the film The Disappearance of Finbar.
In order to avoid the boyish and somewhat androgynous junkies and weak-willed characters he found himself typecast as, he began a fitness regime in 2004 and gained and maintained about twenty-five extra ponds of muscle.
He is best-known for playing King Henry VIII in The Tudors and Dracula in Dracula. He has also played Elvis in a TV miniseries, called Elvis (2005) which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He beat out at least two hundred actors for the role. As King Henry VIII, Meyers earned two Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2018 he won the Best Actor award at the Manchester Film Festival for his starring role in Damascus Cover. He has been the face of several Hugo Boss advertising campaigns and the Versace men's collection of Autumn/Winter 2006 and Spring 2007.. He is involved in several charitable causes, including the Hope Foundation and the children's charity Barreststown. It is likely the case that Jonathan Rhys Meyers asked for his character to be killed or written out of Vikings due to some tragedies in his personal life during the first half of the filming of Season 5, including his wife having a miscarriage and him falling off a wagon. There were no facilities available to treat him in Ireland, so he had to come back to the United States for help. Michael Hirst, the series creator and writer, had already said there was quite a bit of backstory planned to be revealed for Heahmund, but instead the character is killed during the second half of Season 5.
He still resides in County Cork, Ireland. He also has homes in London, England, Los Angeles, California, Morocco, and Dublin, Ireland.
Trivia[]
- He changed his last name when he took up acting, taking his mother's maiden name.
- "Rhys" is pronounced "Reese."
- He sang some of the songs that appear in Velvet Goldmine (1998).
- Does a superb impression of his Match Point (2005) director Woody Allen.
- His favorite actors are Joaquin Phoenix and Cillian Murphy. He also idolizes Johnny Depp.
- He thought of joining the priesthood when he was a kid.
- He bought his mother a home from his first big paycheck.
- He is good friends with fellow Irish actor Stuart Townsend, and the two protested at the "Save Tara Hill Campaign" inn 2006. He is close friends with Cillian Murphy, Annabelle Wallis, and Katie McGrath.
- Myers suffered from depression and alcoholism. He credits his family and fatherhood in particular with making him the happiest he's ever been.