Jonathan Rhys Meyers: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Troubled Actor

The Tudors starJonathan Rhys Meyers was released from the hospital Wednesday after being hospitalized for an undisclosed condition. Paramedics were called to the Irish actor’s London home Tuesday where they reportedly found him slumped on the floor.

Meyers, 33, has a history of drug and alcohol problems that most recently found him in rehab in May. But he also has earned lots of acclaim for his acting over the years.

STORY: Jonathan Rhys Meyers Did Not Attempt Suicide, Says Source

Here are five facts about the Irish actor:

1. He comes from a self-described “working-class family” and worked as a farmhand growing up. His dad was a musician and his mom a “voluntary worker,” he told the New York Times. “When I was 16 I moved in with a family in the Irish countryside who were landed gentry,” he said. “They’d inherited their 650 acres in 1495. I was working on the farm and I just started living there, and became close to the family. I live there when I go home.” But, he adds, “I was a terrible farmer. You have to be born in the soil to really know it, and love it.”

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2. He was kicked out of school as at age 16. He was expelled for truancy, and that’s when he made the decision to move in with the because “I had nothing else to do.”

STORY: Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Troubled Career

3. He got his big break in Velvet Goldmine. He played a David Bowie-inspired glam rock star in the 1998 and would go on to play another rocker, Elvis Presley,in  a 2005 CBS miniseries that earned him an Emmy nom and Golden Globe Award. He went on to star in Showtime’s The Tudors and films including Match Point and August Rush.

4. He prefers playing good guys. Yet he claims, “I find actors who play nasty guys in movies are the nicest guys in real life, and the opposite then goes for heroes.”

5. He has a history of airport troubles. Last year, he was banned from a United Airlines flight last year for reportedly being too intoxicated. He tried to board a plane from New York to Los Angeles but was considered too inebriated based on his disruptive behavior, and officials wouldn’t let him board.  In 2009, he got into an altercation with staff at a Paris airport. Two years earlier he was arrested at the Dublin airport and charged with being drunk and breach of the peace.