Cyril Cusack

Gifted Irish stage performer, born in South Africa who made his film debut in 1917's "Knocknagow," but did not come into his own as a strong screen character actor until 1947 with Carol Reed's "Odd Man Out." With his quirky features, playful authority and an elfin face that sometimes registers melancholy or stern morality, Cusack most often portrayed clerics ("My Left Foot" 1989) but in "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1965), he played the spy chief and in Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451" (1966), the book-burning fire chief.

One of the most acclaimed stage actors of his generation, Cusack was famous for his association with Ireland's national theater, the Abbey; he was at various times also affiliated with Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Cusack also performed on Broadway, as in the memorable 1957 staging of Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten" in which he starred opposite Wendy Hiller. Active in theatre administration and production as well, he managed the Gaity Theater in Dublin for a while in the 1940s and founded his own Cyril Cusack Productions in 1944. He is the father of actresses Sinead, Niamh and Sorcha Cusack with whom he co-starred in the 1990 Gate Theater of Dublin's production of "The Three Sisters."