Donal Donnelly

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Donal Donnelly, drawing by Reginald Gray from 1956

Donal Donnelly (born July 6, 1931 in Bradford , West Yorkshire , † January 4, 2010 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an English - Irish actor .

Life

Donnelly was born in north-west England to a Northern Irish father and Irish mother. He grew up in Dublin , where the family had moved in Donnelly's youth.

Donnelly attended Synge Street Christian Brothers School in Dublin. During his school days he was already involved in theater productions at his school, among others with Milo O'Shea , Eamonn Andrews and Jack MacGowran .

After finishing school he became a member of Anew McMaster's Irish Repertory Company, a touring theater with which he toured in Ireland and England. Later he also played in a theater company led by Cyril Cusack . He made his official stage debut in 1952 at the Gate Theater in Dublin in a production by Dr. Faustus .

From the late 1950s, Donnelly went to London as a stage actor and appeared in the West End . There he played in 1958 at the Lyric Hammersmith Theater Tommy Owens in Shadow of a Gunman by Sean O'Casey . 1959 followed Sparky in Sergeant Musgrave's Dance by John Arden at the Royal Court Theater . In 1960 he took over at the side of Siobhán McKenna on the role of Christy Mahon in the Piccadilly Theater The Playboy of the Western World ( The Playboy of the Western World ) by John Millington Synge . In 1962 he played at the Mermaid Theater in Red Roses for Me , also by Sean O'Casey.

He returned to Ireland in 1964 and played Garreth O'Donnell (Gar) in the world premiere of the play Philadelphia Here I Come! At the Gaiety Theater in Dublin . by Brian Friel .

In 1966 he made his Broadway debut alongside Helen Hayes , also in Philadelphia Here I Come! . In 1966 he was nominated for the Tony Award for this acting performance as best actor in a drama . Donnelly then played regularly on Broadway. In 1968 he took on the role of Bri in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg directed by Peter Nichols at the Brooks Atkinson Theater from Albert Finney . In 1979 he played Teddy with James Mason at the Longacre Theater in the world premiere of Faith Healer . Other important roles were in 1979 at the Booth Theater, alongside David Bowie , the Dr. Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance , 1982 at the Roundabout Theater der Maitland in Das Haus im Kreidegarten ( The Chalk Garden ) by Enid Bagnold and 1984 at Ford's Theater der Scrooge in a stage version of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens . In 1989 he played the Jew Weiskopf in Joshua Sobol's play Ghetto at the Circle in the Square Theater .

In the 1990s Connelly appeared again on Broadway in plays by Brian Friel: 1991 at the Plymouth Theater in Dancing at Lughnasa and 1995 also at the Plymouth Theater in Translations . The 1991 production of Dancing at Lughnasa won a Tony Award . In 2006 Donnelly played his last stage role on Broadway, in Don Juan in Hell from the comedy Mensch und Übermensch by George Bernard Shaw .

Donnelly also starred in numerous movies and television productions. John Ford hired him in the 1950s as a supporting actor for his films The Rising of the Moon (1957) and Gideon's Day (1958). In 1964 he starred with Rita Tushingham in the British comedy The Certain Kniff, directed by Richard Lester . Donnelly's best-known film roles included 1987 as Freddy Malins in John Huston's The Dead , a film adaptation of the short story of the same name by James Joyce , and in 1990 Archbishop Gilday in The Godfather - Part III by Francis Ford Coppola .

Donnelly had lived in Westport , Connecticut , since 1979 . He died after a long illness in January 2010 at the age of 78 years to cancer .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1957: The Rising of the Moon
  • 1958: Chief Inspector Gideon ( Gideon's Day )
  • 1965: Cassidy the Rebel ( Young Cassidy )
  • 1965: The Knack ( The Knack ... and How to Get It )
  • 1970: The Mind of Mr. Soames ( The Mind of Mr. Soames )
  • 1970: Waterloo
  • 1987: The Dead (The Dead)
  • 1990: The Godfather - Part III ( The Godfather Part III )
  • 1994: Mesmer
  • 1995: A Roman Summer ( Korea )
  • 1998: Love and Passion ( Love & Rage )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donal Donnelly Biography (1931-) biography and list of roles at Filmreference.com
  2. ↑ GATE | FRIEL-A Celebration of the Work of Brian Friel ( Memento from January 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Website GATE | FRIEL
  3. ↑ Ferndale Films . Theater productions and cast details
  4. ↑ Actor Donal Donnelly, star of stage and screen, dies after cancer battle Irish Times, January 6, 2010
  5. ↑ Irish actor Donal Donnelly dies RTÉ Entertainment on January 5, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Donnelly, Donal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English-Irish actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Bradford
DATE OF DEATH January 4, 2010
Place of death Chicago , Illinois