Aidan Quinn is an Irish American actor, who made his film debut in Reckless. He has starred in over 80 feature films, including Desperately Seeking Susan, The Mission, Stakeout, Avalon, Benny & Joon, Legends of the Fall, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Michael Collins, Practical Magic, Song for a Raggy Boy and Unknown. Quinn has received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work inAn Early Frost and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. He played Captain Thomas "Tommy" Gregson in the CBS television series Elementary.
Early life
Quinn was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Irish Catholic parents. He was raised in Chicago and Rockford, Illinois, as well as in Dublin and Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. His mother, Teresa, was a homemaker, but also worked as a bookkeeper and in the travel business, and his father, Michael Quinn, was a professor of English literature. He has three brothers and a sister. His older brother, Declan Quinn, is a noted cinematographer, while his younger sister, Marian, is an actress, director and writer. Though a roofer by trade, Quinn received his start in the Chicago theatre at nineteen. He trained at the Piven Theatre Workshop.
Career
His first significant film role was in Reckless, followed by a breakthrough role in Desperately Seeking Susan as the character "Dez". Quinn next starred in the controversial television filmAn Early Frost, about a young gay lawyer dying of AIDS. He received his first Emmy Award nomination for the role which allowed him to gain recognition in Hollywood. He made a short impressive contribution as Robert De Niro's brother in The Mission. He played escaped convict Richard "Stick" Montgomery in the action comedy Stakeout opposite Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez. In 1983, Quinn lost the role of Jesus Christ when Paramount Pictures dropped the distribution rights to the Martin Scorsese movie The Last Temptation of Christ. When Universal Pictures picked up the film, the role went to Willem Dafoe. In the meantime, Quinn starred as protagonist in the film Crusoe, finished in 1989. During the 1990s, he appeared in Legends of the Fall, Benny & Joon, The Handmaid's Tale, Haunted and Practical Magic. He also starred in Michael Collins, Song for a Raggy Boy, This Is My Father, and Evelyn. He played a small cameo as the captain of a doomed Arctic vessel in the Francis Ford Coppola-produced adaptation of Frankenstein. In 2000, Quinn portrayed Paul McCartney in the VH1 television drama, Two of Us. Quinn appeared in the 2005 movie The Exonerated a true story about people on death row who had been freed in which Quinn played Kerry Max Cook. Quinn played the main character on the NBC drama The Book of Daniel, in 2006. The show was cancelled after the first three weeks of its run, and its last five episodes never aired. In 2007, Quinn received his second Emmy nomination for the television movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. In 2010, he played a cameo role as William Rainsferd in the French-made film Sarah's Key, set during World War II. He starred as "Dermot" opposite Taylor Schilling in the Canadian-Irish drama film Stay. Quinn co-starred in the CBS Television series Elementary.
Quinn has participated in charity golf events for the East Lake Foundation, a community redevelopment program, and Samuel L. Jackson's "One for the Boys" campaign about testicular cancer awareness. In 2010, Quinn attended a premiere benefit screening of A Shine of Rainbows for the International Children's Media Center and The American Ireland Fund. In 1991, he read a segment from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis as part of MTV's "" literacy promotion PSAs. Quinn spoke at the 2003 "Night of Too Many Stars" gala benefiting The Autism Coalition. He was an honorary board member of the National Alliance for Autism Research, which merged with Autism Speaks.
