Michelle Fairley

Michelle Fairley Headshot

Actress

Birth Date: July 11, 1963

Age: 60 years old

Birth Place: Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, UK

Michelle Fairley rode a career as an accomplished journeyman actor to that rarest of show business phenomena, a signature breakthrough role for an actress in her mid-40s, with her turn as an intrepid noblewoman on HBO's sumptuous sword-and-sorcery hit "Game of Thrones" (2011- ). A native of Northern Ireland, Fairley transplanted to London and found consistent work in the theater and bit television roles in the 1990s. By the late years of the decade, she landed some higher-profile television work, including a lead in the Belfast-set BBC comedy "Safe and Sound" (1996). Her theatrical career took an upturn in 1997 when she landed the female lead in the Conor McPherson play "The Weir," which began in London and jumped the Atlantic for a successful Broadway run. Her stage imprimatur grew in the early 2000s, reaching critical mass with a flurry of lauded stage performances, notably her Olivier Award-nominated performance in Michael Grandage restaging of Shakespeare's "Othello" in 2007 and her scene-stealing turn in Frank McGuinness' "Greta Garbo Came to Donegal." Though her stage successes rarely translated to bigger screen presence - her highest-profile project being her turn as Hermione's mother in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" (2010) - that would change with her winning the role of Catelyn Stark, a tentpole heroine of HBO's "Game of Thrones." Led by her distinctively huge, expressive eyes, Fairley was revealed to international audiences as one of British theater's best-kept secrets.

Fairley was born in 1964 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, U.K., and grew up in nearby Ballycastle, where her parents Theresa and Brian Fairley operated a local pub. She attended a Catholic grammar school, and as a teenager, took up an extracurricular involvement with the Ulster Youth Theatre, where she discovered her love of the stage. Upon graduation, she moved to Belfast where she honed her skills with the repertory company Fringe Benefits, alongside up-and-coming actor and UYT veteran, Conleth Hill. In the mid-1980s, she moved to Manchester, where she studied at Manchester Polytechnic (later Manchester Metropolitan University). Her tutor there recommended her for a part in a play by Irish playwright Christina Reid called "Joyriders," which Fairley won, moving to London for a 1986 off-West End run at the Tricycle Theatre. In 1988, Fairley garnered positive notices for her star-turn in Ibsen's "The Lady from the Sea" for the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. She supplemented her theatrical fare with periodic screen work, starting with a bit part in her first feature film, the indie thriller "Hidden City" (1987), then with periodic television series guest-shots, most-notably on long-running BBC series "Lovejoy" (1986-94) and ITV's "Inspector Morse" (1987-2000). She also participated in one-off projects such as the crime drama "Comics" (Channel 4, 1996) and "The Precious Blood" (BBC, 1996).

In 1994, she made a splash back in Ulster in the Irish premiere of Ariel Dorfman's taut drama "Death and the Maiden" at Belfast's Old Museum Arts Centre, taking on the role of a vengeful former political prisoner who turns tables on her onetime torturer. In 1996, she took on her first sitcom, the BBC's "Safe and Sound." Set in Belfast, the show put a comic filter on Northern Ireland's long history of sectarian strife, centering on longtime friends Dougie and Tommy, protestant and Catholic, respectively, who run a garage together, with Fairley playing Tommy's boozy, free-spirited sister and Dougie's romantic interest, Eleanor. Though it only lasted one season, it proved the start of more intensive TV work for Fairley. She took the featured role of the randy, scheming Mrs. Fitzpatrick in the BBC's 1997 prestige miniseries adaptation of Henry Fielding's comic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, and recurring roles in the BBC's "The Broker's Man" (1997) and the bleak Ray Winstone-starring comic drama "Births, Marriages and Deaths" (1999), which went on to win a BAFTA nomination. In 1997, Fairley won the female lead in playwright Conor McPherson's spooky drama "The Weir," a pub-set tale of men swapping dark stories with eerie, if not supernatural, twists, Fairley played Valerie, a mysterious local denizen whose story out-spooks all the rest. The play, debuting at the Royal Court Theatre, became an unqualified hit, and in 1999, Fairley journeyed to New York to reprise her part on Broadway; the play ran at the Walter Kerr Theatre for 277 performances.

