Gary Lydon, who has died suddenly, was one of the great Irish character actors of his era. Slightly hangdog in expression, with a rich, flexible voice, he excelled as the troubling Garda Peadar Kearney in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin. He was a convincing Brian Cowen in The Guarantee, a study of the 2008 banking crisis. He won an Ifta for his performance as Patrick Murray, a counsellor in the RTÉ series The Clinic.
Keep your eyes open and you will catch supporting turns in Calvary, Brooklyn and War Horse.
First noticed on stage in Billy Roche’s famous Wexford trilogy, he is remembered as a thoughtful man who had much to say about the business of acting.
“I always felt that he would take great creative risks with his performance,” the producer David Collins, who first worked with Lydon on the TV series Pure Mule, told The Irish Times. “That’s the first thing I would say, and that he was very hardworking. He was, in the best sense of the word, a demanding actor, not just on those around him but, particularly, on himself.”
READ MORE
Lydon was born in 1964, in London, to Jimmy O’Brien, from Wexford, and Julie Lydon, London Irish. Though the family moved back to his father’s home county when he was nine, he retained traces of an English accent throughout his life.
Lydon toyed with a life in business before falling in with Roche, the renowned Wexford playwright, musician and actor, who set to work on a trio of earthy plays that bolstered more than one career. “It was taken on by the Bush Theatre in London,” Lydon said of A Handful of Stars, the first play in the trilogy. “Myself, Aidan Gillen and Dervla Kirwan went over. From that, I got an agent and ended up back living in London for a while.”
[ Gary Lydon: Actor best known for Banshees of Inisherin dies aged 61Opens in new window ]
A busy career on screen and stage followed. He starred in the world premiere of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan. He appeared in Conor McPherson’s The Weir at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. He played Estragon in Waiting for Godot for Gare St Lazare Players at Dublin Theatre Festival.
Lydon never attained enormous fame, but he generated enviable respect as a versatile performer who was equally comfortable with the theatrical greats and mainstream screen work. Almost everybody with a TV will recognise the face. It was there for crumpled dignity, hammering rage and quiet sorrow. In recent years he lived in Roscommon, where he set up a theatre company.
Lydon’s death comes before the release of a film in which he took a rare leading role. Declan Recks’s One Sweet Hour, written by Eugene O’Brien, concerns an ageing Elvis impersonator travelling the canals of the Irish midlands.
“Over the years, it’s been a privilege to work with him,” Collins, producer of the film, told The Irish Times. “Last year we regrouped and he played the lead in our film along with Brían F O’Byrne. He only finished his work on that very recently.” There is, as yet, no premiere date for One Sweet Hour.
“Gary was a one-off,” Aidan Gillen told The Irish Times. “Our working and playing relationship goes well back, to teenage years. We started out together and have always had an eye on each other.
“The early London days together were heady, and I picked up an awful lot from watching Gary – not acting too much or too obviously while at the same time not trying to hide whatever storm might be going on inside him. There was always something, and it was always compelling.
“We had brilliant fun then, and a lot more along the way since. I was really happy to see him become the kind of beloved legend he became. He was funny and warm while never losing his edge or danger, and I know there are a couple of really special screen performances still to come – he was working prolifically right up until last week.
“I just never thought we’d be watching them from the perspective we’re now going to be watching them from.”
