Orla Brady Movies and Career Information

Orla Brady (born 28 March 1961) is an Irish actress. The second of four children born to Dublin publican Patrick Brady (former owner of the Temple Bar) and his wife Catherine who had appeared in amateur productions at the Gate Theatre, Brady first became interested in an acting career after reading works by Germaine Greer and Simone de Beauvoir. Brady drifted between jobs in her early 20s: My 20s were torture. I found men terrifying. I didn't know how to relate to them and, because of that, there was no way I could have stood on a stage and asked people to look at me. I just wasn't comfortable in my skin. She gradually moved to London England, working part time as a model. Amongst other assignments she posed for DIY painting guide The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual. After the original of Jack Vettriano's painting The Singing Butler was sold at auction in 2004 for £750,000, it was revealed the painter used the manual to form his figures for the painting, including Brady for the 'lady in red'. In February 2009, Vettriano published a previously unseen second version of 'The Singing Butler', which feaures the dancing figure for which Brady posed wearing a dark emerald green