With a role in smash hit Game Of Thrones secured at just the age of 18, it seemed like child star Jack Gleeson had a one-way ticket to stardom.

But unlike his other co-stars from the HBO series, such as Sophie Turner, Kit Harrington, and Maisie Williams, Gleeson decided to take time away from the spotlight and swore off acting completely in 2014 following his role as tyrant king Joffrey Baratheon.

Now, more than 10 years after his GOT role, a 33-year-old Gleeson is back and starring in Netflix‘s House of Guinness – his most prestigious role in years – though his character and appearance are worlds away from teenage Joffrey.

The Cork-born star originally retired from acting at the age of 21 after his character’s brutal death in the ‘Purple Wedding’, shunning fame seemingly for good, saying it made him feel ‘uncomfortable’.

Despite persistent rumours that he left the industry due to the public’s negative reaction to his character, he said the real reason behind his decision was that he ‘didn’t enjoy’ acting as much as he used to.

At the time, he told students during a talk at University College Dublin: ‘It really came down to just not deriving as much enjoyment as I did from acting as I used to.

‘I started acting when I was eight and really, really loved it, you know… For some reason, I don’t know, it became a bit kind of mechanical and less kind of passionate when I started Game of Thrones.’

He added, to Entertainment Weekly: ‘The answer isn’t interesting or long-winded… When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do.’

Gleeson, originally from Cork in Ireland, was raised in Renelagh, Dublin, before attending Trinity College, where he studied theology and philosophy and was awarded a scholarship.

With two older sisters also passionate about acting, it was perhaps no surprise that Gleeson followed suit and took on roles from the age of eight.

When he appeared in All Good Children in 2010 aged 17, a Variety magazine reviewer considered him ‘the pic’s big discovery’ and praised his ‘outstanding leading performance’.

He secured child roles in Reign Of Fire (2022) and Batman Begins (2005) but his real breakthrough came in Game Of Thrones, with scenes filmed between 2011 and 2014.

Only 18 when he landed the role as Joffrey, Gleeson previously admitted he assumed he hadn’t got the part – and was surprised when he did.

He went on to win two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his role as the ruler of the Iron Throne of Westeros, captivating global attention for his intelligent portrayal of such an amoral character.

Gleeson himself, by contrast, couldn’t be more different from his most famous character, whose morality he once compared to a ‘black evil road’.

He has famously shunned media attention and doesn’t have social media, only accepting a handful of interviews throughout his career.

In fact, he’s even admitted he didn’t watch the hit series, as he doesn’t like seeing himself on screen.

The Irish actor once told Entertainment Weekly: ‘I also suppose I’m just private. I find it slightly uncomfortable to see my face on a bus or a poster. I like just being known by my friends and family.’

By contrast to Joffrey, in real life, he confessed the ‘meanest’ thing he’d ever done was read his sister’s diary when she was seven. Also making his list of top evil deeds was ruining the ending of Harry Potter for her – by spoiling the death of Sirius Black.

Speaking to GQ in 2012 about how ‘evil’ he is in real life, he concluded he is: ‘A solid three-and-a-half percent. I’d be lying if I said I was zero. I try to be a nice person, but it’s difficult sometimes.’

Jack’s role in Game Of Thrones came to a sudden end in season four, when Joffrey was killed off during The Lion And The Rose episode – also known as the Purple Wedding – centred around his character’s marriage to Margaery Tyrell.

The cruel and sadistic boy king gruesomely choked to death, with the actor telling Entertainment Weekly at the time that he found the episode ‘tough’ to film.

Jack had hinted for several months that, when his time on Game Of Thrones came to an end, so would his acting career, even hinting at the possibility of going into academia instead.

He told Oxford University’s Cherwell Magazine in 2014: ‘I happily wait for the time that I become anonymous again. Perhaps I’ll look back and be like “that was amazing”.’

But some of his comments suggested that his decision to quit fame was for a far more serious reason.

In a 2014 address to the Oxford Union, which became a viral hit with 3.5 million views, he blasted the celebrity world as ‘superficial’ and ‘self-involved’.

‘I detested the superficial elevation and commodification of it all, juxtaposed with the grotesque self-involvement it would sometimes draw out in me,’ he said.

Even now, it appears some part of him feels haunted by his Game Of Thrones days.

He told the Irish Independent in 2021: ‘It happens very rarely that I come away from an interaction with someone who recognises me and I say, “oh, I wish that didn’t happen”.

‘When I’m on my own, it’s totally fine. It’s more when, say, you’re on a first date, or talking to a friend in a pub who’s just lost a family member, and someone comes over and takes you out of who you are in that interaction and makes you into something else.’

Despite the even greater success of the show’s later seasons, Gleeson said he was glad he left the show when he did and that it wasn’t all ‘negative’, as he was able to buy a house in Dublin with the money he made.

What followed Game Of Thrones was an almost 10-year hiatus from acting, focusing on his Collapsing Horse Theatre Company with Brassic star Aaron Heffernan.

Despite several theatre roles, such as in Chekhov’s The Seagull, he didn’t return to television until 2020, when he played Casper in Sara Pascoe’s BBC miniseries, Out Of Her Mind.

It seemed that Gleeson had realised his true call was acting after all, telling the Irish Independent: ”Now, I’ve come full circle, and what drives me is performance and acting, aside from general life things like friendship and love.

‘Just trying to enjoy more the actual act of acting and moving people.’

Since then, he has starred in the fourth season of Sex Education, joined Liam Neeson in Irish action thriller The Land Of Saints And Sinners, and featured in the BBC One adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five in 2023.

He featured in Netflix series The Sandman as Puck earlier this year – and now appears to have become a firm favourite with the streaming giant.

This week, House Of Guinness launched globally with Gleeson in the role of Byron Hughes, a fictional relative of Lady Olivia Hedges – playing his most major role in years, from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.

His character is described by Netflix as an ‘ambitious, charming and mercurial individual’ and an outsider, and some comparisons can be made to Joffrey as he is ‘loyal only to himself’.

Mostly, however, he looks worlds away from his days on the HBO series where he made his name, with long sideburns and wild hair – and all signs of platinum blond youthful Joffrey long gone.

Describing his role in the new brewing dynasty series, Gleeson said: ‘He is someone with a foot in both camps. He uses that to make himself valuable.

‘When the audition came in, I read the scene, and Byron just felt like a really lively character. You could tell he was a really well-rounded guy.’

Speaking to Reach newspapers about what it was like playing a more ‘fun’ character, as compared to his GOT days, he said: ‘I guess there were a few days where me and Anthony [Boyle] were vibing off each other, kind of taking the p*** a bit, in a really fun way.

‘Maybe there is a bit of light relief there in some of Byron’s scenes and I think me and Anthony just have a similar sense of humour so we were just sparking off each other.

‘That was really fun because it keeps it fresh for us as actors and that gets transmitted to the audience, I hope.’

Gleeson, who married his long-time girlfriend Róisín O’Mahony in County Kerry in 2022, now seems to be back in the world of acting for good.

Though he told the Irish Independent he ‘definitely peaked’ in his acting career when he was ‘about 17’ and now sometimes feels like a ‘washed-up child actor’, he is once again surrounded by such big names as he was associated with in his 2010s heyday.

‘When I’m destitute in 10 years’ time, I’ll accept any script!’ he joked in 2014, upon leaving Game Of Thrones.

But House Of Guinness proves Jack Gleeson is back – and is ready to take on hard-hitting roles on the global stage.

House Of Guinness is available to watch now on Netflix.

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