Gary Whelan

Gary Whelan is an Irish actor whose career has been centered on British television, where he has often been cast as police officers. He was born in Dublin in 1953 and moved to London at ten, later attending Holloway School. In the BBC soap EastEnders he played DS Terry Rich from 1985 to 1987, and he later had the role of DS Paul Kemmit in a 2003 EastEnders spinoff. His police parts include DS Terry Amson alongside Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect (1991), DI Harry Haines in The Bill from 1992 to 1995, and a policeman in Bernard and the Genie (1991). He was Brendan Kearney, the village schoolmaster, in Ballykissangel from 1996 to 2001, and played Danny Parsons, manager of the pop group S Club 7, in the debut series Miami 7. His stage roles include Salisbury in Richard II and Horatio in Hamlet. On film he appeared in Moll Flanders, Cry Freedom, and Michael Collins (1996).