Gerard Butler

Background

Gerard James Butler was born on November 13, 1969, in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, to Edward Butler, a bookmaker, and Margaret Butler. He was raised in a strict and conservative Roman Catholic family. He went to St Mirin’s and St Margaret’s High Schools, where he excelled academically and demonstrated outstanding leadership skills. He continued his education at Glasgow University, where he majored in law. He enlisted in the Scottish Youth Theater when he was a teenager. After graduating from law school, he worked as a trainee lawyer at an Edinburgh law firm. When he was 25, he moved to London and starred in Steven Berkoff’s play Coriolanus. In 1997, he starred in the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning British drama film Mrs. Brown as Archie Brown. The film was also shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997.

He made his cinematic debut in the British-American horror thriller Tale of the Mummy, directed by Russell Mulcahy, in 1998. In 2000, he starred in Patrick Lussier’s horror thriller Dracula 2000. His acting debut was in the T.V. miniseries The Jury in 2002, playing Johnnie Donne. He starred in Joel Schumacher’s Academy Award-nominated picture The Phantom of the Opera. He rose to prominence in 2006 after playing King Leonidas in Zack Snyder’s film 300. It was based on the same-named comic book series. The film was a defining moment in his profession and a turning point in his life. He starred in the film P.S. I Love You, in 2007, based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel. In March 2010, he voiced ‘Stoick the Vast’ in Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois’ animated picture How to Train Your Dragon, alongside the sequels How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. It was a commercial smash hit. In Olympus Has Fallen, he played secret service operative Mike Banning. In 2014, he reprised his role as King Leonidas in the period drama film 300: Rise of an Empire, and in 2017, Geostorm, directed and produced by Dean Devlin.

During the production of Of Men and Mavericks, he was transported to Stanford University Medical Center in 2011 after sustaining an injury in a surfing accident in Mavericks, California. Butler stated that he no longer consumes alcoholic beverages. Butler played in a charity match for Celtic F.C. in 2011, a team he has loved since he was a boy. A year later, he portrayed a “has-been” Celtic player in the Hollywood film Playing for Keeps. He purchased a stake in the Limacol Caribbean Premier League’s Jamaica Tallawahs cricket team. Since 2010, he has been a supporter of Mary’s Meals organization. In 2018, he attended a $60 million fundraiser banquet hosted by Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (F.I.D.F.). Butler’s home in California was destroyed in the Woolsey Fire in November 2018.