Colleagues and friends of the Co Roscommon-born actor, Tony Doyle (58), have paid tribute to the performer who died suddenly in a London hospital early yesterday morning.
RTE's managing director of television, Mr Joe Mulholland, said he was "shocked and upset". Mr Mulholland was with the former star of RTE's The Riordans and more recently the BBC TV series Ballykissangel just hours before he died. They both attended the London premiere of the Gate production of the Beckett play, Krapp's Last Tape, on Thursday evening.
"He was in great form, his usual lively, friendly self. We discussed his future plans and the possibility of him working with RTE again," he said. Coming so soon after the death of Donal McCann it was a huge loss, he said.
RTE is preparing a tribute programme to the actor.
His fellow Ballykissangel star, Niall Toibin, yesterday described him as "never less than competent and usually magnificent".
"He was the most consistently employed actor in British and Irish TV over the past 10 years," he said. Doyle was a workaholic and a joy to work with.
Doyle, who played the wily businessman, Brian Quigley, in the series, was due to begin filming again in May.
The former Ballykissangel star, Stephen Tompkinson, said: "Tony was one of the loveliest men I ever worked with and a close friend." A spokeswoman for another former star of the programme, Dervla Kirwan, said she was "totally devastated".
Doyle, who had lived in London since the 1960s, was described as a precise and careful actor by a former flatmate, Joe Lynch, from Glenroe. Last year he received an Irish Television and Film Award for his work on the BBC2/ RTE production of John McGahern's Amongst Women, decades after landing his first major Irish TV role in RTE's The Riordans.
British roles included those in Taggart, Peak Practice, Band of Gold and more recently as Deakin in the crime drama, Be- tween The Lines. He had parts in two recently-released Irish films, I Went Down and A Love Divided.
The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, described the UCD graduate as one of the foremost character actors of his time and praised his "continued excellence".
The BBC1 controller, Mr Peter Salmon, said he was shocked by the actor's death, adding that the cast and crew and millions of Ballykissangel fans had lost a dear and charming friend. "Tony Doyle was arguably the best actor of his generation to come out of Ireland," he said.
The BBC will be showing a classic episode of Ballykissangel tomorrow at 6.15 p.m.
A London coroner, Mr John Bradley, said the actor collapsed at his home before being taken to St Thomas's Hospital where he died at around 2 a.m. The cause of death will not be confirmed until after a post-mortem on Monday. A funeral in Ireland is being arranged.
Tony Doyle is survived by his wife, Sally, and six children, three of them from his first marriage, including his daughter Susannah Doyle (32), a London-based actress.