After a varied career in which he has played a psychopath, a romcom heart-throb, an intergalactic warlord and a plucky newspaper editor among others, Domhnall Gleeson has won his first Hollywood award.
The US-Ireland Alliance announced that Gleeson will receive the Oscar Wilde award at the event’s 20th anniversary in Los Angeles in March in the run-up to the Oscars. It honours a body of work rather than a particular performance.
The Irish actor has received critical plaudits and nominations for film and TV performances, and has won Irish film and television awards and a Berlin international film festival award, but had not landed a major Hollywood prize.
“I first saw Domhnall in 2006 when he played the role of Davey in Martin McDonagh’s play The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” said Trina Vargo, the founder and president of the US-Ireland Alliance. “His talent was obvious 20 years ago, it’s been a pleasure to watch him go from strength to strength, and we look forward to honouring him.”
The US-Ireland Alliance is a nonprofit that fosters ties between the countries and is credited with hosting one of the liveliest parties of Hollywood’s award season. Previous award recipients include Jamie Dornan, Kenneth Branagh and Kerry Condon.
Next year’s ceremony will also honour Maura Tierney, who starred in Twisters and is best known for the TV series ER.
Gleeson made his name on indies and blockbuster film franchises such as Harry Potter and Star Wars and is a proliferating presence on TV shows.
He plays the editor of a struggling Ohio newspaper in The Paper, a spin-off from the US version of The Office which follows the mockumentary format. He stars opposite Jessie Buckley in the forthcoming BBC Christmas special, The Scarecrows’ Wedding and did voiceovers for Ken Burns’ documentary The American Revolution.
He has also appeared in two Apple TV productions, Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, with John Krasinski and Natalie Portman, and Echo Valley, with Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney.
An Esquire profile last month said Gleeson’s performances have earned praise “even as he has somehow remained critically underrated”. The article was headlined: “Why isn’t everyone talking about Domhnall Gleeson?”
The Dubliner was nominated for a Tony for The Lieutenant of Inishmore in 2006 and for a Golden Globe in 2023 for The Patient, in which he plays a serial killer opposite Steve Carell, but has missed out on Emmy and Oscar nominations.
The son of Brendan Gleeson, his filmography includes Ex Machina, Anna Karenina, True Grit, Brooklyn, Calvary, The Revenant and About Time, a time-travelling romcom. He played General Hux in the Star Wars reboot and Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
“When he’s performing his appearance is almost fluid, absorbing the contours of his characters’ expressions so thoroughly that he sometimes appears reconfigured,” said Esquire. It noted his “alabaster skin and burnt-sienna eyebrows” – a more lyrical description than the Guardian, which called Gleeson a “ginger Hugh Grant”.
