Patrick Bergin is a versatile actor who has yet to make it big in Hollywood. The son a trade union activist and founder of a political theater, Bergin was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, but left for London when he was only 17. There he worked at different jobs and eventually set up an experimental theater group. Originally a high-school drop out, Bergin returned to night school and by his early 20s had become a school teacher. He worked as an educator for five years and then quit to go on an extensive tour of Europe. Upon his return to Britain, he began working in repertory theater, and occasionally on television before appearing in a short British Film School production. Bergin made his feature-film debut in 1988 with The Courier; that year he also won acclaim for his role as an IRA informer in the TV movie Act of Betrayal. His success with the latter film lead director Bob Rafelson to cast him as Sir Richard Burton in his epic Mountains of the Moon (1990). While in Britain, Bergin typically played heroes, but in Hollywood he is usually cast as a villainous lowlife. He was particularly nasty as the obsessed, abusive husband in Sleeping with the Enemy (1991).
by Sandra Brennan
biography
