{"id":564527,"date":"2026-05-03T20:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/564527\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T20:13:13","slug":"gary-lydons-sudden-death-comes-before-release-of-film-in-which-he-took-a-rare-leading-role-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/564527\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lydon\u2019s sudden death comes before release of film in which he took a rare leading role \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Lydon, who has died suddenly<\/a>, 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<\/a>\u2019s The Banshees of Inisherin. He was a convincing Brian Cowen<\/a> in The Guarantee, a study of the 2008 banking crisis. He won an Ifta for his performance as Patrick Murray, a counsellor in the RT\u00c9 series The Clinic. <\/p>\n

Keep your eyes open and you will catch supporting turns in Calvary, Brooklyn and War Horse. First noticed on stage in Billy Roche\u2019s famous Wexford trilogy, he is remembered as a thoughtful man who had much to say about the business of acting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always felt that he would take great creative risks with his performance,\u201d producer David Collins, who first worked with Lydon on the TV series Pure Mule, told The Irish Times. \u201cThat\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lydon was born in 1964, in London<\/a>, to Jimmy O\u2019Brien, from Wexford, and Julie Lydon, London Irish. Though the family moved back to his father\u2019s home county when he was just nine, he retained traces of an English accent throughout his life. <\/p>\n

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. \u201cIt was taken on by the Bush Theatre in London,\u201d Lydon said of A Handful of Stars, the first play in the trilogy. \u201cMyself, Aidan Gillen and Dervla Kirwan went over. From that, I got an agent and ended up back living in London for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

A busy career on screen and stage followed. He starred in the world premiere of Martin McDonagh\u2019s The Cripple of Inishmaan. He appeared in Conor McPherson\u2019s The Weir at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. He played Estragon in Waiting for Godot for Gare St Lazare Players at the Dublin Theatre Festival.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Lydon\u2019s death comes before the release of a film in which he took a rare leading role. Declan Recks\u2019s One Sweet Hour, written by Eugene O\u2019Brien, concerns an ageing Elvis impersonator travelling the canals of the Irish midlands. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, it\u2019s been a privilege to work with him,\u201d Collins, producer of the film, told The Irish Times. \u201cLast year we regrouped and he played the lead in our film along with Br\u00edan F O\u2019Byrne. He only finished his work on that very recently. I mean, what can I say? Condolences to his family and all those who knew him.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is, as yet, no premiere date for One Sweet Hour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gary Lydon, who has died suddenly, was one of the great Irish character actors of his era. Slightly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,193543,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-564527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-lord-peter-mandelson-epstein-files-scandalpa2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}