When Tony Doyle stepped up to accept the Lifetime Achievement award from the Film Institute of Ireland in December 1998, the enthusiasm of the standing ovation was some indication of the deep respect and affection he commanded from his peers. But for this most professional of actors, at the peak of his powers, the Lifetime Achievement award appeared premature. Now it seems sadly prescient.
His increased prominence on Irish screens in recent years, in Ballykissangel, A Love Divided, I Went Down, and particularly through his award-winning central performance in Amongst Women, was just the culmination of a life spent on stage and screen. The Film Institute award, and the Best Actor accolade he received at the Irish Film and Television Awards at the end of last year, were recognition of how, after many years spent working primarily in Britain, this consummately professional performer had come home.
When the BBC first approached him about appearing in an Irish-set prime-time drama, he was doubtful but allowed himself to be persuaded. With the pick-up in Irish film production of the mid-1990s, other local roles followed. As the gangster godfather in I Went Down, he effectively combined paternalism with ruthlessness. In A Love Divided, his portrait of Father Stafford, the parish priest who led the Fethard-on-Sea boycott, was a finely judged mixture of hubris and weakness (and an interesting counterpoint to Father Sheehy, the priest he had played in The Riordans). But it was his performance as Moran, the embittered patriarch in the BBC's four-part adaptation of John McGahern's Amongst Women, which justly won him most praise.
In the pressurised and fractious world of film production, he was that rare thing, a person of whom only good is spoken. On screen, he often played father figures; on the set, he was a beacon of good humour and professionalism for both cast and crew. They, along with his family and many friends, will miss him greatly.
