Jack MacGowran, the great Irish character actor known for his roles in the plays of Samuel Beckett, was born on October 13, 1918 in Ireland. He established his professional reputation as a member of the Abbey Players in Dublin, but he won his greatest fame for assaying Beckett's characters onstage. (In 1971, MacGowran would win the Obie Award for ...
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance, Obie Award for Best Performance By An Actor
Movies
The Exorcist, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Cul-de-sac, The Quiet Man, Age of Consent, Doctor Zhivago, Wonderwall, How I Won the War, Start the Revolution Without Me, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Tom Jones, The Giant Behemoth, Lord Jim, Young Cassidy, King Lear, The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go...
Star Sign
Libra
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[on working with Roman Polanski]: Both "Cul-de-Sac" and "Dance Of The Vampires" suffered from awkward translations of the original French scripts. After we had struggled on for a while, Roman said, "Throw away the script and say what you want to say." In my opening scene in "Cul-de-Sac", where I am marooned in the flooded car, I originally had a speech half-a-page long - completely unnecessary. I cut it completely and spoke one line only, off my own bat.
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Fact
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He was awarded the 1972 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Performance for the play, "The Works of Beckett," at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
Won the 1970-1971 Obie for Best Performance By an Actor in the off-Broadway play "Beckett".
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Born in Dublin, Jack MacGowran worked as an insurance assessor for eight years before becoming an actor with the Abbey Theatre. He made his film debut in John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952). He was also a noted stage actor specialising in works by Sean O'Casey and Samuel Beckett. He appeared in "Waiting For Godot" at the Royal Court Theatre London, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in "Endgame" at the Aldwych Theatre. He released an LP record, "MacGowran Speaks Beckett", to coincide with Samuel Beckett's 60th birthday. While Jack MacGowran was making Dance of the Vampires (1967), it was suggested by Roman Polanski and Gérard Brach, who wrote the original story for Wonderwall (1968), that he play the part of Professor Collins.
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Shortly after completing his role in The Exorcist (1973), he died in New York (He was appearing as Fluther in "The Plough and the Stars" with Siobhan McKenna at the time.
$1.7 Million
