Patrick Bergin

Patrick Connolly Bergin (born 4 February 1951) is an Irish actor.

Early life

Patrick Bergin grew up with a working class upbringing in the Drimnagh district of Dublin, Ireland. Bergin learned social responsibility from his father Paddy Bergin, a Labour Party politician who had once studied to be a priest with the Holy Ghost Fathers in Blackrock, Ireland. He is one of five sons (Pearse, Emmet, Patrick, Connolly and James Bergin). Bergin left Dublin for London in 1973; and by the time he was 17 he was in London running a theatre group. Bergin worked on building sites and at a library. He studied at night and completed a degree in education from North London Polytechnic. Bergin worked as an English teacher for several years before forming his own theatrical company because no one else would have him.

In 1980, Bergin decided to pursue acting full-time and he found work in repertory theatre. For much of the Nineties it seemed like no one in Hollywood would have him. So he made his own way; he worked in diverse films such as a trilogy of Yeats plays; Morphine and Dolly Mixtures, for which he won a Welsh Best Actor Award and Durango, based on John B Keane's novel; hosting TnaG's Silín Draíochta; and narrating Patrick Cassidy's Famine Concert. After (Sleeping with the Enemy) 1991, his reputation grew and he was offered the role of Robin Hood with Uma Thurman. He describes 1996 as the lowest point in his career, a time when he rarely received any phone calls for movie roles.

Patrick Bergin (politician)

Patrick Bergin (died 16 April 1991) was an Irish politician and trade union official. He was a Labour Party member of Seanad Éireann from 1954 to 1957. He was nominated by the Taoiseach to the 8th Seanad in 1954. He did not contest the 1957 Seanad election. He stood unsuccessfully for Dáil Éireann as a Labour Party candidate for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency at the 1948 general election.

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