Gary Lydon, one of the great Irish character actors of his era, has died suddenly. He was 61.
Lydon excelled as Garda Peadar Kearney in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin and won an Ifta for playing Patrick Murray in the RTÉ series The Clinic. He also played Brian Cowen in The Guarantee and appeared in Calvary, Brooklyn and War Horse. For many in Irish theatre, though, he was first noticed on stage in Billy Roche’s Wexford trilogy, where his work marked him out early as an actor with range and nerve.
Born in London in 1964 to Jimmy O’Brien from Wexford and Julie Lydon, who was London Irish, he moved back to Wexford when he was nine. He retained traces of an English accent throughout his life, and by his own account once considered a life in business before working with Billy Roche on A Handful of Stars, the first play in the trilogy. That production took him to the Bush Theatre in London with Aidan Gillen and Dervla Kirwan, and from there his screen and stage career widened.
He later starred in the world premiere of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, appeared in Conor McPherson’s The Weir at the Lyceum in Edinburgh and played Estragon in Waiting for Godot for Gare St Lazare Players at the Dublin Theatre Festival. In recent years, he lived in Roscommon and set up a theatre company there, keeping one foot in local performance even as he remained a familiar face in major Irish film and television work.
The loss is felt all the more sharply because Lydon had only just finished work on One Sweet Hour, a film by Declan Recks written by Eugene O’Brien in which he played the lead alongside Brían F O’Byrne. The film concerns an ageing Elvis impersonator travelling the canals of the Irish midlands, and there is as yet no premiere date. David Collins, speaking about the project, said Lydon had taken great creative risks, was hardworking and demanding in the best sense, especially on himself, and had completed his work very recently. His death now leaves that final performance waiting to be seen, and his body of work to stand as the record of an actor who made supporting roles unforgettable.
