Micheál MacLiammóir
Encyclopedia
Micheál Mac Liammóir born Alfred Willmore, was an English
-born Irish
actor
, dramatist
, impresario
, writer
, poet
and painter
. Mac Liammóir was born to a Protestant family living in the Kensal Green
neighbourhood of London
.
. He studied painting at London's Slade School of Art
, continuing to paint throughout his lifetime. In the 1920s he travelled all over Europe. Willmore was captivated by Irish culture: he learnt Irish
which he spoke and wrote fluently and he changed his name to an Irish version, presenting himself in Ireland as a descendant of Irish Catholics.
While acting in Ireland with the touring company of his brother-in-law Anew MacMaster, Mac Liammóir met his partner and lover, Hilton Edwards
. Their first meeting took place in the Athenaeum, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, which is currently in a state of disrepair. Deciding to remain in Dublin, where they lived at Harcourt Terrace, the pair assisted with the inaugural production of Galway's Irish-language theatre, An Taibhdhearc
; the play was Mac Liammóir's version of the mythical story Diarmuid agus Gráinne
. Mac Liammóir and Edwards then threw themselves into their own venture, co-founding the Gate Theatre
in Dublin in 1928. The Gate became a showcase for modern plays and design (even as Mac Liammóir himself maintained an ongoing fascination with Celticism
). Mac Liammóir's set and costume designs were key elements of the Gate's success. His many notable acting roles included Robert Emmet/The Speaker in Denis Johnston's The Old Lady Says "No!" and the title role in Hamlet.
In 1948, he appeared in the NBC
television production of Great Catherine
with Gertrude Lawrence
. In 1951, during a break in the making of Othello, Mac Liammóir produced Orson Welles
's ghost-story Return to Glennascaul
which was directed by Hilton Edwards. He played Iago
in Welles's film version of Othello
(1952). His Iago is unusual in that Mac Liammóir was about fifty (and looked older) when he played the role, while the play gives Iago's age as 28. This may have been because of Welles' intended interpretation - he wanted Iago played as an older "impotent" consumed by envy for the younger Othello. The following year, he went on to play 'Poor Tom' in another Welles project, the TV film of King Lear (1953) for CBS
.
Mac Liammóir wrote and performed a one-man show, The Importance of Being Oscar
, based on the life and work of Oscar Wilde
. The Telefís Éireann
production won him a Jacob's Award in December 1964. It was later filmed by the BBC
with Mac Liammóir reprising the role.
He narrated the 1963 film Tom Jones
and was the Irish storyteller in 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968) which starred Dudley Moore
.
In 1969 he had a supporting role in John Huston
's The Kremlin Letter
. In 1970 Mac Liammóir performed the role of narrator on the cult album Peace On Earth by the Northern Irish showband The Freshmen
and in 1971 he played an elocution teacher in Curtis Harrington
's What's the Matter with Helen?
.
Mac Liammóir claimed when talking to Irish playwright, Mary Manning, to have had a homosexual relationship with General Eoin O'Duffy
, former Garda Síochána
Commissioner and head of the quasi-fascist Blueshirts in Ireland
, during the 1930s. The claim was revealed publicly by RTÉ
in a documentary, The Odd Couple, broadcast in 1999. However, Mac Liammóir's claims have not been substantiated.
Mac Liammóir is the subject of the 1990 play The Importance of Being Micheál (also published as a book) by John Keyes.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, dramatist
Irish theatre
The history of Irish theatre begins with the Gaelic Irish tradition. Much of the literature in that Celtic language was destroyed by conquest, except for a few manuscripts and fragments, such as the Book of Fermoy...
, impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Irish poetry
The history of Irish poetry includes the poetries of two languages, one in Irish and the other in English. The complex interplay between these two traditions, and between both of them and other poetries in English, has produced a body of work that is both rich in variety and difficult to...
and painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
. Mac Liammóir was born to a Protestant family living in the Kensal Green
Kensal Green
Kensal Green, also referred to as Kensal Rise is an area of London, England. It is located on the southern edge of the London Borough of Brent and borders the City of Westminster to the East and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the South....
neighbourhood of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Life and work
As Alfred Willmore, he was one of the leading child actors on the English stage, in the company of Noel CowardNoël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
. He studied painting at London's Slade School of Art
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
, continuing to paint throughout his lifetime. In the 1920s he travelled all over Europe. Willmore was captivated by Irish culture: he learnt Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
which he spoke and wrote fluently and he changed his name to an Irish version, presenting himself in Ireland as a descendant of Irish Catholics.
While acting in Ireland with the touring company of his brother-in-law Anew MacMaster, Mac Liammóir met his partner and lover, Hilton Edwards
Hilton Edwards
Hilton Edwards was an English-born Irish actor and theatrical producer. He was the son of Thomas George Cecil Edwards and Emily Edwards ....
. Their first meeting took place in the Athenaeum, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, which is currently in a state of disrepair. Deciding to remain in Dublin, where they lived at Harcourt Terrace, the pair assisted with the inaugural production of Galway's Irish-language theatre, An Taibhdhearc
Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe
Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe or An Taibhdhearc , abbreviated TnaG, is the national Irish language theatre of Ireland. It was founded in 1928....
