Gerard Butler Birthday & Age: Family, Law Career, Girlfriend Status & Movies Timeline

Gerard Butler — King Leonidas in 300, Mike Banning in the Has Fallen films and the booming voice of Stoick the Vast in How to Train Your Dragon — was born on 13 November 1969 in Paisley, Scotland. He is 56 years old, and his path to Hollywood is one of the most unusual in the business: he was nearly a lawyer.

Gerard Butler Profile

Detail	Information
Full name	Gerard James Butler
Born	13 November 1969, Paisley, Scotland
Education	University of Glasgow School of Law
First film	Mrs Brown (1997)
Famous for	300, The Phantom of the Opera, Olympus Has Fallen, How to Train Your Dragon
Homes	Los Angeles and Glasgow

Family and Childhood

Butler is the youngest of three children of Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookmaker. The Catholic family, of Irish descent, moved to Montreal, Canada, when he was just six months old. A year later his parents separated, and his mother brought him back to Scotland, where he grew up.

He did not see his father again until he was 16, when Edward arranged to meet him at a Glasgow restaurant. Butler has described that meeting as deeply emotional and has said it taught him how much feeling can be hidden inside a person — something he later drew on as an actor.

School and Law Studies

At St Mirin’s & St Margaret’s High School in Paisley he was head boy, and as a teenager he joined the Scottish Youth Theatre. He went on to study at the University of Glasgow School of Law and, after graduating, became a trainee at an Edinburgh law firm. But his heart was not in it, and one week before he would have qualified as a lawyer, he was let go.

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From Odd Jobs to Leading Man

At 25 he moved to London to chase acting. With no roles at first, he worked as a waiter, a telemarketer and a toy demonstrator at fairs. A chance meeting with an old friend from Scottish Youth Theatre, by then a casting director, got him an audition for Steven Berkoff’s stage production of Coriolanus. He won a part, then landed the role of Renton in a stage version of Trainspotting — the very play that had inspired him to act.

Career Timeline

Year	Film / Show	Role
1997	Mrs Brown	Film debut
1997	Tomorrow Never Dies	Small role in a James Bond film
2000	Dracula 2000	Count Dracula
2001	Attila	Attila the Hun
2004	The Phantom of the Opera	The Phantom (he took singing lessons for the part)
2006	300	King Leonidas
2010–2019	How to Train Your Dragon films	Voice of Stoick the Vast
2013–2019	Olympus / London / Angel Has Fallen	Secret Service agent Mike Banning
2018	Hunter Killer	Submarine commander Joe Glass
2020	Greenland	Lead role
2023	Plane and Kandahar	Action leads
2025	How to Train Your Dragon (live action)	Stoick the Vast, in person this time

Why 300 Changed Everything

Zack Snyder’s 300 turned Butler into a global action star. His roaring performance as the Spartan king made lines from the film famous at sports events — so much so that Michigan State University invited him as a guest to its Midnight Madness and homecoming football game in 2010.

Life Outside Movies

• He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch) since 2011.
• He is a lifelong Celtic fan and played in a charity match for the club in 2011.
• He supports the Scotland rugby team and appeared in promotional videos for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
• In 2013 he bought a stake in the Jamaica Tallawahs cricket team of the Caribbean Premier League.
• He has supported the school-meals charity Mary’s Meals since 2010 and visited its work in Liberia in 2014.
• His California home was destroyed in the 2018 Woolsey Fire.

Relationships and Marriage

Butler has never married and has no children. He keeps his romantic life private, and since he has not publicly confirmed any current relationship, we do not repeat tabloid rumours here.

👉 What else is celebrated on his birthday? November 13 Holidays and Observances

Frequently Asked Questions

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