Ray McAnally

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Ray McAnally
Born(1926-03-30)30 March 1926
Buncrana, County Donegal, Ireland
Died15 June 1989(1989-06-15) (aged 63)
County Wicklow, Ireland
Years active1957–1989
Spouse

Ray McAnally (30 March 1926 – 15 June 1989) was an Irish actor. He was the recipient of three

A Very British Coup in 1989. In 2020, he was ranked at number 34 on The Irish Times's list of Ireland's greatest film actors.[1]

Background

Ray McAnally was born in

Maynooth Seminary at the age of 18 but left after a short time having decided that the priesthood was not his vocation. He joined the Abbey Theatre in 1947 where he met and married actress Ronnie Masterson
.

Acting career

McAnally and Masterson later formed Old Quay Productions and presented an assortment of classic plays in the 1960s and 1970s. He made his West End theatre debut in 1962 with A Nice Bunch of Cheap Flowers and gave a well-received performance as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, opposite Constance Cummings, at the Piccadilly Theatre.

On television he was a familiar face, often in glossy thriller series like

The Fellows
(1967) in which McAnally had appeared as the Spindoe character in several episodes. He could render English accents very convincingly.

In 1976 McAnally appeared in the

confidence trickster found guilty of fraud
.

In 1988, a century after the

Sir William Gull, Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria, and whom the producers of the programme had unmasked as the killer.[2]

McAnally regularly acted in the Abbey Theatre and at Irish festivals, but in the last decade of life he achieved award-winning notice on TV and films. His performance as Cardinal Altamirano in the film

My Left Foot
(1989).

Death

McAnally died suddenly of a

BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his last film in My Left Foot in 1990.[6]

At the time of his death he was due to play 'Bull' McCabe in Jim Sheridan's film The Field. The part eventually went to Richard Harris, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance. McAnally had also been cast in the lead role of First and Last, a drama about a man who walked from Land's End to John o' Groats. Almost a third of the filming had been completed when he died but the whole play had to be refilmed, with Joss Ackland taking the role instead. [citation needed]

McAnally had four children: Conor, Aonghus, Máire and Niamh. Conor is a producer, based in Texas, and Aonghus is a television and radio presenter/producer in Ireland.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Clarke, Donald; Brady, Tara. "The 50 greatest Irish film actors of all time – in order". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Jack the Ripper | A Television Heaven Review". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015.
  3. ^ "Television in 1988 | BAFTA Awards".
  4. ^ "1989 Television Actor | BAFTA Awards".
  5. ^ Collins, Glenn (17 June 1989). "Ray McAnally, Stage and Film Actor, Dies at 63". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
  6. ^ "BAFTA Awards".

External links

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