Actor. Born in Kilwinning (North Ayrshire), the son of a joiner, and brought up for a time in Kilbirnie, Friels emigrated to Australia with his family as a teenager. He trained at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1976. He began his career on the stage but went on to have success on film, including Malcolm (1986), which won Friels an Australian Film Institute Best Actor award, Class Action (1991), A Good Man in Africa (1994), with Sean Connery (b. 1930), Angel Baby (1995), Dark City (1998), with Ian Richardson (b. 1934), The Man who Sued God (2001), with Billy Connolly (b. 1942) and Black and White (2002), with Robert Carlyle (b. 1961). His television work has included the Australian detective series Water Rats (1996-99).
