Brendan Coyle (Nicholas Higgins)
Brendan Coyle (born David Coyle; 2 December 1963) is a British actor. He has garnered a wider audience on television, most recently as "Bates", the valet, in Downton Abbey.
Coyle was born in Corby, Northamptonshire, to an Irish father and Scottish mother[1] who emigrated to Corby. He reportedly holds dual British/Irish citizenship.[citation needed] He is a great nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby.[2]
He studied drama in Dublin in 1981, and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in England in 1983.[1]
Brendan Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production.[1] In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama, True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC.
Since 2008, he has played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, a lame valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle, and it won him nominations for a BAFTA and IFTA.[3] In 2012 Coyle played the character of Terry Starling in Sky comedy series Starlings.
Coyle was born in Corby, Northamptonshire, to an Irish father and Scottish mother[1] who emigrated to Corby. He reportedly holds dual British/Irish citizenship.[citation needed] He is a great nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby.[2]
He studied drama in Dublin in 1981, and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in England in 1983.[1]
Brendan Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production.[1] In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama, True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC.
Since 2008, he has played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, a lame valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle, and it won him nominations for a BAFTA and IFTA.[3] In 2012 Coyle played the character of Terry Starling in Sky comedy series Starlings.