Gary Lydon, the actor best known for his collaborations with the playwright Billy Roche and with directors such as Martin McDonagh and Steven Spielberg, has died.
He was born in London in 1964 to Irish parents but moved as a child to Wexford town, where he recently appeared in a production of Roche’s kitchen-sink drama Of Mornington, alongside his son, James.
Lydon worked extensively in theatre, television and cinema. He will be best known to Irish audiences for roles in the medical drama The Clinic, in which he played a counsellor, and the crime drama Love/Hate, in which he played a chief superintendent.
He also portrayed taoiseach Brian Cowen in The Guarantee, Colin Murphy’s 2014 dramatisation of the bank guarantee that nearly brought down the economy; his recent screen roles included playing a garda in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.
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Lydon, who died on April 30th, was nine when he and his family moved to his father’s native Wexford. “It was kind of a shock to the system,” he told The Irish Times in March. “In London, I was in a mixed school. When I came to Ireland, I went to the Christian Brothers, which was quite austere compared to London.”
The sense of being an outsider stayed with him and was arguably a defining feature of his acting: he was drawn to characters who didn’t quite fit in. But he was also intensely proud to be Irish.
“I remember when learning Irish, instead of beidh mé, I wrote beg mé and the Christian Brother ridiculed me in front of everyone,” he recalled. “But I’m quite a defiant person, and I really got into the Irish. I got really good at it in primary school and got a good grade, ultimately, in the Leaving Cert.”
Lydon’s acting life began in the southeast with Roche’s Wexford Trilogy of plays, in which he starred in the mid-1980s. “There was a pub in Wexford called the Imperial, and I used to go in there sometimes. Billy Roche was in a band, and I used to see him onstage. He was involved in a theatre company, doing a play by Woody Guthrie. That’s where, theatrically, I met him,” he recalled.
“Billy’s first play was called The Boker Poker Club; it became A Handful of Stars. I did that in Wexford, and then it was taken on by the Bush Theatre in London. Myself, Aidan Gillen and Dervla Kirwan went over. From that, I got an agent and ended up back living in London for a while.”
It was in London that Lydon would appear in the world premiere of Martin McDonagh’s play The Cripple of Inishmaan. He would work again with McDonagh on his Oscar-nominated film The Banshees of Inisherin and with McDonagh’s brother, John Michael, in The Guard and Calvary.
As a character actor, he was hugely respected in the theatre world. But despite starring alongside household names such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Clive Owen, the bright lights never held much appeal, and he preferred the quietness of Roscommon.
He recently started his own theatre company; its first production was Roche’s Of Mornington, at Wexford Arts Centre.
Lydon never quite lost his English accent and always saw himself as a product of two worlds: an Irishman born in London; a kid from Wexford who ended up working with some of the biggest names of stage and screen.
“Moving to Wexford from London was a bit of a culture shock,” he said once, “but I’m glad I did, because it’s a lovely town to grow up in. I still have a bit of an English accent – but I can do the Irish accent all right.”
Aidan Gillen paid tribute to Lydon after his death. “Gary was a one-off,” he said. “Our working and playing relationship goes well back, to teenage years. We started out together and have always had an eye on each other.
“The early London days together were heady, and I picked up an awful lot from watching Gary – not acting too much or too obviously while at the same time not trying to hide whatever storm might be going on inside him. There was always something, and it was always compelling.
“We had brilliant fun then, and a lot more along the way since. I was really happy to see him become the kind of beloved legend he became. He was funny and warm while never losing his edge or danger, and I know there are a couple of really special screen performances still to come – he was working prolifically right up until last week.
“I just never thought we’d be watching them from the perspective we’re now going to be watching them from.”
Wexford Arts Festival also paid tribute to Lydon, who had only recently returned to stage in the production Of Mornington, where he played a deeply flawed, down-on-his-luck former celebrity snooker player.
“Though heartbreaking, it is fitting that his final role on our stage was performed alongside his son James Doherty O’Brien in a terrific performance as Mike, the young vulnerable snooker player with a suspect past,” they said.
“The lights in the theatre world are dimmer due to the loss of Gary, but we will cherish the memories of his performances with reverence.”
