Famous Irish actor dies at age 89.Niall Toibin,the Irish veteran on stage and screen who appeared in films directed by David Lean, Ron Howard and Joel Schumacher, died Wednesday in Dublin.Niall Tóibín was an Irish comedian and actor. Born in Cork into an Irish speaking family, Tóibín grew up on the north-side of the city in Bishop’s Field. He appeared in Ryan’s Daughter, Bracken, The Ballroom of Romance, The Irish R.M., Caught in a Free State, Ballykissangel, Far and Away, and Veronica Guerin.
Born one of seven children on Nov. 21, 1929, in County Cork, Ireland, the colorful Toibin spent 14 years with the Radio Éireann Players in Dublin before joining the Abbey Theatre.He starred on stage as writer Brendan Behan and appeared on the big screen in ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ and ‘Far and Away.’
Toibin starred as famous Irish writer Brendan Behan in a 1967 stage version of Behan’s Borstal Boy at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and shared a Drama Desk Award for his performance after it moved to Broadway in 1970 and won the Tony for best play. It was a role he returned to in seven other productions during his long career.
Toibin also appeared for Lean in Ryan’s Daughter (1970), starring Robert Mitchum; for Howard in Far and Away (1992), starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; and for Schumacher in Veronica Guerin (2003), starring Cate Blanchett.
His film résumé also included Poitín (1978), Eat the Peach (1986) and The Ballroom of Romance (1986).Toibin portrayed the boozy Slipper on the Channel 4 series The Irish R.M. and starred on the Irish soap opera Bracken with Gabriel Byrne and in the 1981 miniseries Brideshead Revisited alongside Jeremy Irons.
“The depth of interpretation that he brought to a wide variety of characters showed a very deep intellectual understanding and, above all, sensitivity to the nuance of Irish life,” Ireland president Michael Higgins said.
The Irish Film and Television Academy honored Toibin with a lifetime achievement award in 2011.The title of his 1995 memoir, Smile and Be a Villain, was taken from Hamlet.
