Ray McAnally

Although Irish character actor Ray McAnally would become one of his country's most revered stage actors, he will be forever remembered by audiences both here and abroad for a couple of films he made during the last years of his life. Born on March 30, 1926, in the seaside town of Buncrana and the son of a bank manager, he was educated at St. Eunan's College and entered a seminary at the age of 18. Lucky for us stage and filmgoers, the priesthood proved not to be his calling, and he departed after only a brief time. Ray joined the Abbey Theatre in 1947 where he met and married actress Ronnie Masterson. The parents of four children, they would later form Old Quay Productions and present an assortment of classic plays in the 60s and 70s. He made a triumphant London theatre debut in 1962 with "A Nice Bunch of Cheap Flowers" and gave a towering performance as George in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opposite legendary British actress Constance Cummings at the Piccadilly Theatre. He routinely acted in the Abbey and Irish festivals, but then, in the last decade of life, achieved award-winning notice on TV and films. Ray entered films with a prime role in the obscure Irish romantic comedy Professor Tim (1957) and continued for a short time with featured roles in the British She Didn't Say No! (1958), Desert Patrol (1958), The Naked Edge (1961), Billy Budd (1962) and He Who Rides a Tiger (1965). Moving into TV, he was handed two crime series -- as a gangland boss in the Spindoe (1968) and an inspector in The Burke Enigma (1978). He also impressed in the mini-series Pollyanna (1973), A Perfect Spy (1987), A Very British Coup (1988), Jack the Ripper (1988), and Great Expectations (1989) (as Mr. Jaggers). Seen from time to time in such films as Quest for Love (1971), Fear Is the Key (1972), The Outsider (1979) and Angel (1982), it was Ray's later impressive performances that started collecting awards. As Cardinal Altamirano in the movie The Mission (1986), he earned both Evening Standard and BAFTA awards and his role in the BBC production of A Perfect Spy (1987) earned another BAFTA award (for TV). In the last year of his life, he was absolutely awe-inspiring as Daniel Day-Lewis's father in the Academy Award-winning film My Left Foot (1989), the story of cerebral palsy victim Christy Brown, who overcame his severe disability to become a flourishing artist and writer. Just as he was receiving international film attention, the 63-year-old McAnally died suddenly of a heart attack in Ireland on June 15, 1989. He received a third BAFTA award (posthumously) for the last movie mentioned in 1990. A fitting end to a versatile, galvanizing talent.