Gerard James Butler was born on 13 November 1969 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, the youngest of three children of Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookmaker. He is from a Catholic family of Irish descent. Butler’s family moved to Montreal, Quebec, when he was six months old. A year later, when his parents’ marriage broke down, his mother left Quebec and returned to Scotland with baby Gerard aged 18 months.

Then aged 27, Butler had his first professional acting job. Less than a year later, he won a part in a theatre adaptation of Trainspotting, which he performed at the Edinburgh Festival. At age 30, Butler decided to move to Los Angeles; there he won parts in Dracula 2000, Tomb Raider 2, Dear Frankie, and Phantom of the Opera.

His film career continued with small roles, first in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and then Russell Mulcahy’s Tale of the Mummy (1998). In 2000, Butler was cast in two breakthrough roles, the first being Attila the Hun in the American TV miniseries Attila (2001). The film’s producers wanted a known actor to play the part but eventually chose Butler. He was cast as Dracula in Dracula 2000 (2000).

He then appeared in Reign of Fire (2002) as Creedy and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003) as Terry Sheridan, alongside Angelina Jolie. In the role of Andre Marek in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel Timeline (2003), Butler played an archaeologist who was sent back in time with a team of students to rescue a colleague. In 2003, director Joel Schumacher was deciding on the principal casting for the film The Phantom of the Opera, a film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name, and thought of Butler, whom he had seen earlier in the film Dracula 2000, to play the title character. Butler, who had had no musical experience other than singing in a rock band while he was studying to be a lawyer, was surprised at the interest, but immediately began taking singing lessons with a vocal coach. He then did an acting audition with Schumacher, and a singing audition with Lloyd Webber, both of whom were impressed by his performance. The film, and Butler’s performance, received mixed reviews, though Butler was nominated for a Satellite Award for Best Actor.

In 2006, he starred as Spartan King Leonidas in the Warner Bros. production 300, which is often described as his breakthrough role. Butler, who said he “wanted to look really strong” in the film, trained with a high-intensity workout for four months prior to the film’s shooting. In 2007, he appeared in Butterfly on a Wheel co-starring Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello, which aired on network TV under the title Shattered, and in the romantic comedy P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank. In 2008, he appeared in Nim’s Island and RocknRolla. In 2009, he starred in the Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor film Gamer, The Ugly Truth and Law Abiding Citizen, which he also co-produced. In 2010 he starred in the action/comedy The Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston, and did a voice-over for the 2010 animated film How to Train Your Dragon as Stoick the Vast.

Since October 2011, Butler has divided his time between Los Angeles and Glasgow.

In 2011 Butler was rushed to the Stanford University Medical Center after suffering a surfing incident in Mavericks, California during the filming of the film Of Men and Mavericks. Butler was stable and released from the hospital later that week.

In 2011 Butler played in a charity match for Celtic F.C., a football club he has supported since childhood. A year later he represented Celtic in a Hollywood film, starring as a “has-been” player in Playing for Keeps. In August 2013, he bought an equity stake in the Jamaica Tallawahs cricket team, which forms part of the Limacol Caribbean Premier League (CPL).

Butler has stated in interviews that he does not drink alcohol. In February 2012, it was announced that he had completed a course of treatment for substance abuse of painkillers at a rehabilitation facility. This was after he was concerned he had become too reliant on prescribed pain medication, which escalated when he was involved in a surfing incident while filming Chasing Mavericks.

Butler starred as Secret Service agent Mike Banning in the action thriller Olympus Has Fallen (2013), opposite co-stars Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman. Butler said he broke two bones in his neck while shooting the film, but did not realise this until he had an MRI scan. Butler reprised his voice role as Stoick in How to Train Your Dragon 2 in 2014. Two years later, Butler reprised his role as Mike Banning in the Olympus Has Fallen sequel London Has Fallen and also portrayed Set in Gods of Egypt. Late in 2018 Butler starred as submarine captain Commander Joe Glass of the USS Arkansas, a Virginia class nuclear submarine, in the film Hunter Killer. He starred as Mike Banning again in the 2019 film Angel Has Fallen. After release delays due to Covid-19, Butler is set to star in Greenland in Fall 2020.

Butler has been a supporter of the charity Mary’s Meals since 2010. He visited the international development charity’s programme in Liberia in 2014.

In 2018 Butler attended a fundraiser gala organised by Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), which raised $60 million.

In November 2018, Butler’s home was destroyed in the Woolsey Fire. He posted video of the damage on social media.