Born to P.J. Barry and Dolores Du Bois on November 29th 1965 in New York,
New York, USA, Neill made his screen debut at the tender young age of
13 in the 'Martin Davidson' comedy Ein wahrer Held (1980), opposite _"Three's Company"_ star
John Ritter and a very youthful Kevin Bacon. Next came along the horror flick
Amityville 3 (1983), in which another star to be Meg Ryan featured in a brief part.
After a major role in Girls Wanna Have Fun (1984), Neill got his first top billing part, in
which should have been his breakthrough role, as Joseph King, Jr. in
Joey (1986), where he delivered a very moving performance as the basic run
of the mill rebel without a cause! Following the Robert Altman comedy
_O.C. and Stiggs (1987)_, Neill showed his darker side with a duo of psychotic roles in
the films Heat - Nick, der Killer (1986) with Burt Reynolds and Fatal Beauty (1987) alongside Whoopi Goldberg, in which
film critic Roger Ebert described as "not a great movie, but it has good
qualities." His next film, Killing Girls (1988), was a very little seen independent
film shot in Fremont, Nebraska, USA, where as Neill then shot an
episode of the hit series 21 Jump Street: Tatort Klassenzimmer (1987), before giving another towering
performance as Jill Ireland's adopted son John, who tragically died of an
accidental drug overdose in 1995, in the telefilm Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story (1991).
Over the next few years, Neill had a brief recurring role as Greg
Parker in another hit series Melrose Place (1992), before returning to film with
roles in She's So Lovely - Alles aus Liebe (1997), another little seen independent film Show & Tell (1998) and
showed his penmanship skills by co-authoring the story for Friends & Lovers (1999), a
film about a group of twentysomethings who hit the skiing slopes.
Starring alongside Neill in the film was the likes of Stephen Baldwin,
supermodel Claudia Schiffer and 'Robert Downey, Jr.'. Neill's older brother, Matthew Barry, is an
actor and casting director, whereas his sister Nina Barry is an actress
and casting associate. So far to date, his films have grossed over an
estimated $U90,000,000.
