Johnny Murphy, a versatile and accomplished Dublin actor who has died aged 72, will probably be best remembered for his role as Joey "the Lips" Fagan in the 1991 film The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker and based on the novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle.
Actor and musician Maria Doyle Kennedy, who starred with him in the film, said the word “gentleman” was invented for him, describing him as a “kind and quite shy” man whose favourite thing was “the time he spent on the crossword every day”.
Glen Hansard, an actor and musician who also appeared in The Commitments, said he felt "privileged to have crossed his path": "Dublin has lost a bright old street lamp … The city is a little dimmer for his passing."
He was the youngest of five children of Arthur Murphy (a carpenter) and Bridget Garry and grew up on Benmadigan Road in Drimnagh in Dublin. He attended primary school at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Mourne Road, Drimnagh and went to Ard Scoil Áine secondary school in Crumlin.
Acting interested him from an early age; he started drama classes aged 12 in his local boys' club, where his tutor was Finbar Howard, an Abbey actor. He began his professional career at the Focus Theatre on Upper Pembroke Street, founded by the late Deirdre O'Connell, where he joined other future stars like Gabriel Byrne and Tom Hickey.
In a career that spanned almost 60 years, he was never out of work. He acted in a number of plays under the direction of Jim and Peter Sheridan at the Project, notably in their landmark production of James Plunkett's The Risen People in 1977. In 1988 he was in Ben Barnes's production of Big Maggie at the Abbey with Brenda Fricker.
Godot role
Possibly his most celebrated theatre role was as Estragon (with Barry McGovern as Vladimir) in the Gate Theatre’s acclaimed 1988 production of
Waiting for Godot
, directed by Walter Asmus. Murphy reprised the role in the 2001 film version.
Among his favourite plays were two by Jimmy Murphy, a playwright who, like himself, grew up in working-class Dublin: Brothers of the Brush, voted Best New Irish Play at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1993 and A Picture of Paradise (first performed in 1997).
In The Commitments, Murphy was the only professional actor on set and Glen Hansard said that he and the other younger participants all looked up to him. "He was so generous and gave us all the direction we weren't getting from Alan Parker … Johnny always had a kind word to say to put us at ease. He was a wonderful mix of professional actor and irreverent Dubliner and on set all our eyes were on him to lead us through."
Other film work followed, such as Into the West (1993), War of the Buttons (1995) and Angela's Ashes (1999).
Murphy did not marry but had a daughter, Niamh, with the late Valerie Matthews. He lived all his life on Benmadigan Road in his parents’ old house. His favourite haunt was the Inchicore Workman’s Club where he could be found doing the Crosaire crossword and watching the racing. He preferred to be there than at any red-carpet event.
He is survived by his daughter, Niamh, granddaughter Caoimhe, brother Archie and extended family.