#OTD in 1952 – Birth of actor, Liam Neeson, in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

Liam worked as a forklift operator for Guinness, truck driver, assistant architect and an amateur boxer. He had originally sought a career as a teacher by attending St. Mary’s Teaching College, Newcastle. However, in 1976, Neeson joined the Belfast Lyric Players’ Theater and made his professional acting debut in the play “The Risen People”. After […]

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#OTD in 1950 – Birth in Dublin of actor, director, producer, writer, cultural ambassador, Gabriel Byrne.

His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne’s screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the spin-off show Bracken. He has now appeared in over 35 feature films, including Excalibur (1981), Miller’s Crossing (1990), The Usual Suspects (1995), Stigmata (1999), End […]

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#OTD in 1916 – Birth of actor, Gregory Peck, in La Jolla, California.

Gregory Peck was born in La Jolla, California. One of the world’s most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play major film roles until the late 1970s. Catherine Ashe, the paternal grandmother of Gregory Peck, who emigrated to the United States in the 19th century was a relative of […]

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#OTD in 1952 – Birth of actor and comedian, Dermot Morgan, in Dublin.

A former schoolteacher from Dublin, Dermot Morgan broke into comic acting in the late 1970s. He became a household name in the late 1980s for his work on the RTÉ radio show Scrap Saturday, which satirised the Irish politics of the day on either side of the political spectrum as well as business and church […]

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#OTD in 1955 – Birth of actor, Brendan Gleeson, in Dublin.

“I tend to look for the good in bad people and the bad in good people, to make them human. ‘Cause I don’t think that people generally are that black and white. Maybe in movie-land they can be… but that isn’t necessarily all there is.” –Brendan Gleeson He is the recipient of three IFTA Awards, […]

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#OTD in 1916 – Birth of John Herbert ‘Jackie’ Gleason in Brooklyn, NY.

‘It wasn’t an act of God, it was an act of Guinness’. –Jackie Gleason on Brendan Behan Gleason, nicknamed ‘The Great One’, was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style. His parents were Mae ‘Maisie’ (née Kelly), from Farranree, Co Cork, and Herbert Walton ‘Herb’ Gleason, an Irish-American insurance auditor. He was in […]

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#OTD in 1961 – Death of stage, film and television actor, Barry Fitzgerald, in Dublin.

Barry Fitzgerald was born William Joseph Shields in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin. He was the older brother of actor, Arthur Shields. As a child he played with the younger siblings of James Joyce who he called ‘a young man with a beard and very clever.’ He went to Skerry’s College, Dublin, before going on to […]

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#OTD in 1946 – Birth of film and stage actor, Stephen Rea (born Graham Rea) in Belfast.

Stephen Rea has appeared in films such as V for Vendetta, The Butcher Boy, This Is My Father, Evelyn, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire, Breakfast on Pluto and Black 47. Rea was nominated for an Academy Award for his lead performance as Fergus in the 1992 film The Crying Game. He has had important […]

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#OTD in 1965 – Birth of comedian and actor, Ardal O’Hanlon, in Co Monaghan.

Ardal O’Hanlon was born in 1965 in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, the son of Rory O’Hanlon, a politician and doctor, and has five siblings. RTÉ’s Who do you think you are? programme on Monday 6 October 2008 examined Ardal’s family tree. He discovered that his paternal grandfather, Michael O’Hanlon, a UCD medicine student, had joined the […]

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#OTD in 1959 – Birth of musician, Gavin Friday, in Dublin.

Birth of Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey) in Dublin. He is a singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter and founder of post-punk band The Virgin Prunes. Friday was born in Dublin and grew up in Ballygall a neighbourhood located on Dublin’s Northside located between Finglas and Glasnevin where he went to school. When […]

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