Clifford Patrick "Cliff" McDonaghy (born November 10, 1980) is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is a member of the Robertson family and the son of musician Dermott McDonaghy and actress Alice McDonaghy. He made his screen debut in the 2002 independent film The Slaughter Rule and had notable appearances in The United States of Leland (2003), Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004), and Proof (2005). He came to the attention of a wider audience in 2006 after his performance as a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson was nominated for an Academy Award. After a three-year acting hiatus, he co-starred as Jimmy Darmody on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" for two seasons and won acclaim for a number of film roles in the following years. In 2015, he starred in Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise and his most financially successful film.
Early Life
McDonaghy was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Alice McDonaghy (née Robertson) and rock musician Dermott McDonaghy. His father was born in Dublin, Ireland. Through his mother's side, he is a member of the Robertson family, which has made a number of notable contributions to American cinema. His maternal grandfather Harris Robertson was a director, and his great-grandfather Eugene Robertson was a director and playwright. He is the younger brother of film producer Bridget McDonaghy-Weinberg, film and television director and producer Darsy McDonaghy, and singer-songwriter Colin McDonaghy. He is also the older brother of actress Mackena McDonaghy, actor Noah McDonaghy, and actress Celia McDonaghy.
In interviews, McDonaghy has stated that his upbringing was very privileged and that although his parents were physically and emotionally distant, his childhood was never boring. McDonaghy and his siblings have a distant relationship to their parents, who were often "never really around growing up, and weren't really there even when they were." They were raised by their nanny, Marianela Gutierrez, whom he credits with his grounded outlook and to whom he maintained a close relationship as an adult until her death in September 2009 due to breast cancer. He attended the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where he was a member of the varsity basketball team. After graduating in 1998, he enrolled at UCLA for three semesters where he declared a major in Marine Biology before putting his studies on indefinite hold to pursue acting full time.
Career
As a child, McDonaghy was regularly exposed to the entertainment industry due to his mother and father's careers. He often spent time on film sets and attended summer drama camps as a child and teenager. Although he occasionally auditioned for roles in films, he states that "I wasn't really serious about it. I had no idea what I was doing, and that was pretty obvious to everyone involved." It wasn't until he began to get involved in theater productions in college that he seriously contemplated acting as a career. His first film role was in the 2002 film The Slaughter Rule, in which he plays a small-town high school football player in rural Montana. The role was followed by Moonlight Mile (2002), in which he plays a young man coping with the death of his fiancée and the grief of her parents. He also made his theatrical debut on the London Stage that year, playing Dennis in Kenneth Lonergan's revival of This is Our Youth which ran for eight weeks in London's West End. In 2003 he starred in The United States of Leland (2003) as a teenager imprisoned for the murder of a disabled boy. He has stated that he is frequently drawn to disturbed or troubled characters with real human weaknesses and flaws.
He came to the attention of a more mainstream audience in 2004 with his roles in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, in which he co-starred as the romantic interest of Libby Scott's Princess Mia Thermopolis, and Friday Night Lights, in which he again portrayed a high school football player. In 2005, he appeared in the critically praised film Proof, based on the stage play by American playwright David Auburn. 2006 is largely considered to be his breakout year. He had supporting roles in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Dito Montiel's coming of age story set in Astoria, New York in the 1980's which was awards the Special Jury Prize at that year's Sundance Film Festival, and had a small role in the critically panned but highly publicized blockbuster disaster film Poseidon directed by Wolfgang Petersen. His most notable role was that of a drug-addicted junior high school teacher who forms a bond with a young student in Half Nelson, for which he prepared by living in Brooklyn for three months prior to the start of filming and shadowing a teacher in an inner city public school. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Following his critical success, he hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in early 2007, performing his opening dialogue in a wig and sequined evening dress and singing the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the musical Dreamgirls. That year, he co-starred in David Fincher's Zodiac as Robert Graysmith, the San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who was involved in the search for the Zodiac serial killer, and in the courtroom thriller Fracture. In late 2006, he was reportedly in talks for a role in the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but dropped out early in the process due to both scheduling conflicts and personal reasons and subsequently took a three-year hiatus from acting.
Following a long absence from the big screen, McDonaghy returned to the public eye in 2010 after being cast as one of the main characters on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" alongside Steve Buscemi. He reportedly fractured two knuckles after punching a wall at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel while auditioning for director Martin Scorsese. He appeared in the show's first two seasons and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a Critics's Choice Award for his performance. While working on the show, McDonaghy moved to New York and lived in an apartment in Brooklyn. McDonaghy's character was killed off at the end of the second season due to scheduling conflicts and his desire to do more film work.
