People

Cillian Murphy

Acting · follow into films and chains

Biography

Cillian Murphy (born May 25, 1976) is an Irish actor. He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 play Disco Pigs, a role he later reprised in the 2001 screen adaptation. His early notable film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later (2002), the dark comedy Intermission (2003), the thriller Red Eye (2005), the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and the science fiction thriller Sunshine (2007). He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination. Murphy began collaborating with filmmaker Christopher Nolan in 2005, playing Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012) as well as appearing in Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017) and portraying the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the biographical epic Oppenheimer (2023). By the year 2023, Murphy has already worked with Nolan for around 20 years and six films. He also gained prominence for his role as Tommy Shelby in the BBC period drama series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022) and for starring in the horror sequel A Quiet Place Part II (2020). In 2011, Murphy won the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Actor and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for the one-man play Misterman. In 2020, The Irish Times named him one of the greatest Irish film actors.

Notable films

Where to start

Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.

The Dark Knight

As Scarecrow

Dunkirk

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Sunshine

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Inception

As Robert Fischer, Jr.

Oppenheimer

As J. Robert Oppenheimer

Batman Begins

As Dr. Jonathan Crane

28 Days Later

As Jim

A Quiet Place Part II

As Emmett

Chains

KinoChain journeys

Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.

Browse all chains

Solar Cinema: From Dawn to Destruction

A curated journey through cinema's most radiant and ruthless suns, from the cosmic dawn of 2001 to the scorching end of Sunshine.

5 films

When Studios Marry: Films Born of Corporate Chaos

From the ashes of mergers and acquisitions come some of cinema's most fascinating experiments. This chain traces how boardroom decisions shaped the art on scree...

8 films

The Last Picture Shows

In an age of digital gloss, a new generation of filmmakers has returned to celluloid for its warmth, grain, and honesty. This chain follows the medium's resurge...

8 films

The Art of Listening

From the whisper of a surveillance tape to the roar of a wartime beach, these eight films prove that sound is not just heard, it is felt. A chain of masterpiece...

7 films

When the Sequel Outshines the Original

From gritty crime epics to mind-bending sci-fi, these sequels didn't just continue stories, they redefined them. Here's a chain of films that prove the second (...

8 films

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