A handsome, dark-haired Irish actor with a sweet schoolboy look and an abundance of charm, Stuart Townsend was an affirmed film lover but gave no thought to acting until a drama student girlfriend led to his enrolling in Dublin's Gaiety School of Acting. Upon graduating in 1994, he formed the theater company Ether for Lunch with friends. In 1995 he was cast in Gillies MacKinnon's "Trojan Eddie" (released in the USA in 1997), playing Richard Harris' nephew and Stephen Rea's assistant. A small role as the Irishman who sparks a sexual obsession in troubled Iris (Samantha Morton) in Carine Adler's
