Henry Czerny

Henry Czerny

 Henry Czerny, actor (born at Toronto 8 Feb 1959). Henry Czerny, raised in Toronto by his Polish-immigrant parents, played football and violin and starred in all his school musicals during his high school years. He graduated from Humberside Collegiate and attended Toronto's York University and the Banff School of Film Arts, where he studied musical theatre. He enrolled in the National Theatre School in Montréal and made his professional acting debut in 1982, in a Theatre 2000 production of George F. WALKER's Zastrozzi. He was a member of the National Arts Centre and Stratford theatre companies, and was honoured with the TYRONE GUTHRIE AWARD while at Stratford. He was also nominated for 2 DORA AWARDS for his work in Toronto theatre.

Henry Czerny caught the world's attention with his mesmerizing performance as a sexual predator in The Boys of St Vincent (1992), the realistic story of abuse at a boys' orphanage. Originally made in 2 parts for Canadian television, the program caused controversy when it was banned from airing in Ontario while the real-life Mount Cashel sex-abuse scandal appeals from the Christian Brothers were being held. The film was later shown in Ontario and released theatrically outside of Canada. Czerny's chilling portrayal of the pedophiliac brother won him high praise, and landed him coveted Hollywood roles opposite Harrison Ford in Clear and Present Danger (1994) and Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible (1996).

Henry Czerny's Canadian film credits include David Wellington's award-winning I Love a Man in Uniform (1993), Paul Donovan's clever political satire Buried on Sunday (1993) and Patricia ROZEMA's popular lesbian love story When Night Is Falling (1995), in which he played Pascale BUSSIÈRES' God-fearing fiancé. In the US, Czerny played in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) and had roles in The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) and the Steve Martin remake of The Pink Panther (2006). He has appeared in numerous made-for-television movies and Canadian series such as "Street Legal," "Friday the 13th," "Night Heat" and "The Edison Twins."

His television awards include the 1994 GEMINI Award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a dramatic program for The Boys of St Vincent. He was nominated for Geminis for best performance by an actor in a leading role in Promise the Moon (1997), The Girl Next Door (1999), External Affairs (1999) and Mayerthorpe (2008), in which he portrayed an RCMP officer at the time 4 young Mounties were shot and killed in rural Alberta. His second Gemini win was for best performance by an actor in a guest role in the newsroom drama "The Eleventh Hour" (2005).

Among numerous other roles, Henry Czerny was seen as the Duke of Norfolk in the TV series "The Tudors" (2007) and played Robert Griffith, opposite Sigourney Weaver, in the made-for-television movie Prayers for Bobby (2009). He appears as a recovering gambling addict in the Winnipeg-filmed series "Less Than Kind" (2010) and as Conrad Grayson, a hedge fund manager in the Hamptons, in the series "Revenge" (2011).