She peppered her CV with occasional, if not marquee roles in some auspicious films, such as the Kate Winslet drama "Hideous Kinky" (1998), the James Ivory-helmed "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" (1998) and the Nicole Kidman-anchored ghost story "The Others" (2001). She found more featured screen roles supporting Julie Walters in two based-on-true-story telefilms, playing a teacher in a troubled London school in "Ahead of the Class" (ITV, 2005) and the supportive housekeeper of Walters' disease-stricken doctor in the Frank McGuinness-penned "A Short Stay in Switzerland" (BBC, 2009). Fairley's theatrical fortunes rose with a string of critically heralded performances; in 2003 she starred in Owen McCafferty's "Scenes from the Big Picture" at the National Theater and Gary Mitchell's Irish-set domestic drama "Loyal Women" at the Royal Court," and in 2004, the McCafferty-directed production of Harold Pinter's "Ashes To Ashes" for both its English premiere at the Royal Court and Irish premiere at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. In 2007, Michael Grandage, artistic director of London's cutting-edge Donmar Warehouse, cast Fairley as Emilia in his new production of "Othello" alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role and Ewan MacGregor as Iago; her performance drew a nomination for the U.K. theater's most prestigious laurel, the Olivier Award.

Still in Bard mode, Fairley put her stamp on the villainous Lady MacBeth that year to critical raves in a staging of the Scottish play by the West York Playhouse in Leeds. Her rising élan garnered her a flurry of television guest shots in the U.K., among them recurring parts on the sci-fi show "Misfits" (2009- ) and the cop procedural "Silent Witness" (1996- ). She won a rare TV lead as the working-class Irish mother of Manchester United soccer star George Best in the BBC biopic "Best: His Mother's Son" (2009), chronicling her tragic mirroring of her son's own infamous battle with the bottle. Back on the stage in Gaelic fare, she again wowed critics and audiences in "Greta Garbo Came to Donegal," stealing the show as Paulie, a lifeworn maid of household who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a houseguest, the reclusive film great. She picked up some indie film work, including the heartfelt comedy "Cup Cake" (2010) and, apropos of her stage bona fides, a Croatian production of "Anton Chekhov's The Duel" (2010), plus a small role in the teen-centric psychological thriller "Chatroom" (2010). In 2010, she appeared in her biggest-ticket project then to date, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I," albeit with only a few minutes of screen time as the mother of Harry's school chum Hermione.

In spring 2010, with innovative HBO prepping one of its most ambitious projects ever, "Game of Thrones," producers decided to recast a pivotal character, the headstrong, protective and courageous wife of the heroic noble Ned Stark (Sean Bean), and Fairley won the part. The epic fantasy adventure, based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling series of novels, A Song of Ice and Fire, chronicled the power struggle for the eponymous Iron Throne, the seat of power on the mythical continent of Westeros. Comprised of various fiefdoms and family dynasties, the players in the multi-sided gambit of violence and political intrigue were the usurping Baratheons, the wealthy Lannisters, the island-dwelling Greyjoys, and the noble Starks, a clan from the rugged northern region of Westeros. Fairley's Lady Catelyn Stark would be the stalwart backbone of the latter family as it found itself caught up in the courtly subterfuge. Her old Ulster compatriot, Conleth Hill, would also be cast as the duplicitous court counselor. The show debuted in spring 2011 to rave reviews, developing a tsunami of pop cultural buzz and seeing ratings climbing throughout the season to reach the impressive-for-cable three million-plus viewers. The show earned 13 Emmy nominations in summer 2011 and made Fairley and her many fellow cast members much-in-demand for interviews in fanatical sci-fi/fantasy circles. The season two premiere's initial airing drew nearly four million viewers.

