James McAvoy

Actor

Biography

Life Story

McAvoy was born on 21 April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Elizabeth (née Johnstone), a nurse, and James McAvoy senior, a bus driver. He was raised on a housing estate in Drumchapel, Glasgow by his maternal grandparents (James, a butcher, and Mary), after his parents divorced when James was 7. He went to St Thomas Aquinas Secondary in Jordanhill, Glasgow, where he did well enough and started 'a little school band with a couple of mates'.

McAvoy toyed with the idea of the Catholic priesthood as a child but, when he was 16, a visit to the school by actor David Hayman sparked an interest in acting. Hayman offered him a part in his film The Near Room (1995) but despite enjoying the experience McAvoy didn't seriously consider acting as a career, although he did continue to act as a member of PACE Youth Theatre. He applied instead to the Royal Navy and had already been accepted when he was also offered a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD).

Family

Anne-Marie Duff	(11 November 2006 - 2016) (divorced) (1 child)

Anne-Marie Duff

(11 November 2006 - 2016) (divorced) (1 child)

Trivia

Trained at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now known as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).

McAvoy and Jessica Brooks were the first actors to tackle the complex roles Leto II & his twin sister Ghanima Atreides, the strange prescient Children of Dune (2003) based on Frank Herbert's novel of the same name. Although Leto and Ghanima were only nine years old in the novel, their ages were bumped up about seven years, making them about sixteen for the Sci-Fi Channel's miniseries in March 2003.

His younger sister is Joy McAvoy, also an actress who appeared as 'Estelle' alongside McAvoy in Filth (2013).

His parents divorced when he was seven.

As a child, he wanted to become a missionary because he wanted to travel the world.

After his parents divorced, McAvoy and his sister moved in with their maternal grandparents, James and Mary Johnstone.

After growing up in Glasgow, he moved to London at the age of 20.

Before he went into acting, he wanted to join the Navy.

Personal Quotes

We're in a horrible, repugnant place now where kids are told it's their right and due to be hugely famous. Not good at their job, not good at anything, just hugely famous. This is not sane. Little girls think they'll be famous if they have vast breast implants and might as well die if they don't.

Where it gets difficult is when you get two or three jobs back to back where you're playing leads and doing 13, 14 hours a day, six days a week, and you suddenly think, hang on a minute, how can you have a life like this? Do I work to live or live to work? How can I work properly with no life to inform the work?

I always believed that I never wanted to be an actor. I only did it because I was allowed to do it and I had to do something.

Filmography