{"id":565197,"date":"2026-07-29T12:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/565197\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T12:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:12:08","slug":"glen-hansard-dead-once-star-and-best-song-oscar-winner-was-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/565197\/","title":{"rendered":"Glen Hansard Dead: ‘Once’ Star and Best Song Oscar Winner Was 56"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGlen Hansard<\/a>, the Irish musician who starred in the 2007 film \u201cOnce<\/a>\u201d and won the best original song Oscar for \u201cFalling Slowly,\u201d died on Wednesday in a motorcycle crash. He was 56.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to the BBC<\/a>, Hansard was killed in a single-vehicle crash in his home city of Dublin on Wednesday. The accident was reported to emergency services around 4:30 a.m. and police are now calling for witnesses.<\/p>\n

\n\tATC Management, which represented Hansard, said in a statement (via the BBC): \u201cWith broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard who passed away, in the early hours of this morning, following a road traffic accident in Dublin. Glen\u2019s family is deeply shocked and heartbroken by this tragic loss and respectfully requests privacy at this extremely difficult time. The family is grateful for the support they have received and wishes to thank the emergency services who attended the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHansard was known as part of the Irish rock band The Frames and folk duo Swell Season. In 2007, he starred alongside his Swell Season bandmate, Czech singer Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1, in the low-budget musical drama \u201cOnce.\u201d The critically acclaimed film, written and directed by John Carney, follows two struggling musicians in Dublin who fall in love. Hansard and Irglov\u00e1 performed together as the folk band Swell Season, and composed and performed all of the movie\u2019s original music. The film\u2019s breakout duet, \u201cFalling Slowly,\u201d won them the Oscar for best original song at the 80th Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn and raised in Dublin, Hansard quit school at 13 to begin busking and formed The Frames in 1990. The next year, he gained international attention as guitarist Outspan Foster in the BAFTA-winning musical film \u201cThe Commitments,\u201d which follows a young musician in North Dublin who assembles a soul band of working-class kids. Hansard focused on recording music with The Frames \u2014 releasing seven albums between 1991 and 2006 \u2014 until starring in 2007\u2019s \u201cOnce,\u201d which further raised his profile. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs a solo artist, he toured with Eddie Vedder in 2011 and released his first solo studio album, \u201cRhythm and Repose,\u201d in 2012 via Anti Records. His next album, 2015\u2019s \u201cDidn\u2019t He Ramble,\u201d earned a Grammy nomination for best folk album. He went on to release three more solo albums: \u201cBetween Two Shores\u201d (2018), \u201cThis Wild Willing\u201d (2019) and \u201cAll That Was East Is West of Me Now\u201d (2023). In 2025, he released another Swell Season album with Irglov\u00e1, titled \u201cForward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Hansard did not lead another feature after \u201cOnce,\u201d he continued to work in TV and film. He recorded a cover of Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cYou Ain\u2019t Goin\u2019 Nowhere\u201d for Todd Haynes\u2019 \u201cI\u2019m Not There\u201d in 2007, voiced an Irish busker in a 2008 episode of \u201cThe Simpsons,\u201d made a documentary about Swell Season with Irglov\u00e1 in 2011, played himself in a 2012 episode of \u201cParenthood,\u201d appeared on a 2016 episode of the series \u201cThe Last Man on Earth\u201d titled \u201cFalling Slowly\u201d and contributed to the soundtrack for Sean Penn\u2019s 2021 film \u201cFlag Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHansard is survived by his partner, the poet Maire Saaritsa, and their 3-year-old son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glen Hansard, the Irish musician who starred in the 2007 film \u201cOnce\u201d and won the best original song…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,143751,85,46,101228],"class_list":["post-565197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-glen-hansard","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-once"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}