- published: 20 May 2010
- views: 37206
Richard Coyle (born 27 February 1974) is an English actor.
Coyle was born in Sheffield,England to Irish/Italian parents. Coyle is the second youngest of 5 sons and their father was a builder. He began his acting career after a stint working on a ferry entertaining passengers, where he was told by a theatre director that he had a talent and should pursue it further. He graduated in Politics and Philosophy from the University of York in 1995 and was then accepted into Bristol's prestigious Old Vic Theatre[dead link] school, graduating in 1998, the same year as his close friend Dean Lennox Kelly.
He began by appearing in such television programmes as Lorna Doone, as John Ridd and Evelyn Waugh's wartime saga Sword of Honour, and in Mike Leigh's film Topsy-Turvy. He played Mr. Coxe in 1999's BBC version of Wives and Daughters. In 2000, Coyle's big break arrived in the form of the character Jeff Murdock in the comedy Coupling. In 2003 he chose not to return to Coupling for its fourth series, and refused requests to return for a "goodbye episode". In a 2005 interview, Coyle stated this was to avoid typecasting: