Jonathan Rhys Meyers is an Irish actor, model, and singer born on July 27, 1977. His first acting part appeared in the 1994 movie A Man of No Importance, which is when he adopted the stage name Rhys Meyers since he found his own name, O’Keeffe, to be uninteresting.
He played the Anti-Treaty IRA sniper who assassinated the titular character in the 1996 film Michael Collins. In Velvet Goldmine (1998), he portrayed a David Bowie-inspired glam rock star. He played the vicious Goth prince Chiron in Titus and the psychotic Bushwhacker Pitt Mackeson in Ride with the Devil in 1999.
He was a passionate girls’ football coach in Bend It Like Beckham (2002), played Steerpike in the BBC’s Gormenghast (2000), and appeared alongside Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair (2004).
Jonathan Rhys Meyers parents: Meet John O’Keeffe & Mary Geraldine Myers
Meyers was given the name Jonathan Michael Francis O’Keeffe at birth on July 27, 1977 in Dublin. His mother, Mary Geraldine, reared him and his brothers, Jamie, Alan, and Paul, in a remote area of County Cork. When Meyers was just three years old, his musician father John O’Keeffe abandoned them.
Meyers had a challenging upbringing. He struggled with alcoholism early in life and frequently found himself admitted to different rehab facilities.