He portrayed Doctor Nicholas Rush in Stargate Universe. He was brought up by his father after his mother left when Carlyle was four years old. in 1991, he and four friends founded a theatre company, Raindog (which is now primarily involved in television and film work), and guest starred in The Bill. Carlyle played the senior Malachy McCourt (father of author Frank McCourt) in the 1999 film adaptation of McCourt’s first memoir, Angela’s Ashes, the arch villain Renard in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, and a cannibalistic soldier in the 1999 Ravenous. He also played the lead role as a marine engineer, attempting to save London from total devastation in the disaster film Flood. The director, Jamie Rafn, afterwards referred to Carlyle as an “utter genius”.
