First stage role in a Sevenoaks production of "Cry, the Beloved Country"

Screen debut at age thirteen in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"

Acted with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare Company

Starred for nine months in the West End production of "Another Country"

First lead role for British TV, "How Many Miles to Babylon?"

First adult role (bit part) in "Gandhi"

Breakthrough screen roles, as a gay punk in "My Beautiful Laundrette" and an Edwardian dandy in "A Room With a View"

American film debut, starring role in the little-seen "Stars and Bars"

Confirmed leading man status as the playboy Tomas in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

Played "Hamlet" at the National Theatre in London; withdrew from the play in mid-performance with only seven more shows to go; London papers cited 'nervous exhaustion'

Earned accolades, including a Best Actor Oscar, for his performance as quadriplegic Christy Brown in "My Left Foot"; also first film with director-writer Jim Sheridan

Starred in Michael Mann's "The Last of the Mohicans"

Reteamed with Jim Sheridan for the IRA drama "In the Name of the Father"; nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award

Co-starred in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence"; first screen pairing with Winona Ryder

Starred opposite Winona Ryder in "The Crucible"

Third film with Jim Sheridan, "The Boxer"

Took a leave of absence from acting by putting himself into "semi-retirement"

Returned acting to star in Scorsese's "Gangs of New York"; earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for his performance

Starred opposite Catherine Keener in "The Ballad of Jack and Rose"; directed and written by wife Rebecca Miller

Gave an award winning performance as a Texas oilman in Anderson's "There Will Be Blood," a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil!