May Cluskey Explained

May Cluskey
Birth Name:Mary Elizabeth Cluskey
Birth Date:1927 5, df=y
Birth Place:Dublin, Ireland
Death Place:Dublin
Nationality:Irish
Occupation:actress
Years Active:1960s to 1980s
Relatives:Frank Cluskey (brother)

Mary "May" Cluskey (18 May 1927  - 15 May 1991) was an Irish stage, film and television actress.

Early life

Mary Elizabeth Cluskey was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Francis Cluskey and Elizabeth Millington Cluskey. Her brother Frank Cluskey was a politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1977 to 1981.[1]

Career

Cluskey was a member of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin from 1972 to 1986. Writer Thomas Kilroy remembered her as "an extraordinary comic actress".[2] Among her roles at the Abbey were roles in The Silver Tassie (1972, 1973), The Stars Turn Red (1978) and Red Roses for Me (1980) by Seán O'Casey, Hatchet (1972)[3] and Red Biddy (1978) by Heno Magee, Pull Down a Horseman (1972) by Eugene McCabe, They Feed Christians To Lions Here, Don't They? (1972) by Francis Harvey, The Gathering (1974) and A Pagan Place (1977) by Edna O'Brien, Katie Roche (1975) by Teresa Deevy,[4] Faustus Kelly (1978), At Swim-Two-Birds (1981)[5] and The Hard Life (1986) by Flann O'Brien, The Hostage (1981) by Brendan Behan, and in works by Oscar Wilde, Richard B. Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, Dion Boucicault, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Anton Chekhov, W. B. Yeats, George S. Kaufman, John Millington Synge, and Bertolt Brecht.[6]

Although Cluskey usually played supporting roles, often mothers,[7] she played the title character in James Ballantyne's Sarah (1974). In 1976, she performed her one-woman show at the Gorey Arts Festival.[8] In 1982, she toured in Frank McGuinness's The Factory Girls. She also wrote two plays, Mothers (1976, with Tomás Mac Anna; a one-woman show in which she also starred),[9] and Or By Appointment (1986).

Cluskey was also known for the roles she played in films, including Young Cassidy (1965),[10] Ulysses (1967),[11] and The Purple Taxi (1977).[12] On television she played Queenie Butler in the Irish soap opera Tolka Row,[13] for which she won a Jacob's Award in 1966.[14]

Personal life

Cluskey died in Dublin in 1991, days before her 64th birthday.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1964Of Human Bondage Sister Uncredited
1965Young Cassidy Woman in Foyer
1967Ulysses Mrs. Yelverton Barry
1967The Plough and the StarsMrs. Ginnie Gogan
1970Ryan's Daughter Storekeeper Uncredited
1977The Purple Taxi
1978On a Paving Stone Mounted last film role

External links

her grave is in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Frank Cluskey. Dempsey. Pauric J.. White. Lawrence William. Dictionary of Irish Biography - Cambridge University Press. 2020-03-11.
  2. Book: Chambers. Lilian. Theatre Talk: Voices of Irish Theatre Practitioners. Gibbon. Ger Fritz. Jordan. Eamonn. 2001. Peter Lang. 978-0-9534257-6-1. 243. en.
  3. Book: Welch, Robert. The Abbey Theatre, 1899-1999: Form and Pressure. 2003. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-926135-2. 202. en.
  4. Web site: Katie Roche. Teresa Deevy Archive. 2020-03-10.
  5. Web site: Tickets fly out for 'At Swim-Two-Birds'. The Irish Times. en. 2020-03-11.
  6. Web site: Cluskey, May. Abbey Theatre, Abbey Archives. en. 2020-03-10.
  7. Web site: The mothering touch. independent. en. 2020-03-11.
  8. Book: Gorey Arts Festival '76 [1976]. Fri. 30 July poetry & music Cyril Cusack [and] Douglas Gunn Ensemble 9pm Adm. £1...]. 1976. Funge Arts Centre. National Library of Ireland.
  9. Book: Hunt, Hugh. The Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre, 1904-1978 [i.e. 1979]]. 1979. Columbia University Press. 978-0-231-04906-1. 276. en.
  10. Book: Davis, Ronald L.. John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master. 2014-12-17. University of Oklahoma Press. 978-0-8061-8694-8. en.
  11. Web site: Ban on 'Ulysses' film lifted after 33 years. Dwyer. Michael. The Irish Times. en. 2020-03-11.
  12. Web site: May Cluskey. https://web.archive.org/web/20181026144912/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba713c870. dead. 26 October 2018. BFI. en. 2020-03-10.
  13. Web site: Maura Laverty's Dublin: from Liffey Lane to Tolka Row. Kelly. Seamus. The Irish Times. en. 2020-03-11.
  14. Web site: Hilton Edwards and May Cluskey (1966). Bedell. Roy. 1 December 1966. RTÉ Archives. en. 2020-03-10.