By Matthew Grimm

Credits

Small Things Like These

Actor
Mrs Wilson
Movie
2024

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton StoryStream

Actor
Princess Augusta
Series
2023
95%

The Journey of the Magi

Narrator
Show
2022

Dead Hand

Actor
DS Murray
Show
2022

L'ombre d'un mensonge

Actor
Millie
Movie
2022

An Irish Goodbye

Actor
Grainne
Movie
2022

Landmark

Guest
Show
2021

Nobody Has to Know

Actor
Movie
2021

Gangs of LondonStream

Actor
Series
2020
86%

Responsible Child

Actor
Kerry
Show
2019

Storytellers

Actor
DS Murray
Show
2019

Storytellers

Voice
DS Murray
Show
2019

The FeedStream

Actor
Meredith Hatfield
Series
2019
57%

The Trap

Actor
Movie
2019

The NHS: To Provide All People

Actor
Show
2018

The White PrincessStream

Actor
Margaret Beaufort
Series
2017
76%

Short Works

Voice
Show
2017

The White Princess: Extras

Actor
Show
2017

Rebellion

Actor
Show
2016

RebellionStream

Actor
Dolly Butler
Miniseries
2016
40%

Edith

Actor
Shelia
Movie
2016

The Lizzie Borden ChroniclesStream

Guest Star
Aideen Trotwood
Series
2015
50%

FortitudeStream

Actor
Freya Lennox
Series
2015
84%

In the Heart of the Sea

Actor
Mrs. Nickerson
Movie
2015

Box office

Actor
Show
2014

24: Live Another Day

Actor
Margot Al-Harazi
Show
2014

24: Live Another Day

Guest Star
Show
2014

ResurrectionStream

Guest Star
Series
2014
53%

Ironclad: Battle for Blood

Actor
Joan De Vesci
Movie
2014

Montana

Actor
DCI Rachel Jones
Movie
2014

I Am Here

Actor
Mother
Movie
2014

Groundbreakers

Host
Show
2013

The Invisible Woman

Actor
Caroline Graves
Movie
2013

PhilomenaStream

Actor
Sally Mitchell
Movie
2013
91%

The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart

Voice
Brigitte Heim
Movie
2013

Afternoon Drama

Actor
Mary
Show
2012

Afternoon Drama

Voice
Jane
Show
2012

SuitsStream

Guest Star
Ava Hessington
Series
2011
91%

Game of Thrones FREE

Actor
Lady Catelyn Stark
Show
2011

Game of ThronesStream

Actor
Lady Catelyn Stark
Series
2011
88%

Cup Cake

Actor
Annie McNabb
Movie
2010

Chatroom

Actor
Rosie
Movie
2010

A Short Stay in Switzerland

Actor
Mrs. Savery
Movie
2009

Anton Chekhov's The Duel

Actor
Marya
Movie
2009

Lark Rise to CandlefordStream

Guest Star
Series
2008

Ahead of the Class

Actor
Movie
2005

The OthersStream

Actor
Mrs. Marlish
Movie
2001
84%

Births, Marriages and Deaths

Actor
Show
1999

Births, Marriages and Deaths

Actor
Pat
Movie
1999

Cast a Cold Eye

Actor
Frances
Movie
1998

Hideous Kinky

Actor
Patricia
Movie
1998

Vicious Circle

Actor
Frances
Movie
1998

Silent WitnessStream

Actor
Series
1996

Life After Life

Actor
Roisin Donaghy
Movie
1995

Inspector Morse: The Way Through the Woods

Actor
Cathy Michaels
Movie
1995

Hidden Agenda

Actor
Teresa Doyle
Movie
1990

TaggartStream

Actor
Series
1983

News aboutMichelle Fairley