; the play was Mac Liammóir's version of the mythical story Diarmuid agus Gráinne
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne is an Irish prose narrative surviving in many variants...
. Mac Liammóir and Edwards then threw themselves into their own venture, co-founding the Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
in Dublin in 1928. The Gate became a showcase for modern plays and design (even as Mac Liammóir himself maintained an ongoing fascination with Celticism
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
). Mac Liammóir's set and costume designs were key elements of the Gate's success. His many notable acting roles included Robert Emmet/The Speaker in Denis Johnston's The Old Lady Says "No!" and the title role in Hamlet.
In 1948, he appeared in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television production of Great Catherine
Great Catherine
Great Catherine is a 1968 British comedy film directed by Gordon Flemyng, based on a play by George Bernard Shaw, and starring Peter O'Toole, Zero Mostel, Jeanne Moreau and Jack Hawkins...
with Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
. In 1951, during a break in the making of Othello, Mac Liammóir produced Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
's ghost-story Return to Glennascaul
Return to Glennascaul
Return to Glennascaul, also known as Orson Welles' Ghost Story, is a 1951 short film starring Orson Welles. It was written and directed by Hilton Edwards and produced by Micheál MacLiammóir....
which was directed by Hilton Edwards. He played Iago
Iago
Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient . He is the husband of Emilia,...
in Welles's film version of Othello
Othello (1952 film)
Othello is a 1952 drama film based on the Shakespearean play, made by Mercury Productions Inc. and Les Films Marceau and distributed by United Artists . It was directed and produced by Orson Welles, who also played the title role . The screenplay was adapted by Welles and an uncredited Jean Sacha...
(1952). His Iago is unusual in that Mac Liammóir was about fifty (and looked older) when he played the role, while the play gives Iago's age as 28. This may have been because of Welles' intended interpretation - he wanted Iago played as an older "impotent" consumed by envy for the younger Othello. The following year, he went on to play 'Poor Tom' in another Welles project, the TV film of King Lear (1953) for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
.
Mac Liammóir wrote and performed a one-man show, The Importance of Being Oscar
The Importance of Being Oscar
The Importance of Being Oscar is a one man show devised by the soi-disant Irish actor Micheál MacLiammóir and based on the writings of Oscar Wilde....
, based on the life and work of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
. The Telefís Éireann
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is the flagship television channel of Raidió Teilifís Éireann , and it is the most popular and most watched television channel in Ireland. It was launched as Telefís Éireann on 31 December 1961, it was renamed RTÉ Television in 1966, and it was renamed as RTÉ One upon the launch of RTÉ...
production won him a Jacob's Award in December 1964. It was later filmed by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
with Mac Liammóir reprising the role.
He narrated the 1963 film Tom Jones
Tom Jones (film)
Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...
and was the Irish storyteller in 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968) which starred Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
.
In 1969 he had a supporting role in John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
's The Kremlin Letter
The Kremlin Letter
The Kremlin Letter is an American noir film directed by John Huston, starring Richard Boone, Orson Welles, Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Patrick O'Neal and George Sanders. It was released in February 1970 by 20th Century-Fox...
. In 1970 Mac Liammóir performed the role of narrator on the cult album Peace On Earth by the Northern Irish showband The Freshmen
The Freshmen (Irish showband)
The Freshmen were among the most popular Irish showbands of the 1960s and 1970s. They specialised in recreating the complex vocal harmonies of international acts such as The Beach Boys and The 5th Dimension...
and in 1971 he played an elocution teacher in Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films, horror films, and episodic television.-Biography:...
's What's the Matter with Helen?
What's the Matter with Helen?
What's the Matter With Helen? is a 1971 thriller film starring Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters.-Plot:The movie starts with a Hearst Metrotone newsreel from the 1930s that tells of the Iowa murder of Ellie Banner by Leonard Hill and Wesley Bruckner...
.
Mac Liammóir claimed when talking to Irish playwright, Mary Manning, to have had a homosexual relationship with General Eoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy was in succession a Teachta Dála , the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army , the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, leader of the Army Comrades Association and then the first leader of Fine Gael , before leading the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during...
, former Garda Síochána
Garda Síochána
, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí , is the police force of Ireland. The service is headed by the Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.- Terminology :...
Commissioner and head of the quasi-fascist Blueshirts in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, during the 1930s. The claim was revealed publicly by RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
in a documentary, The Odd Couple, broadcast in 1999. However, Mac Liammóir's claims have not been substantiated.
Mac Liammóir is the subject of the 1990 play The Importance of Being Micheál (also published as a book) by John Keyes.
Books
- Put Money In Thy Purse
- Each Actor On His Ass
- Ceo Meala Lá Seaca
- Enter A Goldfish
- All For Hecuba
- Oícheanna Sidhe
- Lá agus Oíche
- Aisteoirí Faoi Dhá Sholas
- Theatre in Ireland
- Ireland
- Bláth agus Taibhse
- An Oscar Of No Importance
- W.B.Yeats and his world, with Eavan Boland
Plays
- Diarmuid and Grainne / Diarmuid agus Gráinne
- Ill Met By Moonlight
- Oíche Bealtaine
- Where Stars walk
- The Importance of Being Oscar (One-man show)
- I Must Be Talking To my Friends (One-man show)
- Talking About Yeats (One-man show)