Michael Colgan (actor)

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Michael Colgan (born Michael Hughes) is a Northern Irish actor and novelist.

Contents

Career

Born in Keady, County Armagh, Colgan was educated at Saint Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he read English. He studied at l'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and has lived in London.

A notable early performance in Saint Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh was the role of Harpagon in Molière's L'Avare , which was performed entirely in French. After theatre school in Paris, he went back to Ireland to work with his younger brother, film director Enda Hughes, in 1996 in the feature film The Eliminator.

He starred in the 2002 feature film This Is Not a Love Song directed by Bille Eltringham. He also spent a year working in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and has appeared in several television productions, including Rebel Heart and Sunday (2002) for the BBC. [1]

Colgan has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in productions at the Royal Exchange, the Abbey Theatre, the Lyric Players' Theatre, Belfast, the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, the Young Vic and the Tricycle Theatre.

In 2009 he was appearing at the Young Vic in Rupert Goold's critically acclaimed production of King Lear starring Pete Postlethwaite. [2]

In 2013, Colgan played Richard Webb in the drama series What Remains . In 2014 he appeared in the first episode of the Channel 5 detective drama Suspects (TV series) .

In 2016, Colgan published his first novel, The Countenance Divine, under his real name Michael Hughes. [3] His second novel, Country, was published in August 2018. [4]

Colgan has appeared in two separate depictions of the Chernobyl Disaster. The first being BBC's Surviving Disaster: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster from 2006 in which he appears as Leonid Toptunov, senior reactor control chief engineer of Reactor 4. [5] The second was HBO's 2019 mini-series Chernobyl in which he depicts Soviet Minister of Coal Industry Mikhail Shchadov. [6]

In 2020, Colgan starred as Rory Maguire in the third series of Nordic noir detective series Marcella. [7] [8]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleNotes
1997The EliminatorO'Brien
2002 Sunday Gerard Donaghey TV film
2002 This Is Not a Love Song Spike
2002SinnersEammonTV film
2004Wall of SilenceGerard DillonTV film
2005 Song of Songs Male JournalistVoice
2005The Year London Blew Up: 1974O'ConnellTV film
2005AnimalsDanny HarkmanTV film
2006 Soundproof ConnorTV film
2010 Lennon Naked Derek Taylor TV film
2013 Good Vibrations Dave
2014Heart of LightnessArnholm

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2001 Rebel Heart Liam O'Toole2 episodes
2004 The Long Firm CutterEpisode: "Jimmy's Story"
2004 Surviving Disaster Leonid Toptunov Episode: "Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster"
2007 Silent Witness George Woods2 episodes
2008 Raw Mal Martin6 episodes
2009 Occupation Will Davies
2009 The Bill Paul BrewerEpisode: "Innocence Betrayed"
2010 Holby City Mitch TurnerEpisode: "Taking Over"
2011 Doctors Minford BoyleEpisode: "Last Christmas"
2011 New Tricks Lorcan "Buzz" McCaffreyEpisode: "Tiger Tiger"
2011 Midsomer Murders Father BehanEpisode: "A Sacred Trust"
2011 Great Expectations Anxious ManEpisode 1.2
2012 The Thick of It Mr. Chop / Declan3 episodes
2013 The Fall Sheldon Schwartz2 episodes
2013 What Remains Richard Webb3 episodes
2014 Suspects Laurie WilkinsEpisode: "Alone"
2016 Happy Valley ChaplainEpisode 2.1
2016 The Secret Paul RamseyPart 4
2016 Hooten & the Lady Monsignor FitzgeraldEpisode: "Rome"
2016 My Mother and Other Strangers Father Nolan2 episodes
2017 X Company HenriEpisode: "Promises"
2019 Chernobyl Mikhail Shchadov Episode: "Open Wide, O Earth"
2020 Marcella Rory MaguireMain role
2020 The Crown IRA Lieutenant"Gold Stick"
2022 This England Gabriel MillandMain role

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References

  1. "Charisma on the Stand: An Interview with Michael Colgan by Rada Djurica". Wild Violet. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  2. "Case study: Michael Colgan, actor". Creative Choices. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
  3. "John Murray acquires 'ambitious, genre-blending' British debut" . Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  4. "John Murray acquires Irish reimagining of Homer's Iliad" . Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  5. "Surviving Disaster" Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (TV Episode 2006) - IMDb , retrieved 25 December 2019
  6. "Chernobyl" Open Wide, O Earth (TV Episode 2019) - IMDb , retrieved 25 December 2019
  7. "Marcella Season 3 Is Coming To ITV In Early 2021". www.tyla.com. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  8. Giannetti, Charlene (24 June 2020). "Anna Friel returns in Season Three of Marcella". Woman Around Town. Retrieved 13 January 2021.