Jack Gleeson

Jack Gleeson
Biographical information
Born	May 20, 1992 (age 31) Cork, Ireland
World of Westeros
Role(s)	Joffrey Baratheon
Series	Game of Thrones
Season(s)	1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Credited for	26 episodes (see below)
First credit	"Winter Is Coming"
Last credit	"Breaker of Chains"

Jack Gleeson (born 20 May 1992) is an Irish actor who has worked in television and film. He has a minor role in the film Batman Begins and received a number of outstanding reviews for his lead role in the film All Good Children, with Variety describing him as "the pic's big discovery."

He starred in HBO's Game of Thrones as Joffrey Baratheon. He was announced in the role on 19 July 2009. He was part of the starring cast from Season 1 until Season 4 when he was killed off. In 2012, he announced his intention to retire from acting to focus on his studies once his work on the show was complete. In 2020, he returned to acting and has since appeared in the BBC sitcom Out of Her Mind and the films Rebecca's Boyfriend and In the Land of Saints and Sinners.

Gleeson admitted he was not entirely aware of the hatred of Joffrey before he was given the role. He said he had read some synopses but didn't know that Joffrey was quite the monster he appears to be in the show. Gleeson said his performance was influenced by numerous Hollywood villains, in particular Joaquin Phoenix's performance as the crazed, petulant Emperor Commodus in the movie Gladiator.

Gleeson was born in Cork, Ireland. He is a student of Trinity College Dublin and a member of DU Players. As a result, Gleeson's natural speaking voice actually has a pronounced Irish upper-class accent. The accent he adopts while playing Joffrey on-screen is a conscious part of his performance. In the Blu-ray commentary for "Lord Snow", Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) explains that for amusement between takes, the English-accented Turner and Irish-accented Gleeson would imitate one another's accents.

Gleeson said that when he was cast he read ahead on Wikipedia, so he already knew how his character ultimately died, instead of it coming as a shock in Season 4.

Credits

Starring

Game of Thrones: Season 1
Winter Is Coming	The Kingsroad	Lord Snow	Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things	The Wolf and the Lion
A Golden Crown	You Win or You Die	The Pointy End	Baelor	Fire and Blood

Game of Thrones: Season 2
The North Remembers	The Night Lands	What Is Dead May Never Die	Garden of Bones	The Ghost of Harrenhal
The Old Gods and the New	A Man Without Honor	The Prince of Winterfell	Blackwater	Valar Morghulis

Game of Thrones: Season 3
Valar Dohaeris	Dark Wings, Dark Words	Walk of Punishment	And Now His Watch Is Ended	Kissed by Fire
The Climb	The Bear and the Maiden Fair	Second Sons	The Rains of Castamere	Mhysa

Game of Thrones: Season 4
Two Swords	The Lion and the Rose	Breaker of Chains	Oathkeeper	First of His Name
The Laws of Gods and Men	Mockingbird	The Mountain and the Viper	The Watchers on the Wall	The Children

See also

• Jack Gleeson on Wikipedia
• Jack Gleeson on IMDb