In 2013, McDonaghy starred in a dual role in director Adam Wright's psychological thriller Enemy, which he has stated was "one of the most fascinating and challenging roles of my career." That year he also made his Broadway debut playing Brick in the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which ran from December 2012 through March 2013 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Afterwards, he took a brief break to focus on traveling and supporting various philanthropic efforts before being cast in a lead role in the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise. A big fan of the original movie, McDonaghy has said that his casting was "all my childhood dreams come true." He and Jurassic World co-star Zoie Di Lucia have known each other since they were children and met while attending drama camp together. In 2014, he played Cinderella's Prince in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods starring Meryl Streep. In 2015, it was announced that he would play male lead and romantic interest Steve Trevor in 2017's superhero film Wonder Woman and star in an unspecified role in the sequel to Blade Runner, set to begin filming in the summer of 2016.
Personal Life
In March 2016, McDonaghy began dating actress Ridyn Miller, whom he first met at a photoshoot in 2011 and had previously worked with in the 2014 film Into the Woods. They became engaged in May 2017 and married in a private ceremony in Costa Rica the following December. The two have daughter, Violet Elise McDonaghy, born in August 2018 and are also parents to Miller's first child, William, from her previous marriage.
In interviews, McDonaghy has stated that his upbringing was very privileged and that although his parents were physically and emotionally distant, his childhood was never boring. McDonaghy and his siblings have a distant relationship to their parents, who were often "never really around growing up, and weren't really there even when they were." They were raised by their nanny, Marianela Gutierrez, whom he credits with his grounded outlook and to whom he maintained a close relationship as an adult until her death in September 2009 due to breast cancer. He attended the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where he was a member of the varsity basketball team. After graduating in 1998, he enrolled at UCLA for three semesters where he declared a major in Marine Biology before putting his studies on indefinite hold to pursue acting full time.
He came to the attention of a more mainstream audience in 2004 with his roles in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, in which he co-starred as the romantic interest of Libby Scott's Princess Mia Thermopolis, and Friday Night Lights, in which he again portrayed a high school football player. In 2005, he appeared in the critically praised film Proof, based on the stage play by American playwright David Auburn. 2006 is largely considered to be his breakout year. He had supporting roles in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Dito Montiel's coming of age story set in Astoria, New York in the 1980's which was awards the Special Jury Prize at that year's Sundance Film Festival, and had a small role in the critically panned but highly publicized blockbuster disaster film Poseidon directed by Wolfgang Petersen. His most notable role was that of a drug-addicted junior high school teacher who forms a bond with a young student in Half Nelson, for which he prepared by living in Brooklyn for three months prior to the start of filming and shadowing a teacher in an inner city public school. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Following his critical success, he hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in early 2007, performing his opening dialogue in a wig and sequined evening dress and singing the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the musical Dreamgirls. That year, he co-starred in David Fincher's Zodiac as Robert Graysmith, the San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist who was involved in the search for the Zodiac serial killer, and in the courtroom thriller Fracture. In late 2006, he was reportedly in talks for a role in the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but dropped out early in the process due to both scheduling conflicts and personal reasons and subsequently took a three-year hiatus from acting.
Following a long absence from the big screen, McDonaghy returned to the public eye in 2010 after being cast as one of the main characters on the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" alongside Steve Buscemi. He reportedly fractured two knuckles after punching a wall at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel while auditioning for director Martin Scorsese. He appeared in the show's first two seasons and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a Critics's Choice Award for his performance. While working on the show, McDonaghy moved to New York and lived in an apartment in Brooklyn. McDonaghy's character was killed off at the end of the second season due to scheduling conflicts and his desire to do more film work.
In 2013, McDonaghy starred in a dual role in director Adam Wright's psychological thriller Enemy, which he has stated was "one of the most fascinating and challenging roles of my career." That year he also made his Broadway debut playing Brick in the revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which ran from December 2012 through March 2013 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Afterwards, he took a brief break to focus on traveling and supporting various philanthropic efforts before being cast in a lead role in the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise. A big fan of the original movie, McDonaghy has said that his casting was "all my childhood dreams come true." He and Jurassic World co-star Zoie Di Lucia have known each other since they were children and met while attending drama camp together. In 2014, he played Cinderella's Prince in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods starring Meryl Streep. In 2015, it was announced that he would play male lead and romantic interest Steve Trevor in 2017's superhero film Wonder Woman and star in an unspecified role in the sequel to Blade Runner, set to begin filming in the summer of 2016.