Jack Gleeson returns to TV as Famous Five villain after Game of Thrones
Jack Gleeson, the Irish actor who played the notorious Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones, is making a comeback to the small screen after nine years of retirement. He will star as Wentworth, a character from Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five series, in a BBC adaptation that will air next year.
Gleeson, 31, announced his retirement from acting in 2014, shortly after his character was killed off in the fourth season of the HBO fantasy drama. He said he was less passionate about the job and wanted to pursue other interests, such as studying philosophy and theology at Trinity College Dublin.
“I just stopped enjoying it as much as I used to. And now there’s the prospect of doing it for a living, whereas up until now it was always something I did for recreation with my friends, or in the summer for some fun. I enjoyed it. When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do,” he told Entertainment Weekly at the time.
