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Will Jonathan ever be able to beat his demons?

This latest bust-up could be the end of his career.

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By Joe O'Shea
Wednesday May 19 2010

After his latest airport bust-up, Jonathan Rhys Meyers' people are perhaps alone in hoping the Icelandic volcano has a long and productive life.

The Irish actor has fallen foul of airport police, yet again, after an early morning drinking session in the VIP lounge of New York's JFK Airport.

And the star of the hit TV series The Tudors can now add United Airlines to his own personal no-fly zone with reports he has been banned by the US airline.

Rhys Meyers, who has been in and out of rehab for an alcohol problem, was reportedly "belligerent" and "disruptive" at JFK as he tried to board a flight earlier this month.

The Corkman had been relaxing in the first-class lounge before the 7am flight from New York to Los Angeles when airline staff became concerned about his alcohol intake.

Sources within the airline claimed he was "pounding" drinks and becoming increasingly out of control.

When the actor tried to board his flight, he was told that he would not be flying because of his disruptive behaviour.

One US-based celebrity gossip website is also claiming to have a source at JFK who alleges Rhys Meyers uttered a racial slur while arguing with airline staff.

It's not an isolated incident as Rhys Meyers has a history of misbehaviour at airports.

In November 2007, seven months after checking into rehab for the second time, he was arrested at Dublin airport and charged with being drunk and in breach of the peace. The actor had fallen out of a chair in the bar and passed out on the floor.

Airport police twice confronted him over his erratic and abusive behaviour as he tried to board a BMI flight to London.

Further arguments with staff on the BMI desk led to the airport police calling in their garda colleagues who arrested the actor.

The charges were later dropped.

In June 2009, three months after checking out of rehab for a third time, Rhys Meyers was arrested after allegedly attacking a member of staff at a bar in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The 32-year-old star of movies such as Bend It Like Beckham and Match Point was reported to have challenged French airport police to a fight.

In 2007, after his second stint in rehab, Rhys Meyers said he was ready to face up to his drinking problem.

"I used to drink like a 14-year-old kid," he said.

"Jesus, I did the most embarrassing things. But about a year-and-a-half ago, I woke up and asked myself where I wanted to go. I decided I wanted to be a really successful movie actor. So, I just gave up partying completely."

However, shortly after giving that interview in late 2007, Rhys Meyers' beloved mother, Geraldine Myers, passed away in his native Cork, an event that sent him spiralling back into problem drinking.

Just hours after her death at the age of 50, Rhys Meyers was photographed alone in a London street at 10am, wearing a battered donkey jacket and slugging from a can of strong cider.

The Hollywood star was obviously in severe distress and had turned to alcohol once more.

The young Jonnie, as his family in Cork knew him and his friends still call him, had what at best could be described as a chaotic childhood.

His father left his mother when Jonnie was just three years old. Jonnie and his three brothers would spend time bouncing between his mother and his paternal grand-mother's home in Cork.

The family struggled with poverty and had to move around Cork city. Jonnie spent time in care and became, what one friend later described as, a "wild, dangerous kid, a bit screwed up".

Rhys Meyers' mother also had her own problems with alcohol and family friends remember her boys having to scrounge for food after their mother had drank most of their social welfare money.

He was permanently expelled from school at 14 and spent most of his time on the streets in Cork, usually hanging around fast-food joints or in pool halls.

The story of his discovery in a Cork pool hall by casting agents working for the British producer David Puttnam is well known.

The story of his 'adoption' by a Cork gentleman farmer called Chris Croft is less talked about.

The pool hall was also where the 16-year-old Jonnie O'Keeffe (as he was known then) met Croft, who offered to take him on as a hired hand at his 650-acre farm in Buttevant, Co Cork.

Rather than travel to his new job, Rhys Meyers moved in with Croft and his three sons and came to regard the farmer as his "adoptive father".

Croft, who has said publicly in the past that he is gay, was arrested in Morocco in 2006 charged with the sexual abuse of a homeless 15-year-old boy. He was convicted and later appealed the verdict.

However, both he and Rhys Meyers have said since that their relationship was strictly father-son.

Rhys Meyers has found some solace in a long-term, on/off relationship with heiress Reena Hammer. However, despite the success of TV mini-series The Tudors and some interesting film projects (including an upcoming film adaptation of the Flann O'Brien novel At Swim Two Birds), his movie career has stalled.

This latest airport bust-up may be symptomatic of what was a very promising, potentially A-list career coming to a messy end.

Rhys Meyers is smart enough to know where he could be heading.

"Growing up in Ireland, I saw many a handsome young man walk into the bar with great dreams," he said in an interview shortly before his mother died.

"Then I saw the same man sitting there 15 years later, still nursing the pint."

The question for the actor now is if he wants to be that man in the bar, even if it is as salubrious as the VIP lounge in JFK.

- Joe O'Shea

Irish Independent