Brefni O'Rorke explained

Brefni O'Rorke
Birth Name:William Francis Breffni O'Rorke
Birth Date:26 June 1889
Birth Place:Dollymount, Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
Death Place:Hendon, Middlesex, England[1]
Othername:Brefni O'Rourke
Occupation:Actor
Years Active:1939–1946

Brefni O'Rorke (26 June 1889 – 11 November 1946) was an Irish actor, both on the stage and in movies.[2]

Early life

O'Rorke was born as William Francis Breffni O'Rorke at 2 Esplande Villas in Dollymount, Clontarf, Dublin on 26 June 1889,[3] and baptised at Clontarf Parish Church on 1 August 1889.[4] His father, Frederick O'Rorke, was a cork merchant, and his mother, Jane Caroline O'Rorke, née Morgan, was an actress.[3] [4] [5] He had an older brother, Frederick, who was twelve years older than him.[6] [7]

Career

O'Rorke began studying acting with his mother and made his professional début in 1912 at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin in a production of Shaw's John Bull's Other Island. While still living in Dublin, he met and married in 1916 Alice Cole, a chorus-girl turned actress, who had divorced her first husband and immigrated from South Africa with her young son. Thus O'Rorke became the stepfather of Cyril Cusack. Other theatre roles included the title role in Finn Varra Maa (1917), a musical "pantomime" (or rather, light opera) written by Thomas Henry Nally with music by Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer.[8]

In 1939 he appeared in several broadcasts in the new fledgling BBC television broadcast, including a play by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy called The King of Spain's Daughter,[9] and produced by Denis Johnston.

Partial filmography

posthumous complete:

Television

National Television started in October 1936, initially broadcast just two hours a day. The station stopped broadcasting at the start of the War, and didn't restart until 1946.

"Plays" (like everything else) could last just one hour maximum, but some were only 25 minutes long. Also, there was no recording possible, so any repeat was really a new broadcast (as in The Advantages of Paternity).

Dramas

class=unsortable style="border:hidden;line-height:1.67;margin-left:-1em;text-align:center;padding-left:0.5em;min-width:1.0em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;padding-left:0.5em;text-align:left;min-width:16.5em;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;" The King of Spain's Daughterclass=unsortable style="border-style:none;text-align:right;font-weight:normal; font-size:95%; min-width:8.5em;padding-right:0.2em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;min-width:3.5em;padding-left:0;" class=unsortable style="border:hidden;min-width:3.5em;font-size:95%;"
WriterTeresa Deevy
ProducerDenis Johnston
Annie KinsellaPhyllis Ryan
Peter KinsellaBrefni O'Rorke
Mrs MarksAnn Clery
Jim HarrisPatrick Boxill
Roddy MannTony Quinn
class=unsortable style="border:hidden;line-height:1.67;margin-left:-1em;text-align:center;padding-left:0.5em;min-width:1.0em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;padding-left:0.5em;text-align:left;min-width:16.5em;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;" The Advantages of Paternityclass=unsortable style="border-style:none;text-align:right;font-weight:normal; font-size:95%; min-width:8.5em;padding-right:0.2em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;min-width:3.5em;padding-left:0;" class=unsortable style="border:hidden;min-width:3.5em;font-size:95%;"
A comedy by Horton Giddy.
AuthorHorton Giddy
ProducerDenis Johnston
General YaguninBrefni O'Rorke
Colonel IlyitchFrank Thornton-Bassett
BrunovErik Chitty
OrderlyStuart Latham
class=unsortable style="border:hidden;line-height:1.67;margin-left:-1em;text-align:center;padding-left:0.5em;min-width:1.0em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;padding-left:0.5em;text-align:left;min-width:16.5em;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;" Good Morning, Bill!class=unsortable style="border-style:none;text-align:right;font-weight:normal; font-size:95%; min-width:8.5em;padding-right:0.2em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;min-width:3.5em;padding-left:0;" class=unsortable style="border:hidden;min-width:3.5em;font-size:95%;"
A comedy by P. G. Wodehouse.
AuthorP. G. Wodehouse
ProducerRoyston Morley
BillPeter Haddon
Lord TidmouthMichael Shipley
Sir Hugo DrakeBrefni O'Rorke

Others

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A reconstruction of an unparalleled murder of the 'seventies [1870s], extracted from the records of the Ulster Assizes.
ProducerDenis Johnston
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class=unsortable style="border:hidden;line-height:1.67;margin-left:-1em;text-align:center;padding-left:0.5em;min-width:1.0em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;padding-left:0.5em;text-align:left;min-width:16.5em;font-weight:400;font-style:italic;" The Parnell Commissionclass=unsortable style="border-style:none;text-align:right;font-weight:normal; font-size:95%; min-width:8.5em;padding-right:0.2em;" class=unsortable style="border-style:none;min-width:3.5em;padding-left:0;" class=unsortable style="border:hidden;min-width:3.5em;font-size:95%;"
A reconstruction of the famous forgery investigation of 1888–89
ProducerDenis Johnston
PiggottEliot Makeham
Sir Charles RusselFelix Aylmer
ParnellMark Dignam
Attorney GeneralWilfrid Walter
Eye WitnessBrefni O'Rorke
Mrs O'SheaOlga Edwardes
President of the CourtGraveley Edwards
Timothy HarringtonBlake Giffard
Doctor MaguireNigel Fitzgerald
Henniker HeatonLionel Dymoke
Frank Hugh O'DonnellHarry Hutchinson
Court RegistrarLeo McCabe
Captain O'SheaCharles Oliver
FriendMicheline Patton
Servant at ElthamMoya Devlin
Solicitor's ClerkRussell Hogarth
Spanish PolicemanRafael Terry
Reporter
Houston's Voice		Kenneth Barton
[Actor]Jack Clifford

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Deaths Registered in October, November and December, 1946. 8 March 2021. FreeBMD. ONS.
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20180327003620/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2bab37a34f Brefni O'Rorke
  3. Web site: Births in the District of Clontarf & Howth No. 1 in the Union of North Dublin, 1889 . irishgenealogy.ie . Entry Numbers 48–57 . 8 March 2021.
  4. Web site: Baptisms administered in the Church of Clontarf in the Parish of Clontarf in the Diocese of Dublin, 1889. irishgenealogy.ie. 20. 8 March 2021.
  5. Web site: Marriages in the Registrar's District of Dublin South, 1875 . irishgenealogy.ie . Entry Numbers 105–108 . 8 March 2021.
  6. Web site: Residents of a house 11.1 in Richmond Road and Richmond Avenue East (Clontarf West, Dublin) . . 31 March 1901 . census.nationalarchives.ie . 8 March 2010.
  7. Web site: Residents of a house 2 in Sanford Avenue (Merchant's Quay, Dublin) . . 2 April 1911 . census.nationalarchives.ie . 8 March 2010.
  8. Freeman's Journal, 27 December 1917, p. 6.
  9. Web site: The King of Spain's Daughter [Television] ]. . The Teresa Deevy Archive . Maynooth University . 8 March 2021.

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