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Date of Birth : May 7th 1943

His career included parts in many plays from the Irish literary canon, including Tarry Flynn, The Shaughran, and the Gate Theatre’s highly acclaimed production of Sean O’Casey’ classic, Juno and the Paycock, in the 1980s —. McCann played the Paycock (Captain Boyle) opposite Geraldine Plunkett as Juno and John Kavanagh as Joxer Daly — and a subsequent production of O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars. McCann developed a particularly fruitful relationship with the playwright Brian Friel. He played dual roles in Philadelphia, Here I Come in 1970 and gave a landmark performance as Frank Hardy, the title character, in Faith Healer in 1980 (a role he reprised in 1994), continuing his relationship with Friel through productions of Translations (1988) and Wonderful Tennessee (1993).

Friel has said that McCann’s work “contains extraordinary characteristics that go beyond acting … it is deeply spiritual”. Perhaps McCann’s most renowned role was as Thomas Dunne in Sebastian Barry’s The Steward of Christendom. He won the London Critics Circle Theatre Award (Drama Theatre) as best actor for this role in 1995 and, following a twelve-week run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, his “performance of unarguable greatness” (New York Observer) had Newsweek hailing him as “a world-class star”, and the New York Times referring to this “astonishing Irish actor…widely regarded as the finest of them all”.

On the London stage, McCann played in Prayer for My Daughter opposite Sir Anthony Sher (1978), and was Jean to Dame Helen Mirren in Miss Julie (1971). This was filmed for the BBC, and McCann would much later play Judge Brack with Fiona Shaw in the title role of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, a production filmed for the BBC in 1993.


CAREER

December Bride ( 1991 )

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High Spirits ( 1988 )

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The Dead ( 1987 )

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