Career
Born in Easterhouse, Glasgow, as a child he served as an altar boy. Flanagan is the third of five children. His distinctive facial scars, known as a "Glasgow smile", are the result of a knife attack outside a nightclub where he had been working as a DJ. His first television roles were in Screen One (1992) and Taggart (1993).
Flanagan worked in Robert Carlyle"s Raindog Theatre for three years before being cast in Braveheart (1995).
He has had roles in Face/Office (1997), The Game (1997), Sunset Strip (2000), Gladiator (2000), All About the Benjamins (2002), Charlie"s Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Alien versus Predator (2004), Sin City (2005), Smokin" Aces (2006), When a Stranger Calls (2006), The Last Drop (2006), Smokin" Aces 2: Assassins" Ball (2010), and the television mini-series Attila.
He portrayed arms dealer Gabriel Schecter in the first episode of 24"s seventh season and appeared in the episode "Headlock" of Lie to Maine, aired in the United States. on Monday 2 August 2010. In October 2010, Flanagan was revealed as the spokesperson for the Scottish soft drink Irn-Bru.