Ray McAnally

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Ray McAnally
Born March 30, 1926(1926-03-30)
Buncrana, Donegal, Republic of Ireland
Died June 15, 1989 (aged 63)
County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland
Years active 1957 - 1989
Spouse(s) Ronnie Masterson (1951-1989)

Ray McAnally (March 30, 1926 – June 15, 1989) was an Irish actor famous for his performances in films such as The Mission, My Left Foot, and A Very British Coup.

Ray McAnally was born in Buncrana, a seaside town located on the scenic Inishowen Peninsula of County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. The son of a bank manager, he was educated at St. Eunan's College in Letterkenny, after which he entered a seminary at the age of 18. However, he left the seminary after a short time having decided that the priesthood was not his vocation. He joined the Abbey Theatre in 1947 where he met and married actress Ronnie Masterson.

The couple would later form Old Quay Productions and present an assortment of classic plays in the 1960s and 1970s. He made his theatre debut in 1962 with A Nice Bunch of Cheap Flowers and gave a well-received performance as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, opposite Constance Cummings, at the Piccadilly Theatre.

On television he was a familiar face, often in glossy thriller series like The Avengers, Man in a Suitcase and Strange Report. In 1968 he took the title role in Spindoe, a series charting the return to power of a London gangster, Alec Spindoe, after a five-year prison term. This was a spin-off from another series, The Fellows (1967) in which McAnally had appeared in several episode as the Spindoe character.

He regularly acted in the Abbey Theatre and Irish festivals, but then, in the last decade of life, achieved award-winning notice on TV and films. His impressive performance as Cardinal Altamirano in the film The Mission (1986) earned him Evening Standard and BAFTA awards. His role in the BBC's A Perfect Spy (1987) also earned him a a second BAFTA award. In 1988 he won the the BAFTA for Best Actor for his performance in A Very British Coup, a role that also brought him a Jacob's Award. In the last year of his life, he portrayed Christy Brown (played by Daniel Day-Lewis)'s father in the Academy Award-winning film, My Left Foot (1989).

McAnally died suddenly of a heart attack on June 15, 1989, aged 63, at the home he shared with Irish actress Britta Smith (he and his wife were long separated) and received a posthumous BAFTA award for this last movie in 1990.

At the time of his death, he was due to play "Bull McCabe" in Jim Sheridan's film The Field, the part eventually going to Richard Harris (who would receive an Oscar nomination for his performance). He had also been cast in the lead role of 'First and Last', a drama about a man who walked from Land's End to John O'Groats. Filming of this was almost complete when he died, but the whole play had to be filmed again with Joss Ackland taking the role instead.

McAnally had four children, Conor, Aongus, Maire and Niamh. Aongus went on to become a television presenter, well known in Ireland, while Maire became a nun, joining the Dominican Sisters.

[edit] Filmography

Awards
Preceded by
Michael Palin
for A Fish Called Wanda		 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1990
for My Left Foot		 Succeeded by
Salvatore Cascio
for Nuovo cinema Paradiso
Preceded by
Denholm Elliott
for Defence of the Realm		 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1987
for The Mission		 Succeeded by
Daniel Auteuil
for Jean de Florette

[edit] External links

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