Biography

June 2, 1961 · Dublin, Ireland

6′ 0¾″ (1.85 m)

Strong Irish accent.

Gloomy stare.

A former electrician, he maintained electrical equipment at a safari park in Zimbabwe before becoming an actor.

He did not start acting until he was in his mid-twenties.

He was recommended by David Puttnam for the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who: The Movie (1996). Cunningham had acted in War of the Buttons (1994), which was produced by Puttnam. Executive Producer Philip David Segal seriously considered him for it, but the Eighth Doctor was eventually cast with Paul McGann. If Cunningham had been cast, he would have been the first non-British actor to play The Doctor.

He left school at at the age of 15.

As of 2017, he has appeared in both the highest grossing Irish independent film, (The Guard (2011)), and the second-highest grossing Irish independent film, (The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)).

[on criticism of the violence in 'Game of Thrones'] I think about it in terms of doing a painting. You don't always need a painter to tell you what your interpretation of it is. It's a grown-up show for grown-ups, made by grown-ups. It doesn't necessarily expect you to take any sort of position... I think it would be arrogant of us to say this is what it is supposed to be. It's patronizing for anybody to do that. It's there for what you want to take from it. I think it's as close as you can get to a piece of art for what it is.