An actor whose sad eyes and brooding presence often get him cast as moody, tragic figures, John Lynch first lent his haunted charm to the title role of Pat O'Connor's Cal (1984). Cast as a young IRA recruit who falls in love with the widow (Helen Mirren) of a man he has killed, Lynch earned wide praise for his sensitive, complex performance, and more than held his own opposite the more seasoned Mirren.
Born in Corrinshego, Newry, Northern Ireland, on December 26, 1961, Lynch was raised as the eldest of five children (his sister, Susan Lynch, also went into acting). He got his first break during his second year at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, when he was picked to star in Cal. Following his work on the film, Lynch dropped out of the movies for almost a decade, preferring to work on the stage in England and Ireland. When he resurfaced in front of the cameras in the mid-'90s, he began working steadily, appearing in films ranging from Agneiszka Holland's celebrated 1993 adaptation of The Secret Garden, to Jim Sheridan's acclaimed political drama In the Name of the Father (1993), to John Sayles' similarly feted family fantasy The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), which also featured Lynch's sister, Susan.
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