Neil Jordan
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/* Biography */
{{Infobox actor
| image = Neil Jordan.4756.jpg
| name = Neil Jordan
| imagesize =
| caption = Neil Jordan at the German premiere of ''The Brave One'', 2007
| birthdate = {{birth date and age|1950|2|25}}
| location = [[Sligo, Ireland|Sligo]], [[Ireland]]
| birthname = Neil Patrick Jordan
| othername =
| occupation = [[filmmaker]]
| spouse = [[Brenda Rawn]] (2004 - present)
| children =
| academyawards = '''[[Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay|Best Original Screenplay]]''' <br> 1992 ''[[The Crying Game]]''
| baftaawards = '''[[BAFTA Award for Best Film|Best British Film]]''' <br> 1992 ''[[The Crying Game]]'' <br> '''[[BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]]''' <br> 1999 ''[[The End of the Affair]]''
| website =
| footnotes =
}}
'''Neil Jordan''' (born [[February 25]], [[1950]]) is an [[Academy Award]]-winning [[Ireland|Irish]] filmmaker and [[novel]]ist. He received the Academy Award for ''[[The Crying Game]].''
== Biography ==
As a writer/director, Jordan has a highly idiosyncratic body of work, ranging from mainstream hits like ''[[Interview with the Vampire]]'' to commercial failures like ''[[We're No Angels (1989 film)|We're No Angels]]'' to a variety of more personal, low-budget [[arthouse]] pictures.
Jordan was born in [[County Sligo]]. He was educated at [[St. Paul's College, Raheny]] and was raised Catholic. ''I was brought up a Catholic and was quite religious at one stage in my life, when I was young. But it left me with no scars whatever; it just sort of vanished'' [http://www.salon.com/ent/col/srag/1999/12/09/jordan/index.html], and then in [[University College Dublin]], where he studied Irish history and English literature. When [[John Boorman]] was filming ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'' in Ireland, he recruited Jordan as a script consultant, which led to his doing second unit work. His first feature ''Angel'', a tale of a musician caught up in the Troubles, starred [[Stephen Rea]] who has subsequently appeared in almost all of Jordan's films to date.
Unconventional sexual relationships are a recurring theme in Jordan's work, and he often finds a sympathetic side to characters audiences would traditionally consider deviant or downright horrifying. His film ''[[The Miracle]]'', for instance, followed two characters who struggled to resist a strong, incestuous attraction, while ''[[The Crying Game]]'' made complicated, likable characters out of an [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|IRA]] [[terrorist]] and a [[transgendered]] woman. ''Vampire'', like the [[Anne Rice]] book it was based on, focused on the intense, intimate interpersonal relationship of two undead men who murder humans nightly (although the pair never have sex, they are clearly lovers of a sort), accompanied by an equally lusty vampire woman who is eternally trapped in the body of a little girl. While Lestat ([[Tom Cruise]]) is depicted in an attractive but villainous manner, his partner Louis ([[Brad Pitt]]) and the child vampire Claudia ([[Kirsten Dunst]]) are meant to capture the audience's sympathy despite their predatory nature.
In addition to the unusual sexuality of Jordan's films, he frequently returns to the Troubles of [[Northern Ireland]]. ''The Crying Game'' and ''[[Breakfast on Pluto (film)|Breakfast on Pluto]]'' both concern a transgendered character (played by [[Jaye Davidson]] and [[Cillian Murphy]], respectively), both concern the Troubles, and both feature frequent Jordan leading man [[Stephen Rea]]. The two films, however, are very different, with ''Crying Game'' a realistic thriller/romance and ''Breakfast on Pluto'' a much more episodic, stylized, darkly comic biography. Jordan also frequently tells stories about children or young people, such ''The Miracle'' and ''[[The Butcher Boy]]''. While his pictures are most often grounded in reality, he occasionally directs more fantastic or dreamlike films, such as ''[[The Company of Wolves]]'', ''[[High Spirits (film)|High Spirits]],'' ''Interview with the Vampire'' and ''In Dreams''.
The critical success of Jordan's early pictures led him to Hollywood, where he directed ''[[High Spirits (film)|High Spirits]]'' and ''We're No Angels''; both were critical and financial failures. He later returned home to make the more personal ''The Crying Game''. That film was nominated for six Academy Awards. Jordan won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film. Its unexpected success led him back to American studio filmmaking, where he directed ''Interview with the Vampire''. He has not had a major hit since ''Vampire'', although several of his recent films have done well by arthouse standards and have been generally popular with critics.
Despite the unconventional and often non-heterosexual relationships depicted in his films, Jordan himself has been twice married to women and has several children.
He was related to one of the victims of the [[Dublin and Monaghan Bombings]] in 1974.
He resides primarily in [[Dublin|Dublin, Ireland]].
== Selected filmography ==
*''[[Angel (1982 film)|Angel]] (1982)
*''[[The Company of Wolves]]'' (1984)
*''[[Mona Lisa (film)|Mona Lisa]]'' (1986)
*''[[High Spirits (film)|High Spirits]]'' (1988)
*''[[We're No Angels (1989 film)|We're No Angels]]'' (1989)
*''[[The Miracle (1991 film)|The Miracle]]'' (1990)
*''[[The Crying Game]]'' (1992)
*''[[Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles]]'' (1994)
*''[[Michael Collins (film)|Michael Collins]]'' (1996)
*''[[The Butcher Boy]]'' (1997)
*''[[The End of the Affair (1999 film)|The End of the Affair]]'' (1999)
*''[[in Dreams (film)|In Dreams]] (1999)
*''[[The Good Thief]]'' (2002)
*''[[Breakfast on Pluto (film)|Breakfast on Pluto]]'' (2005)
*''[[The Brave One (2007 film)|The Brave One]]'' (2007)
*''[[Heart-Shaped Box (novel)|Heart Shaped Box]]'' (2008)
*''[[A Killing on Carnival Row]]'' (2009)
== Novels==
*''[[Night in Tunisia (novel)|Night in Tunisia]]'' (1976) - Short stories
*''[[The Past (novel)|The Past]]'' (1980)
*''[[The Dream of a Beast (novel)|The Dream of a Beast]]'' (1983)
*''[[Sunrise with Sea Monster (novel)|Sunrise with Sea Monster]]'' (1994)
*''[[Shade (novel)|Shade]]'' (2005)
==External links==
{{Commons|Neil Jordan}}
*[http://www.neiljordan.com/ Neil Jordan's web site]
*{{imdb|name=Neil Jordan|0001403}}
*[http://www.artscouncil.ie/aosdana/biogs/literature/neiljordan.html Aosdána biographical note]
*[http://maguiresmovies.blogspot.com/2006/01/interview-neil-jordan-pat-mccabe-rocky.html Interview with Jordan and author [[Patrick McCabe]] for ''Breakfast on Pluto''], January 2006.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Neil}}
[[Category:Irish film directors]]
[[Category:Irish novelists]]
[[Category:Irish screenwriters]]
[[Category:Irish short story writers]]
[[Category:BAFTA winners (people)]]
[[Category:Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winners]]
[[Category:Aosdána]]
[[Category:Irish agnostics]]
[[Category:People from County Sligo]]
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People associated with Dalkey]]
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