Colm J. Meaney ( or , Irish language for "dove"); born May 30, 1953 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland is an actor widely known for his role as Miles O'Brien (Star Trek) in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He lives in Dublin. He started studying acting when he was 14 years of age and entered the Abbey Theatre school of Acting after secondary school. He became a member of the Irish National Theatre and spent the next eight years in England, touring with several theatre companies. Meaney's first tele­vision appearance was in Z-Cars on BBC1 in 1978. He also guest-starred on shows like Remington Steele and Moonlighting (TV series) before embarking on a successful film career; He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for his role in The Snapper (film). Recently, he has played a minor recurring role as Cowen, leader of the Genii (Stargate) on the Sci-Fi Channel series Stargate Atlantis, and he guest-starred on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. With 211 total appearances on Star Trek (157 on Deep Space Nine and 54 on Star Trek: The Next Generation), he has made more appearances on the franchise than any other actor except Michael Dorn, who has 282 appearances. He was the only actor to appear in all three film adaptation of Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy wherein he played the father of the Rabbitte family, however due to rights issues the family name changed from film to film. He has no relation to the science fiction writer John Meaney, though the latter does have a brother who is also named Colm. He was married to Irish actress Bairbre Dowling, but they are now divorced. He is a fan of Dublin GAA's gaelic football team. He is the voice of Peter Griffin's father, Francis Griffin, on the Fox animated television series Family Guy. He is currently playing Phil Hogan in a production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten at London's Old Vic theatre, as of September 2006.
Selected filmography

The Dead (1987 movie) (1987).....Mr. Bergin
Footnotes

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Courtesy of: http://www.wikipedia.org/