Martin McCann (actor)
Encyclopedia
Biography
McCann born to Anne McCann, he grew up with a brother and sister in the working-class Divis Flats area of Falls Road in BelfastBelfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
.
He credits his mother with helping him with his success. She pushed him to act and also got him into YouthAction NI's Rainbow Factory, a cross-community drama troop for Catholic and Protestant children and also got to spend time in the United States in the summer as part of an exchange program.
His mother found a role for him by checking the local newspapers, and he soon won the stage production part of the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
. He also got leads in the productions of Bugsy Malone and The Crucible.
Popular in Northern Ireland for various sketches (including the trendy priest) in the Northern Ireland television comedy series Dry Your Eyes
Dry Your Eyes (TV series)
Dry Your Eyes was a Northern Irish sketch show on BBC One NI, created by the Hole in the Wall Gang, the makers of one of Northern Ireland's most successful shows Give My Head Peace...
. He had a feature role in a short film by Simon Fitzmaurice called The Sound of People. He followed that up with his feature film debut (as Jimmy Riley) in the romantic drama Closing the Ring
Closing the Ring
Closing the Ring is a film directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Mischa Barton, Stephen Amell, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite, and Brenda Fricker....
(2007) directed by Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough , CBE is a British actor, director, producer and entrepreneur. As director and producer he won two Academy Awards for the 1982 film Gandhi...
. Attenborough cast McCann in the film after seeing him in a stage production of A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....
. He also had a role in the film My Boy Jack
My Boy Jack (film)
My Boy Jack is a 2007 television drama based on David Haig's 1997 play of the same name. It was filmed in August 2007, with Haig as Rudyard Kipling and Daniel Radcliffe as John Kipling. It does not include act three of the play, which extended to the 1920s and 1930s. Instead it ends with Kipling...
(as Guardsman Bowe), about Rudyard Kipling and his son who was killed in World War I, with David Haig
David Haig
David Haig is an Olivier Award-winning English actor and FIPA Award-winning writer. He is known for his versatility, having played dramatic, serio-comic and comedic roles, playing characters of varied social classes...
(Kipling), Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe is an English actor who rose to prominence playing the titular character in the Harry Potter film series....
(Jack), Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
(Caroline "Carrie" Kipling), and Carey Mulligan
Carey Mulligan
Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She made her film debut as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice . She had roles in numerous British programmes and, in 2007, made her Broadway debut in The Seagull to critical acclaim....
(Elsie "Bird" Kipling).
McCann plays Corporal R. V. Burgin in the miniseries The Pacific
The Pacific (miniseries)
The Pacific is a 2010 television series produced by HBO, Seven Network Australia, Sky Movies, Playtone and DreamWorks that premiered in the United States on March 14, 2010....
, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, which will air beginning in March 2010. Attenborough called Spielberg and recommended McCann for a part in the miniseries, even sending along scenes from his film for Spielberg to view.
In early 2010 he was shooting in Belfast for the music-comedy Killing Bono
Killing Bono
Killing Bono is a 2011 comedy film directed by Nick Hamm, based on Neil McCormick's 2003 memoir Killing Bono: I Was Bono's Doppelgänger....
, a film released in April 2011 about the life of one of Bono's classmates who tries to make it in the music business, only to have his failures and frustrations magnified by the continued rise of U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
. McCann plays the supporting role of Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
. In 2011 McCann completed Terry George's 'Whole Lotta Sole' and is currently working on a twelve part mini series drama chronicaling the building of the Titanic and the story about the ship before it ever took off on its maiden voyage.
In February 2011, Martin won the 2011 Irish Film and Television Academy Award for lead actor in a feature film. McCann was awarded this for his performance as Occi Byrne in Swansong produced by Zanzibar films.