May Cluskey
Mary "May" Cluskey (18 May 1927 – 15 May 1991) was an Irish stage, film and television actress.
May Cluskey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Mary Elizabeth Cluskey 18 May 1927 |
| Died | 15 May 1991 (aged 63) Dublin |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | actress |
| Years active | 1960s to 1980s |
| Relatives | Frank Cluskey (brother) |
Early life
Mary Elizabeth Cluskey was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Francis Cluskey and Elizabeth Millington Cluskey. Her brother Frank Cluskey was a politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1977 to 1981.[1]
Career
Cluskey was a member of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin from 1972 to 1986. Writer Thomas Kilroy remembered her as "an extraordinary comic actress".[2] Among her roles at the Abbey were roles in The Silver Tassie (1972, 1973), The Stars Turn Red (1978) and Red Roses for Me (1980) by Seán O'Casey, Hatchet (1972)[3] and Red Biddy (1978) by Heno Magee, Pull Down a Horseman (1972) by Eugene McCabe, They Feed Christians To Lions Here, Don't They? (1972) by Francis Harvey, The Gathering (1974) and A Pagan Place (1977) by Edna O'Brien, Katie Roche (1975) by Teresa Deevy,[4] Faustus Kelly (1978), At Swim-Two-Birds (1981)[5] and The Hard Life (1986) by Flann O'Brien, The Hostage (1981) by Brendan Behan, and in works by Oscar Wilde, Richard B. Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, Dion Boucicault, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Anton Chekhov, W. B. Yeats, George S. Kaufman, John Millington Synge, and Bertolt Brecht.[6]
Although Cluskey usually played supporting roles, often mothers,[7] she played the title character in James Ballantyne's Sarah (1974). In 1976, she performed her one-woman show at the Gorey Arts Festival.[8] In 1982, she toured in Frank McGuinness's The Factory Girls. She also wrote two plays, Mothers (1976, with Tomás Mac Anna; a one-woman show in which she also starred),[9] and Or By Appointment (1986).[6]
Cluskey was also known for the roles she played in films, including Young Cassidy (1965),[10] Ulysses (1967),[11] and The Purple Taxi (1977).[12] On television she played Queenie Butler in the Irish soap opera Tolka Row,[13] for which she won a Jacob's Award in 1966.[14]
Personal life
Cluskey died in Dublin in 1991, days before her 64th birthday.[12]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Of Human Bondage | Sister | Uncredited |
| 1965 | Young Cassidy | Woman in Foyer | |
| 1967 | Ulysses | Mrs. Yelverton Barry | |
| 1967 | The Plough and the Stars | Mrs. Ginnie Gogan | |
| 1970 | Ryan's Daughter | Storekeeper | Uncredited |
| 1977 | The Purple Taxi | ||
| 1978 | On a Paving Stone Mounted | last film role |
References
- Dempsey, Pauric J.; White, Lawrence William. "Frank Cluskey". Dictionary of Irish Biography - Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- Chambers, Lilian; Gibbon, Ger Fritz; Jordan, Eamonn (2001). Theatre Talk: Voices of Irish Theatre Practitioners. Peter Lang. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-9534257-6-1.
- Welch, Robert (2003). The Abbey Theatre, 1899-1999: Form and Pressure. Oxford University Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-19-926135-2.
- "Katie Roche". Teresa Deevy Archive. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- "Tickets fly out for 'At Swim-Two-Birds'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- "Cluskey, May". Abbey Theatre, Abbey Archives. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- "The mothering touch". independent. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- Gorey Arts Festival '76 [1976]. Fri. 30 July poetry & music Cyril Cusack [and] Douglas Gunn Ensemble 9pm Adm. £1... National Library of Ireland: Funge Arts Centre. 1976.
- Hunt, Hugh (1979). The Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre, 1904-1978 [i.e. 1979]. Columbia University Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-231-04906-1.
- Davis, Ronald L. (17 December 2014). John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-8694-8.
- Dwyer, Michael. "Ban on 'Ulysses' film lifted after 33 years". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- "May Cluskey". BFI. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
- Kelly, Seamus. "Maura Laverty's Dublin: from Liffey Lane to Tolka Row". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
- Bedell, Roy (1 December 1966). "Hilton Edwards and May Cluskey (1966)". RTÉ Archives. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
External links
- A photograph of May Cluskey in a scene from Strindberg's Miss Julie (1963), by Roy Bedell, in the RTÉ Archives.
- A photograph of May Clusky (1973), by Ronan Lee, in the RTÉ Archives.
- Sam (May 12, 2018), "Anti-Amendment Music (1982-83)", Come Here to Me!, a blogpost including a photograph of May Cluskey with other performers, from a 1983 newspaper.
- May Cluskey at IMDb
- May Cluskey at Find a Grave; her grave is in Glasnevin Cemetery.