HOLLYWOOD actor Patrick Bergin has told how he’s made an old Irish castle his home and has given up his LA residence for good.
The Sleeping with the Enemy star, who started out busking in London tube stations, is back on the big screen in blockbuster Cold Sun opposite Tara Reid.
Patrick, 71, has also just released his version of a Leonard Cohen classic in aid of Trocaire as he prepares to revamp his Co Tipperary pile Owl Castle.
Catching up with him on site he tells the Irish Sunday Mirror: “There’s so much work to do aesthetically.
“The castle has been designated a heritage site – I’ve got the oldest oak staircase in Ireland, but we need to do a bit of structural work.
“I’m enjoying doing a bit of painting and redecorating. This is my home, I’ve a place in the UK too but I’ve given up my place in LA.
“I used to call it my Bergin triangle.”
The former EastEnders star continued: “I originally bought a church in Tipperary and then turned it into a poetry centre.
“I even had the president, Michael D, sending me in a poem when I had a poetry competition.
“Last Tuesday we unveiled a bench for the actor Johnny Murphy, remember Joey the Lips [The Commitments].”
Patrick revealed how he started out as a singer, busking on the streets at the age of 17.
He recalled: “I went all over Dublin, the underground in London and then Paris at the Pompidou centre and various other places around Europe.
“We’d make really good money at Oxford Circus, especially when decimalisation came in and we got the pound coins.
“I had my first legal pint in Kilburn in London.
“I built up my equity work to qualify for acting, it was through Johnny Murphy that I got my first film job. I was 33.”
After a stint working in Norway and touring with stage plays Patrick’s Hollywood break in Mountains of the Moon was just around the corner.
He mused: “I guess I went from busking in alleyways to Hollywood.
“When Mountains of the Moon was first screened I ended up sitting beside David Bowie’s wife.
“Joe Roth ran 20th Century Fox, they were producing Sleeping with the Enemy... he asked the publicity girls who were with him, ‘Do you think Patrick’s sexy?’ and when they said yes I was invited over to Hollywood to meet the producers.” His quirky audition landed him the gig playing the menacing husband opposite Julia Roberts. He walked out the wrong door and into a brown closet when leaving the room.
Patrick quipped: “I was told by the director it was my reaction walking out that got me the movie.”
Sleeping with the Enemy was a success and he went on to make 80 movies after that. He said: “Films like Patriot Games put me well on the map too but none of them was as big as Sleeping with the Enemy.
“People still talk to me about it. It’s invented its own lexicon in the movie world. I’m very proud of it.”
Trocaire helps people in more than 26 developing countries and Patrick is part of their campaign singing Leonard Cohen’s Anthem.
He said: “When John and Gerry McColgan did the reception for the pope at Croke Park and they asked me to sing Anthem I jumped at the chance. The pope upstaged me, but he did wave at me and I took off my hat.”
Patrick’s dad was a Labour senator so he has a keen interest in politics. He added: “I grew up on Earlsfort Terrace, under the Labour Party headquarters.”
Asked if he might follow in his dad’s footsteps, he quipped: “Ah ‘Paddy for the Park’, I’m just biding my time.”
