Queen’s graduate scoops a Bafta! 
11 May 2015
Local actor and Queen’s graduate Stephen Rea, BA English 1965, picked up a Best Supporting Actor honour at this year's Bafta television awards.
He received the prestigious award for his portrayal of MI6 boss Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle in the BBC drama The Honourable Woman, at a star-studded event in London on Sunday night (10.05.15). In doing so, Stephen beat rivals Ken Stott from The Missing, Adeel Akhtar from Channel 4's Utopia and James Norton from Happy Valley.
Stephen Rea was born in Belfast in 1946, the son of a bus driver. He attended Belfast High School before studying English at Queen's and going on to train at the Abbey Theatre School in Dublin. He is one of Northern Ireland's most successful and best known actors.
Rea came to international attention when he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for the 1992 film The Crying Game. He has long been associated with some of the leading names in Irish drama including film maker Neil Jordan and playwright Stewart Parker, whom he met when they were students together at Queen’s.
His roles have included appearances in such films as Interview with the Vampire (1994), Michael Collins (1996), Butcher Boy (1997) and V for Vendetta (2006), an American political thriller.
The winner of numerous industry awards including a Special Tribute Award at the 18th annual Irish Times Theatre Awards in February 2015, Rea was nominated for a Tony for his electrifying Broadway performance in the 1993 play Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, shortlisted for a Golden Globe in 1997 for his performance in Crime of the Century, and has twice before been up for a Bafta.
Along with Irish playwright and Queen’s honorary graduate Brian Friel, Rea founded the Field Day Theatre Company in 1980, with the aim of widening access to the theatre in Ireland. Even before the company's first performance Seamus Deane, David Hammond, Seamus Heaney, and Tom Paulin – four prominent local writers – were invited to join Field Day's board of directors.
An Ambassador for UNICEF Ireland, Stephen Rea has been a long-time supporter of film studies at Queen’s and in 2013, delivered the annual Stewart Parker Memorial Lecture, organised by the University’s School of Creative Arts.
Professor David Johnston of Queen’s School of Modern Languages, who delivered the citation on the occasion of Rea's Honorary Degree from Queen’s in 2004, said at the time: “Theatre and film have exercised their powerful attraction over the life and work of Stephen Rea, and his contribution to both has been of the highest quality. There are, without doubt, actors in both media who are much more ostentatious than he. But very few anywhere have his range.”
Of his most recent success Professor Johnston added: “This richly deserved television Bafta further illustrates that range and acknowledges Stephen’s ability to engage an audience because, as an actor, across all acting platforms, Stephen has always taken his art and his audiences very seriously.”
Stephen Rea’s achievement is the second University related Bafta of 2015. Graduates and students of Queen’s were heavily involved in the Short Film Bafta winner Boogaloo and Graham in February.
For more on film studies at Queen’s telephone 028 9097 5337 or go to the School of Creative Arts website.
Photo: ©PA | UTV
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