Ian McElhinney

Acting

Ian McElhinney

Born 1948-08-19 · Belfast, Northern Ireland

Ian McElhinney (born 19 August 1948) is a Northern Irish actor and director. He has appeared in many television series in a career spanning more than forty years; notable appearances include Taggart, Hornblower, Cold Feet, and The Tudors. In recent times his best known roles are as Barristan Selmy in Game of Thrones, Morgan Monroe in The Fall, and Granda Joe in Derry Girls.

Acting credits

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story poster
7.5

A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring a new hope to the galaxy.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

2016

The Boys in the Boat poster
7.2

The triumphant underdog story of the University of Washington men's rowing team, who stunned the world by competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The Boys in the Boat

2023

City of Ember poster
6.4

For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, two teenagers, in a race against time, must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, before the the lights go out forever.

City of Ember

2008

No artwork available
NR

Father James must decide what kind of a "Father" God wants him to be?

Father Father

2019

Leap Year poster
6.9

When yet another anniversary passes without a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Anna decides to take action. Aware of a Celtic tradition that allows women to pop the question on Feb. 29, she plans to follow her lover to Dublin and ask him to marry her. Fate has other plans, however, and Anna winds up on the other side of the Emerald Isle with handsome, but surly, Declan -- an Irishman who may just lead Anna down the road to true love.

Leap Year

2010

Hamlet poster
7.3

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

Hamlet

1996

Hidden Agenda poster
6.9

In Ireland, American lawyer Ingrid Jessner and her activist partner, Paul Sullivan, struggle to uncover atrocities committed by the British government against the Northern Irish during the "Troubles." But when Sullivan is assassinated in the streets, Jessner teams up with Peter Kerrigan, a British investigator acting against the will of his own government, and struggles to uncover a conspiracy that may even implicate one of Kerrigan's colleagues.

Hidden Agenda

1990

Closing the Ring poster
6.2

During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.

Closing the Ring

2007

Michael Collins poster
6.9

Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

Michael Collins

1996

The Boxer poster
6.7

Nineteen-year-old Danny Flynn is imprisoned for his involvement with the I.R.A. in Belfast. He leaves behind his family and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Maggie Hamill. Fourteen years later, Danny is released from prison and returns to his old working class neighborhood to resume his life as a boxer.

The Boxer

1997

The Last Rifleman poster
6.7

A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.

The Last Rifleman

2023

A Prayer for the Dying poster
5.9

Martin, an I.R.A. hitman, is seen by a Catholic priest while carrying out a hit. He grows a bond with the priest and his niece. But his past and his former employers put all their lives in danger.

A Prayer for the Dying

1987

Zoo poster
6.7

Young Tom and his misfit friends fight to save 'Buster' the baby elephant during the German air raid bombings of Belfast in 1941.

Zoo

2018

Triage poster
6.0

The wife of a photojournalist sets out to discover why he came home from a recent assignment without his colleague.

Triage

2009

Borstal Boy poster
6.2

Brendan Behan, a sixteen year-old IRA foot soldier, is going on a bombing mission from Ireland to Liverpool during the second world war. His mission is thwarted when he is apprehended, charged and imprisoned in Borstal, a reform institution for young offenders in East Anglia, England.

Borstal Boy

2001

No artwork available
NR

Make it new John tells the story of the DeLorean car, its creator John DeLorean and the workers of the Belfast-based car plant who built it. The film deftly contrasts the DeLorean dream with its spectacular downfall during a critical period in Northern Ireland's history, and the canonisation of the car - the DMC12 - as a symbol of the American myth of mobility. As with the earlier works such as Bernadette (2008) and Falls Burns Malone Fiddles (2003), in Make it New John, Campbell fuses a documentary aesthetic with fictive moments, using existing archive news and documentary footage from the 1980s as well as new 16mm footage which imagines conversations between DeLorean factory workers. Campbell questions the documentary genre and reflects here on broader existential themes and narrative drives.

Make it New John

2010

Game of Thrones The IMAX Experience poster
8.6

The first episode of this IMAX screening takes place entirely at The Wall with the Night’s Watch (S4 EP9) hopelessly outnumbered as they attempt to defend Castle Black from the Wildings and features one the fiercest and most intense battle scenes ever filmed for television. The second episode (S4 EP10), features Dany coming to grips with the realities of ruling a kingdom, Bran learning the startling reality of his destiny and Tyrion facing the truth of his unfortunate situation.

Game of Thrones The IMAX Experience

2015

Andor: A Disney+ Day Special Look poster
7.4

Celebrate Disney+ Day with a special look at the Star Wars original series Andor.

Andor: A Disney+ Day Special Look

2022

The Journey poster
6.3

Firebrand Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness, two implacable enemies in Northern Ireland, are forced to take a short journey together in which they will take the biggest leap of faith and change the course of history.

The Journey

2017

Lost Lives poster
6.0

This poignant testament to the physical and emotional cost of war, centres on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Lost Lives

2019

Sacrifice poster
5.4

Sacrifice is the story of consultant surgeon, Tora Hamilton, who moves with her husband, Duncan, to the remote Shetland Islands, 100 miles off the north-east coast of Scotland. Deep in the peat soil around her new home, Tora discovers the body of a young woman with rune marks carved into her skin and a gaping hole where her heart once beat. Ignoring warnings to leave well alone, Tora uncovers terrifying links to a legend that might never have been confined to the pages of the story-books.

Sacrifice

2016

Blind Justice poster
5.3

Canaan, a mysterious gunfighter left nearly blind from Civil War combat, roams through Mexico with a baby he has sworn to protect. On his way to a town where a family will supposedly adopt the baby, Canaan passes through a border town where U.S. Cavalry officers assigned to deliver a shipment of silver are under attack from bandits. With some reluctance, Canaan steps in to help the soldiers.

Blind Justice

1994

Finnegan's Foursome poster
9.0

Two middle aged brothers and their respective sons travel to Ireland to play the Finnegan Family's annual golf outing, where they distribute the ashes of the family patriarch

Finnegan's Foursome

2026

Angel poster
5.8

Saxophonist Danny witnesses the murder of his band manager and a deaf-mute girl after a gig. Questioned by the police, he remembers only the orthopedic shoes of the killers’ leader. So begins his quest to avenge her.

Angel

1982

Behind the camera