{"id":791394,"date":"2026-07-29T13:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791394\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T13:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:38:10","slug":"glen-hansard-oscar-winning-once-musician-dead-at-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791394\/","title":{"rendered":"Glen Hansard, Oscar-Winning ‘Once’ Musician, Dead at 56"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIrish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard<\/a>, who achieved international fame starring in the 2007 drama Once, has died in a motorcycle crash at the age of 56. His death was confirmed by ATC Management, who represented Hansard.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGlen\u2019s family is deeply shocked and heartbroken by this tragic loss and respectfully requests privacy at this extremely difficult time,\u201d their statement reads. \u201cThe family is grateful for the support they have received and wishes to thank the emergency services who attended the scene. As this matter remains the subject of an active Garda investigation, no further comment will be made at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHansard, who also fronted rock band The Frames, died on Wednesday after an incident in Dublin. Garda\u00ed and emergency services were called to the scene shortly before 4.30 a.m. after receiving reports of a single vehicle collision.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe singer-songwriter won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for \u201cFalling Slowly,\u201d which he wrote and performed in Once alongside his co-star and former partner Mark\u00e9ta Irglov\u00e1.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tHansard had been active in music up until his death and released the second volume of his album Don+t Settle \u2013 Transmissions East & West last month.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was born in Ballymun, Dublin, in 1970 and began his career busking on the streets of the Irish capital as a teenager. He formed The Frames in 1990 and first came to wider attention when he starred in Alan Parker\u2019s The Commitments as guitarist Outspan Foster.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut it was 2007\u2019s Once that proved to be one of Hansard\u2019s most beloved and enduring works. John Carney\u2019s film followed Hansard and Irglov\u00e1 as two struggling musicians in Dublin who slowly fall in love. The film grossed $23 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2022, he announced the birth of his son, Christy, with his partner, Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa. Paying tribute, The Waterboys\u2019 Mike Scott said: \u201cJust heard that Glen Hansard has died. Travel on well, Buddy. You made your dreams come true. I\u2019m so sorry that he leaves his wife and 3-year-old child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tHansard was also admired by artists such as Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen, memorably performing with the latter on a live cover of \u201cDrive All Night\u201d at Kilkenny\u2019s Downlan Park in 2013. He also performed \u201cFairytale Of New York\u201d alongside Lisa O\u2019Neill at Shane MacGowan\u2019s funeral in December 2023.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story is developing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who achieved international fame starring in the 2007 drama Once, has died in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,55890,45482,13441],"class_list":["post-791394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-glen-hansard","tag-obit","tag-obituary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}