Robert Arkins

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Irish musician and actor

title: "Robert Arkins" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["irish-male-film-actors", "living-people", "place-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "musicians-from-dublin-(city)", "irish-male-songwriters", "20th-century-irish-male-singers", "male-actors-from-dublin-(city)", "people-from-drumcondra,-dublin", "20th-century-irish-songwriters"] description: "Irish musician and actor" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Arkins" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Irish musician and actor ::

Robert Arkins is an Irish musician and actor who played the role of Jimmy Rabbitte in the 1991 film The Commitments.

Life and career

A native of Drumcondra, Dublin, Arkins has been a professional musician from the age of 15. He left school at 17 to front his band, Housebroken. He is a vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who counts piano, bass and trumpet in his repertoire. Housebroken won the Sunday World Bandslam competition in 1988, after only having been established for three months.

With no prior acting experience, Arkins heard of the filming of The Commitments from his sister. Arkins was cast as Jimmy Rabbitte, the manager of the Commitments. Parker described the character of Rabbitte as "the glue that holds the whole film together". Despite not featuring as a singer in the film, Arkins did provide lead vocals for two tracks – Treat Her Right and Slip Away – on the accompanying soundtrack album.

Following the release of The Commitments Arkins moved back into music and signed a record deal with MCA Records in 1993, although he did not finish recording the consequent album. He has composed and produced work for a number of commercial clients, television projects, and for two short films. He briefly returned to acting in 1998, in a short film entitled What Are You Looking At?, In 2011, he joined fellow various cast members from The Commitments to perform a series of concerts across Ireland, to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary. This was followed by three dates in the UK in 2012. on a UK and Ireland Tour.

References

Wolf, Matt. (9 August 1991). "Irish Robert Arkins finds fame after making his debut in movie". [[Reading Eagle]].
Milton, Stephen. (2 October 2016). "He said it once and said it loud… So what became of Jimmy Rabbitte?". [[Irish Independent]].
Schoemer, Karen. (18 August 1991). "A Film Pursues the Redemptive Power of Rock-and-Roll". [[The New York Times]].
Kendall, Paul. (29 September 2013). "Whatever happened to The Commitments?". [[Daily Telegraph]].
(20 September 2016). "How We Made The Commitments".
[[The Commitments (film). (13 August 1991). "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". [[Geffen Records]].
"Artist Profile: Robert Arkins". My Music Source.
Martin, Paul. (26 November 2001). "Soul searching 10 years on". [[Daily Mirror.
(3 February 2007). "Whatever happened to the other stars of the Commitments?". [[Independent.ie]].
Steven. (13 July 2018). "Shane Conaty, Co-Director of 'The Comeback'".
McHarrie, Emma. (5 September 2011). "The Commitments Reunion Tour 2012". Click Liverpool.
Posted. (December 15, 2025). "Robert Arkins Commitments".
(January 2, 2026). "Robert Arkins Commitments coming to Dublin for 35th anniversary show".

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