Actor James Nesbitt has received dividends totalling £460,000 (€546,028) from his production firm over the past two years.
New accounts for Brown Cow Films Ltd show that the star of Netflix hit show Stay Close received a dividend of £240,000 in the 12 months to the end of March last year, a year after the Derry man took a dividend payout of £220,000.
As a result, the firm’s accumulated profits increased only marginally last year – to £5.828 million from £5.808 million. In 2020, profits had jumped £782,555 to £5.808 million even after dividend payouts.
The company’s cash funds last year fell £721,765 to £499,939 while the amount owed by debtors rose £651,000 to £5.85 million. This includes £1.5 million owed by the “directors loan account” and £3 million owed by Nesbro Ltd.
Hit roles
The actor’s stellar TV career includes hit roles in Cold Feet while, in the year under review, he made a brief one-scene appearance in BBC’s hit police procedural drama Line of Duty.
The 57 year old has also starred in the award-winning Bloody Sunday and BBC’s hit prime time drama The Missing and has gained worldwide recognition after featuring in The Hobbit series of films that have amassed almost $3 billion at the box office.
Nesbitt’s time playing the dwarf Bofur involved him spending a total of two years in New Zealand for the Hobbit series, undertaking what he called the “brutal” journey to New Zealand 12 times.
More recently, Nesbitt has earned rave notices for his role in Bloodlands, a Northern Irish police procedural TV drama that was first shown in February of last year.
In 2016, Nesbitt was awarded an OBE in a new year’s list for services to Northern Ireland and to acting after years of work helping families affected by the conflict.
Nesbitt initially had ambitions of being a teacher, but dropped out of his college course to pursue a career in acting.
