Barry Fitzgerald

Barry Fitzgerald
Born	William Joseph Shields (1888-03-10)10 March 1888 Dublin, Ireland
Died	14 January 1961(1961-01-14) (aged 72) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1924–61
Spouse(s)	Lifelong bachelor

Barry Fitzgerald (10 March 1888 – 14 January 1961) was an Irish stage, film and television actor.^[1] In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Quiet Man (1952). For Going My Way (1944), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and was simultaneously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Life

Birthplace of Barry Fitzgerald on Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin

He was born William Joseph Shields in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland.^[2] He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. He went to Skerry's College, Dublin, before going on to work in the civil service,^[3] while also working at the Abbey Theatre. His career with the Abbey Theatre was from 1914 - 1936 where he was involved in numerous productions^[4]

By 1929, he turned to acting full-time. He was briefly a roommate of famed playwright Seán O'Casey^[5] and starred in such plays as O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock and the premiere of The Silver Tassie.

Between 1931 and 1936 he appeared in three plays by Irish Playwright Teresa Deevy, A Disciple,^[6] In Search of Valour^[7] and Katie Roche,^[8] these were also Abbey Theatre productions.

Fitzgerald went to Hollywood to star in another O'Casey work, The Plough and the Stars (1936), directed by John Ford.^[2] He had a successful Hollywood career in such films as The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), And Then There Were None (1945), The Naked City (1948) and The Quiet Man (1952).

In 1945, Fitzgerald achieved an as-yet-unmatched Academy Awards feat. For portraying Father Fitzgibbon in Leo McCarey's Going My Way (1944), he was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (which he ultimately won) and the Academy Award for Best Actor;^[2] voting rules were changed shortly after this occurrence to prevent further dual nominations for the same role. An avid golfer, he later accidentally decapitated his Oscar while practicing his golf swing; during the Second World War, Oscar statuettes were made of plaster instead of gold, to accommodate wartime metal shortages. The Academy provided Fitzgerald with a replacement statuette.^[9]

He returned to live in Dublin in 1959.^[2]

Fitzgerald has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for films at 6220 Hollywood Blvd. and for television at 7001 Hollywood Blvd.

Filmography

Source: "Barry Fitzgerald". IMDb. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 

Radio appearances

See also

• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References and sources

• Boylan, Henry (1999). A Dictionary of Irish Biography. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-2945-4. 

External links

• Barry Fitzgerald at the Internet Movie Database
• Barry Fitzgerald at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• Photos of Barry Fitzgerald in The Long Voyage Home by Ned Scott
• Barry Fitzgerald at the Abbey Theatre
• Barry Fitzgerald at the Teresa Deevy Archive