Denys Hawthorne:DENYS HAWTHORNE, who has died aged 77, was a stage, film, television and radio actor, best known in Ireland for his role as Mr Yearling in the RTÉ production of Strumpet City. First shown in 1980, a digitally remastered version was released in 2003.
With the other members of a strong cast, which included Cyril Cusack, Angela Harding, Donal McCann, Brian Murray and Peter O’Toole, he brought James Plunkett’s epic story of the 1913 lock-out to life, in the process contributing to the making of an Irish television drama classic.
His many films include Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father(1993) and Eviction(1999), his last film, in which he appeared with Cillian Murphy. His television credits include Easter 2016, written by Graham Reid and televised in 1982, which put Kenneth Branagh on the road to stardom.
Born in Portadown, Co Armagh, in 1932, Denys Hawthorne came from a comfortable background.
He read law at Queen’s University, Belfast, and as a student took part in a historic debate at Trinity College Dublin, when the first woman to do so addressed a major college society – in this case the “Phil”.
Drawn to the stage, he joined the Ulster Group Theatre, where he was part of a group of talented actors including Colin Blakely, Stephen Boyd, James Ellis and Patrick Magee.
This newspaper's theatre critic in 1955 found him "compelling" in Joseph Tomelty's All Souls Night.The following year he came across with "sincerity and feeling" in Cradle Songby Gregorio and Maria Martinez Sierra.
In 1958, he took the lead in James Bridie's Dr Angelus, a study of a poisoner, and gave "one of the best pieces of acting [seen] in Belfast for a long time". That year he was also cast in Tyrone Guthrie's production of The Bonfireby Gerald McLarnon. The play caused controversy before the curtain went up, featuring as it did a love affair between a Catholic and a Protestant.
The group washed its hands of the play, which was moved to the Belfast Opera House and enjoyed considerable success.
He moved to London, where he had already distinguished himself as the Old Man in the Royal Court production of Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs(1957). Another major success came in 1960 when he played Stephen Dedalus in Bloomsday, a dramatisation of James Joyce's Ulyssesat the Unity Theatre.
Highly regarded by playwright Harold Pinter for his “beautiful voice”, he found a natural home in the BBC radio drama repertory company and was much in demand as a radio actor throughout his career.
His vocal skills also brought him work reading poetry on air. In 1962 he took part in a reading of Richard Murphy's The Cleggan Disasterwith the poet on the BBC Third Programme. He became the leading interpreter of Louis MacNeice's poetry after the poet's death in 1963. In 1972 he was appointed producer of BBC Northern Ireland radio drama, a position he held for 18 months.
Later in the 1970s he appeared with Desmond Perry in Hugh Leonard's adaptation of Seán Ó Faoláin's Dividendsfor Granada Television. In 1984 he featured in the RTÉ/Channel 4 drama series The Price, in addition to appearing in the television adaptation of Anne Devlin's The Long March.
Other television credits include Within These Walls, Dr Who, Inspector Morseand Father Ted.
He continued his association with theatre in Ireland. In 1981 he appeared in Tom Kilroy's version of Chekhov's The Seagullat the Dublin Theatre Festival. That year also he toured with the Irish Theatre Company's production of Denis Johnston's The Scythe and the Sunset. He was back in Dublin in 1988 to appear in Aidan C Mathews's bittersweet Exit Entranceat the Peacock theatre.
With Seán McGinley and John Pankow in 1993 he starred in Robin Lefevre's production of Someone Who'll Watch Over Meby Frank McGuinness at the Abbey theatre.
He impressed during a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican, most notably in Henry IVand Romeo and Juliet(both 1992) and as Duncan, King of Scotland, in Macbeth(1993).
Before his film career drew to a close he appeared in The Russia House(1990), and he played Mr Woodhouse opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in Jane Austen's Emma(1996).
He was awarded the Society of Authors' prize for his dramatisation of Jennifer Johnston's novel How Many Miles to Babylon?In 2002 he was a joint recipient of a Spoken Word Publishers Association award for his contribution to the recording of Yeats's poetry for Naxos audiobooks.
He lived in Hove, East Sussex. His wife Rita Christina and his stepchildren Desmond, Sean and Aine survive him.
Denys Vernon Hawthorne: born August 9th, 1932; died October 16th, 2009