Famous novelists and poets have been a staple of biopics - with varying results, as demonstrated by films which have dealt with writers from Ireland and the UK.
SEAN O'CASEY
Rod Taylor is unexpectedly effective in Young Cassidy(1965). As a bonus, Michael Redgrave plays WB Yeats and Edith Evans is Lady Gregory.
OSCAR WILDE
Peter Finch is stylish and affecting in The Trials of Oscar Wilde(1960), while Robert Morely is impressive in the rival Oscar Wilde(1960). A veil should be drawn over Stephen Fry's hesitant, wimpy portrayal in Wilde(1997).
BRENDAN BEHAN
US actor Shawn Hatosy is mannered and miscast as the young Behan in Borstal Boy(2000).
JAMES JOYCE
Portraying the artist as a young man in Nora(2000), Ewan McGregor gives an earthy performance and gets naked with Nora Barnacle (Susan Lynch).
JONATHAN SWIFT
In Words Upon the Window Pane(1994), early 20th Dublin spiritualists enlist a medium to communicate with Swift, played in an extended cameo by a bewigged Jim Sheridan.
CHRISTY BROWN
My Left Foot(1989) features Daniel Day-Lewis in a masterful performance that won him his first Oscar.
LORD BYRON
Gabriel Byrne as Byron, and Julian Sands and Natasha Richardson as Percy and Mary Shelley, remain admirably straight-faced in Ken Russell's wildly overwrought 1986 movie. (Matthew Rhys played Byron in the 2006 TV drama Beau Brummel.)
JOE ORTON
Gary Oldman gets under the playwright's skin and feasts on the sharp dialogue in Prick Up Your Ears(1987).
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Joseph Fiennes proves quite unremarkable as The Bard as a young man in surprise Oscar winner Shakespeare in Love(1998).
IRIS MURDOCH
Judi Dench is superb in Iris(2001), which also features Kate Winslet as the young Murdoch.
DH LAWRENCE
In his first movie lead, Ian McKellen gives a bravura performance in Priest of Love(1981).
CS LEWIS
Anthony Hopkins is on peak form as the writer falling for American poet Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) in Shadowlands(1993)
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Vanessa Redgrave is intriguingly eccentric as the mystery writer in the speculative Agatha(1979).
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Nicole Kidman dons a prosthetic nose and wins an Oscar for The Hours(2002).
