Jim Sheridan

Having been a successful theater director and journeyman actor in his native Ireland, feature director Jim Sheridan emigrated to the United States in 1981 with less than a hundred dollars in his pocket. Sheridan spent the next several years struggling to make ends meet until he directed first feature, "My Left Foot" (1989), which marked the first of several successful collaborations with actor and fellow Irishman Daniel Day-Lewis, while earning Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture. "My Left Foot" announced Sheridan as a talented filmmaker capable of balancing the drab life of a drunken artist suffering from cerebral palsy with the rousing heroic tale of a man with limited capabilities triumphing over all odds. He returned to working with Day-Lewis for his third film, "In the Name of the Father" (1993), which established the young actor as a bona fide star, while confirming that Sheridan was a powerful force behind the camera. Though their third feature together, "The Boxer" (1996), failed to live up to their previous work, both Sheridan and Day-Lewis had established themselves as a potent team that rivaled the likes of Scorsese-De Niro and Burton-Depp. Meanwhile, Sheridan continued to churn out exemplary films, including the heartwarming and semiautobiographical "In America" (2002), making him a true rags-to-riches story that he occasionally depicted in his films.