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Date of Birth

15 October 1969, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, UK

Birth Name

Dominic Gerard Fe West

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

Dominic Gerard Fe West (born 15 October 1969) is an English actor best known for his role as Detective Jimmy McNulty in the HBO drama series The Wire.

Career

Film and TV

West made his debut in 1991 in a short called 3 Joes. His other screen appearances include True Blue, Chicago and Mona Lisa Smile. His most notable television role has been Baltimore police detective Jimmy McNulty on the HBO television police drama The Wire. West was praised for the accuracy of his character's accent.

During his stint on The Wire, West directed the Season 5 episode, "Took".

In film, he portrayed the heavy metal guitar Kirk Cuddy in the 2001 film Rock Star. In 2007, he played the Sparta politician Theron in 300. West also starred in the 1999 film version of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as Lysander.

In 2011, he filmed Appropriate Adult, a series about serial killer Fred West which focuses on the events between the Wests' arrests in 1994, and Fred's suicide in Birmingham's Winson Green Prison on New Year's Day, 1995. His physical resemblance to West was noted during filming and Fred West's daughter Mae West thought he captured the "evil essence of him - his character, his mannerisms, even his gait." Janet Leach found it difficult to approach Dominic in character on set because he was so convincing that it took Leach back 17 years. The series aired on ITV on 4 and 11 September as a two part 90 minute special. Dominic West also said "I have this recurring dream where I'm perched on a wall and Fred West is trying to grab me and pull me down,".

Theatre

As a theatre actor, West has appeared as Konstantin in the Peter Hall-directed The Seagull (1996) at the Old Vic. In 2005, he returned to the stage to play Orlando in David Lan's As You Like It at the Wyndham's Theatre in London. He played Edward in Harley Granville Barker's The Voysey Inheritance directed by Peter Gill at the Royal National Theatre in 2006. In late 2006 and early 2007, he played the lead role of Jan in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll in London's West End. West appears in the role of Oliver Cromwell in the Channel 4 series The Devil's Whore. West played the villain, Jigsaw, in the December 2008 film Punisher: War Zone. He makes an appearance on Eminem's 2009 album Relapse on the opening track, as a doctor discharging Eminem from a rehab facility.

Continuing his theatre work, he starred at London's Donmar Warehouse as the protagonist in Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s existential drama Life is a Dream, for which he received glowing reviews.

In December 2009, he starred as Hank in a radio adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's expressionist play The Hairy Ape for BBC Radio 3, was a guest presenter on the BBC show Have I Got News for You, and ended the year alongside Joan Rivers and Sarah Jessica Parker with an appearance on Graham Norton's New Year's Eve Show. West portrayed General Virilus in Neil Marshall's Adventure thriller Centurion and stars in the UK Ghost film The Awakening.

In February 2011, it was announced that he would take on the title role in Simon Gray's classic comedy, Butley, playing at the Duchess Theatre in London from 1 June 2011.

Advertising

In 2009, West starred in a series of online films known as "The Carte Noire Readers". Made to promote French coffee brand Carte Noire, they consist of actors reading love scenes from a selection of sources. West reads extracts from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence; High Fidelity by Nick Hornby; The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton; Life Class by Pat Barker; The Moment You Were Gone by Nicci Gerrard; and Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield.

Personal

West was born into an Irish Catholic family in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, the son of George West, who owned a plastic factory, and Moya, a housewife. West attended Eton College and Trinity College, Dublin. Dominic West graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in 1995.

West has a daughter, Martha West, from his relationship with Polly Astor. Martha debuted her acting career in the film Creation, in which she portrayed Annie Darwin the daughter of the scientist Charles Darwin.

West and Catherine FitzGerald became engaged in 2007, and have three children together - Dora, Senan and Francis. They married in Glin, County Limerick, Ireland on 26 June 2010. Fitzgerald is the daughter of Desmond FitzGerald, the 29th Knight of Glin and was formerly married to the Earl of Durham, then Viscount Lambton. West attended Eton College with David Cameron, but stated that he didn't know whether the latter would get his vote in the 2010 general election.

In November 2010, West was awarded an honorary degree for services to the Arts by Sheffield Hallam University.

Source

The Mini Biography is from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_West. IMDb is not affiliated with, and neither endorses, nor is endorsed by Wikipedia or any of the authors who contributed to this article. The Wikipedia content may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional or other terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details. This webpage may use the Freebase schema, licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/.

Spouse

Catherine Fitzgerald

(26 June 2010 - present) 3 children

Trivia

Was one of seven children - five girls, two boys - born to George and Moya West - his parents divorced in 1996.

His father owned a plastics-manufacturing plant and his mother was a homemaker who loved the theatre.

Began appearing in community theatre at age 9.

Once spent four months as a cattle herder in Argentina in 1988 trying to be "different." Afterwards he enrolled at Dublin's Trinity College, graduating in 1993 with a B.A. in English literature.

Graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1995.

Attended Eton College, Berkshire. When he was in his first year, he boldly asked the Head of Drama for a part in the school play. The teacher was so amused that he cast him as the prostitute. Also schooled there, though two years behind, was "Band of Brothers" (2001) and Life (2007/I) star Damian Lewis.

Is of Irish descent.

He has two daughters; his eldest, Martha (born 1998) and Dora (born 2006); and two sons, Senan (born 2007) and Francis (born 2009) with his wife Catherine Fitzgerald.

Personal Quotes

I don't know why British actors are getting big parts in American TV shows. Maybe it's because we're cheap.

I went to America to get away from constantly being cast in costume dramas, playing posh people. It's interesting that I've been cast as a working-class cop ["The Wire" (2002)] because I doubt that would happen at home. The films I most enjoy in England are by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, but it's very unlikely I would be cast in them; I've tried a few times, but I'm perceived as posh.

[on "The Wire" (2002)] The show provokes a kind of obsessive following. Those who love it kind of cherish the fact that it's not quite as world-renowned as "The Sopranos" (1999). It's like being in a secret club.

[on Mona Lisa Smile (2003)] The movie didn't make much sense. We would be given new scenes to film out of the blue which, it transpired, had been written by Julia's agent, who was doubling as a producer. I don't know what anyone was doing there. No one seemed to enjoy it. Especially not Julia. She had just got married and just wanted to be off having sex with her husband. Trouble was, she had married the cameraman on the movie. You can't really relax in a sex scene when the husband is staring right at you.

If you turn on American TV, there's a huge choice of nothing you want to see and, unfortunately, I think that's the case here now as well. I love costume drama, no-one does it like the BBC - no-one has the money to do it, first of all and, secondly, Americans don't have the history to do it. So we do it brilliantly but if you talk to any BBC producers, they abhor the fact... they're dying to do "The Wire" (2002) and hate doing "Cranford" (2007) . I thought "Cranford" (2007) was incredible but we don't seem to be able to do contemporary stuff.

Where Are They Now

(February 2007) Appearing as 'Jan' in the play "Rock & Roll" at the Duke of York Theatre in London.

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