GEOFF GOLDEN, who died on November 15th, was one of a dwindling group of actors who began their Abbey careers in the old building destroyed by fire in 1951. There is a fine photograph of Geoff, in his prime, recovering some of the stage props from the debris in George Duncan's The Abbey in Pictures. A remarkably handsome man, he had the physique which would have qualified him as a prop forward for the Wallabies had he remained in Sydney, where he was born of Irish parents in 1922. At an early age he came to Cork, where he was educated.
The Golden boys from Cork, Eddie and Geoff, made their first Dublin appearances in plays and pantomimes in Irish and in productions of the Abbey Experimental Theatre, one of Ria Mooney's innovations at the Peacock. Geoff, who had a scholarship to the College of Art, designed sets for productions by Jack MacGowran of plays by Teresa Deevy and Arthur Power.
Eddie, an older half brother, was the most famous boy actor trained at Father O'Flynn's "The Loft", the home of the Cork Shakespearean Society with whom he played Hamlet at the age of 16. He acted for a season with the Edwards MacLiammoir company in Dublin, London and New York. He was scholarly and reserved, with considerable talent as a director. Geoff was the opposite: colourful, sociable and unpredictable like his wife, the beautiful and superbly talented Maire Ni Dhomhaill. Even after they separated, their exploits remained part of theatre lore.
Both could have become celebrities, had the starring system been countenanced at the Abbey In those days, the easiest way to become an Abbey "star" was to get out of the place as Barry Fitzgerald, Cyril Cusack, Siobhan MacKenna and Ray MacAnally did in turn.
Geoff was one of the resident company who remained with the Abbey throughout the 15 year Babylonian Captivity at the Queen's Theatre. He was one of a group, including Harry Brogan Philip O'Flynn, Micheal O Briain and Micheal O hAonghusa, who seemed as hardy and indestructible as blackthorns.
It is fashionable nowadays to dismiss the Abbey years from the death of Yeats to the retirement of Blythe as a cultural wasteland. Apart from the disparagement of the work of Ria Mooney, Frank Dermody and Tomas MacAnna, this amnesia is unkind to the work of actors like Geoff in plays such as The Country Boy and This Other Eden and the film versions of Abbey comedies produced at Ardmore Studios. Some years later, in the new Abbey, he was an impressive Lopakin in Madame Knebel's unforgettable The Cherry Orchard. In the first production of The Sanctuary Lamp, he shared the honours with John Kavanagh. He was once popular with television viewers in soaps like Southside.
After ploughing the furrows of nearly 300 character parts and while still a pillar of the Abbey stage, he went quietly into happy retirement in Charleville in 1985. He too, had heard the chimes at midnight. Go dtuga Dia solas da cheile Maire agus da chlann Nuala agus Maire Og.