Ian McElhinney

Ian McElhinney was a prominent British film and TV actor who became well known to American audiences for playing Barristan Selmy on fantasy drama "Game of Thrones" (HBO 2011- ). Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1948, McElhinney did not begin acting professionally until he was well into his 30s with small roles in British films like "Angel" (1982), "Anne Devlin" (1984), and "A Prayer for the Dying" (1987). By the early '90s, McElhinney started adding television roles to his growing list of screen credits, and started nabbing recurring roles on shows like "Hearts and Minds" (Channel 4, 1995), "Wokenwell" (ITV, 1997), and "Maisie Raine" (BBC1, 1998-99), a short-lived British cop show. McElhinney's prolific TV career continued into the 2000s, with hefty roles on shows like the medical drama "The Clinic" (RTÉ One, 2003-09), as well as Irish drama "Single-Handed" (RTÉ One, 2007-10). By the 2010s, McElhinney had racked up dozens of credits on various British films and TV shows, but was a relatively unknown actor in the United States, despite appearing in American films such as "Leap Year" (2010) and the historical TV drama "The Tudors" (Showtime 2007-2010). However, McElhinney would become more prominent to American audiences when he landed the role of the respected warrior Barristan Selmy on HBO's hit fantasy series, "Game of Thrones." Although the sprawling cast of "Game of Thrones" numbered in the hundreds, McElhinney was one of the few cast members to appear in most episodes of the series until his character's unexpected death in the midst of the show's fifth season.