This bitter winter has deprived us of several distinguished actors of stage and screen. Some of them, such as Jennifer Jones and Jean Simmons were well known, others such as Gene Barry and Parnell Roberts less well so. In the latter category we could place Donal Donnelly, an actor of Tyrone provenance, who died in early December at the age of 79. Essentially a stage actor, Donal Donnelly was a familiar figure in quite a few movies for half a century, even though most film goers would have found it difficult to fit a name to the face. His lithe frame and lean features made him a natural as an exponent of the works of Samuel Beckett, and he was also widely praised for his interpretation of Private Gar in Brian Friel's classic play 'Philadelphia Here I Come'. Mr Donnelly's father was a doctor from east Tyrone and the future actor was born and educated in England.
He achieved a greater prominence beyond his work on the stage when he was cast by John Ford in a 1957 film called 'The Rising of the Moon', known in the US as 'Three Leaves of the Shamrock'. The film was financed by the Irish-American actor Tyrone Power and was comprised of three short films, all of them with an Irish theme. The first was virtually a two-hander (for Cyril Cusack and Noel Purcell), adapted from a story by Frank O'Connor. The second was a farce with Jimmy O'Dea and Maureen Potter among many others, entitled 'A Minute's Wait' and set at a railway station, somewhere in the Irish Midlands. The third part was an adaptation of Lady Gregory's one-act play 'The Rising of the Moon', about the springing of a Republican prisoner from Galway Jail during the black-and-tan war. Donnelly had a substantial part as one of the rescuers and this section of the film is of historic interest in that it was filmed in the Galway prison, shortly before it was demolished to make way for the huge cathedral which now stands on the site, close to the River Corrib.
In the following year, Donal Donnelly had a supporting part in another film also made in Ireland, and also set during the War of Independence. The stars were from Hollywood - James Cagney, Dana Wynter and Dan Murray and the supporting cast included young Irish actors including Donal Donnelly, Ray McAnally and Richard Harris, the latter two tending to overshadow Donnelly in his admittedly minor role.
In 1965 John Ford came to Ireland again to make a film about the early career of the Dublin dramatist Sean O'Casey. Ford is said to have favoured Donnelly in the title role, but Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which was bank-rolling the movie 'Young Cassidy' wanted a bankable star name to guarantee American audiences. The part went to the Australian actor, Rod Taylor and Donal Donnelly's was down-sized to the role of an undertaker's assistant who refused to handle O'Casey's mother's funeral, until there is cash in hand. Ford collapsed with a heart attack a few days into the filming, and the picture was finished by Jack Cardiff. Ford recovered from his illness, but was to make only one more film. Had he lived longer, it is possible that Donal Donnelly would have moved on to bigger screen parts.
In the same year of 1965 Donnelly appeared in a British comedy entitled 'The Knack', a characteristic product of the mid-sixties, set in 'swinging London' and directed in quirky style by Dick Lester, who had recently made the Beatles movie 'A Hard Day's Night'.
In 1970 Donnelly took time out from his stage work to appear in the Russian-Italian epic 'Watermelon', directed by the celebrated Russian director Sergei Bondarchuk. Rod Steiger played Napoleon and Christopher Plummer was Wellington. Donnelly had a cameo role as an Irish foot soldier who produces a live pig from his knapsack in the presence of the Duke, as if to give substance to Wellington's alleged comment about the Inniskilling Fusiliers, "I don't know about the enemy, but they scare the hell out of me."
John Huston's last film was an elegiac screen version of James Joyce's story 'The Dead', one of the most faithful adaptations of a iterary classic ever accomplished. Many of its distinguished cast have passed away since the picture was made in 1987: Donal McCann, Marie Keane, O'Herlihy, Frank Patterson and now, Donal Donnelly. Donnelly played the part of Freddy Malins, a somewhat dissolute guest at a genteel social dinner set among a set of brittle middle-class types in a big Dublin house in the early 1900s. Donnelly more than held his own in this sterling cast of players.
About this time Donal Donnelly appeared as Rashers Tierney, in an elaborate stage version of James C Plunkett's 'Strumpet City; at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. The play was called 'The Risen People' and was a very expensive production, which had difficulty in covering its costs.
Francis Ford Coppola's 'Godfather III' (1990) featured, amongst a big cast, Donal Donnelly as a Machiavellion archbishop, very much at home in the Vatican's marbled halls, and not above engaging in some shady financial transactions. He seemed always to have a cigarette in his hand.
I have concentrated on Donal Donnelly's film work, because it has been accessible to us and preserved for posterity in some superior films.
In evidence the court heard that the plaintiff, who had been the victim of an industrial accident was claiming compensation on the grounds that he had been seriously incapacitated and could not stand upright, let along walk. The plaintiff was, according to medical evidence which he had furnished, confined to a wheelchair, and had to be wheeled into the court. For the defence of his former employees, video evidence was produced of the claimant dancing in a local disco. He countered these allegations by saying the film in question had been shot before his accident. Addressing the jury, the presiding judge commented, "You will have to decide whether or not this man has a leg to stand on."
The chairman of Thai Airways, one Wallop Bhukknasut, has been cashiered for trying to avoid paying for 398 kilograms in excess baggage on a flight from Japan to Bangkok. He had hoped to save £3,500.
And the leader of the Air Traffic Controllers union, which caused disruption at Irish airports last week is a Mr Landers.
A poultry farmer in England has been awarded £42,000 in an action against the Royal Air Force, on the grounds that the planes were frightening his chickens. Shelling out?
The Republic's Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, has told RTE that the official inquiry into the Irish banks will be "Held in private, but not in secret."
So, the blockbuster 'Avator' has become the biggest grossing movie of all time. But that's only if you discount the inflation factor. At one time 3d was the price of admission.
