Colm Meaney

Colm Meaney is an Irish actor known for Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and for railroad entrepreneur Thomas Durant in Hell on Wheels.

Durant makes excellent use of Meaney's ability to sound persuasive and thoroughly self-interested at the same time. He can give a grand speech without losing the sense of a man keeping a private account of what it will earn him. It is a performance with humour, vanity and enough force to make the threats count.

O'Brien offers a different kind of authority: practical, often overworked and more interested in getting the equipment functioning than selling anyone a vision. Meaney played the character across both Star Trek series, becoming a familiar presence in their working lives.

His films include the Roddy Doyle adaptations The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van, as well as Con Air, Layer Cake and The Damned United, in which he played Don Revie. On television he also plays Finn Wallace in Gangs of London.

Read more about Durant in the Hell on Wheels review.