Jack Reynor reveals family's strife ahead of Hollywood break

Actor Jack Reynor's family was plagued with financial and medical strife before he landed his breakthrough role in Transformers: Age Of Extinction.

The Irish actor was raised in a small rural community in Ireland's County Wicklow by his mother and maternal grandparents, and the family regularly struggled with money problems.

Their woes deepened 2012 when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, leaving Reynor at his lowest point - but she survived and the fortunes of the whole family changed when Reynor was offered a role in the latest Transformers movie by Steven Spielberg.

He tells Britain's The Times newspaper, "It was as bad as you can possible imagine. A really dark time. I didn't know whether my mother would live or die. I was at the end of my tether... My mother now works full-time as my financial manager. As a team my mother, my family, and me, we are all incredibly lucrative at the moment."