Brendan Coyle (born 2 December 1962) is a British-Irish actor. He won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for The Weir in 1999. He also played Nicholas Higgins in the miniseries North & South, Robert Timmins in the first three series of Lark Rise to Candleford, and more recently Mr Bates, the valet, in Downton Abbey, which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Brendan Coyle was born David Coyle in Corby, Northamptonshire, on 2 December 1962, the son of a Patrick B Coyle and Bedelia M B Anderson. He has an older brother named Shaun Due to his British birth and Irish heritage, he holds both British and Irish citizenship. He is the great-nephew of football manager Sir Matt Busby. He studied drama in Dublin in 1981 and received a scholarship to Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London in 1983.
Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in Conor McPherson's The Weir and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. He played Kaz Sweeney in the British drama True Dare Kiss, and Nicholas Higgins in North & South for the BBC.
From 2008 he played Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels, written by Flora Thompson. In 2010, he began playing John Bates, valet and former British Army batman to the Earl of Grantham in Julian Fellowes's period drama series, Downton Abbey. Fellowes wrote the part for Coyle, and it won him nominations for a BAFTA and IFTA as well as a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Awards as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2012. He also won three Screen Actors Guild Awards 2013–16. Coyle also played the character of Terry Starling in the short-lived Sky comedy series Starlings.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
John Bates
2025

Toxic Town
Roy Thomas · (4 episodes)
2025

Finders Keepers
Denys Elland · (4 episodes)
2024

Riches
Gideon · (6 episodes)
2022

Downton Abbey: A New Era
John Bates
2022

Downton Abbey
John Bates
2019

Mary Queen of Scots
Earl of Lennox
2018

Requiem
Stephen Kendrick · (6 episodes)
2018

Unless
2016

Saving Lives at Sea
Self - Narrator · (4 episodes)
2016

Me Before You
Bernard Clark
2016

A Merry Murdoch Christmas
Rankin
2015

Spotless
Nelson Clay · (10 episodes)
2015

12 Monkeys
Benjamin Kalman · (1 episode)
2015

Noble
Gerry Shaw
2014

Starlings
(16 episodes)
2012

The Raven
Reagan
2012

Downton Abbey
John Bates · (47 episodes)
2010

Perrier's Bounty
Jerome
2009

Lark Rise to Candleford
Robert Timmins · (40 episodes)
2008

The Mark of Cain
Davey Gulliver
2007

True Dare Kiss
Kaz Sweeney · (6 episodes)
2007

Damage
Aidan Cahill
2007

Wedding Belles
Father Henry
2007

Perfect Parents
Ed
2006

Offside
Duncan Miller
2006

Soundproof
DI Dave Cox
2006

The Ghost Squad
(1 episode)
2005

Jericho
Christie · (4 episodes)
2005

Omagh
Detective Sergeant John White
2005

The Jacket
Damon
2005

North & South
Nicholas Higgins · (4 episodes)
2004

Blue Murder
Derek Jowell · (2 episodes)
2003

The Commander
(2 episodes)
2003

Rockface
(14 episodes)
2002

Mapmaker
Robert Bates
2001

Waking the Dead
Martin Corgan · (2 episodes)
2001

Conspiracy
Heinrich Müller
2001
The Bombmaker
George McEvoy
2001

Rebel Heart
Michael Collins · (4 episodes)
2001

Paths to Freedom
(6 episodes)
2000

McCready and Daughter
(6 episodes)
2000

I Could Read the Sky
Francie
1999

Soft Sand, Blue Sea
Gerry
1998

The General
UVF Leader
1998

Tomorrow Never Dies
HMS Bedford Leading Seaman
1997

The Last Bus Home
Steve Burkett
1997

Silent Witness
Liam Slattery · (1 episode)
1996
Dangerfield
(1 episode)
1995

The Glass Virgin
Manuel Mendoza · (3 episodes)
1995

Fool's Gold: The Story Of The Brink's Mat Robbery
Det. Sgt. Benwell
1992
The Rising: 1916
Augustine Birrell

Butterfly in the Typewriter
Milton Rickels

Silent Witness
(1 episode)
1996

Prime Suspect
DCS Mitchell · (1 episode)
1991

The Bill
(1 episode)
1984