Bairbre Dowling

Bairbre Dowling (27 March 1953 – 20 January 2016), born Barbara Patricia Dowling, was an Irish actress. She appeared in films, frequently on the American stage and on US TV (as well as in Irish productions).

Bairbre Dowling
on Broadway in 2009 in "In Life Worth Living" (fair use)
Born
Barbara Patricia Dowling

(1953-03-27)27 March 1953
Dublin, Ireland
Died20 January 2016(2016-01-20) (aged 62)
New York City
NationalityIrish
OccupationActress
Notable work
Playboy of the Western World, The Dead, War of the Buttons
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1977; div. 1994)​
Children1
Parents
RelativesRichard Boyd Barrett (half-brother)

Early life

Dowling was born in Dublin, the daughter of actor Vincent Dowling and actress Brenda Doyle (who died in a motorcycle collision in 1981). She had three sisters, Louise, Valerie and Rachael, and a half-brother, Cian. Irish politician Richard Boyd Barrett was Dowling's biological half-brother, though this fact was not made public until after Vincent Dowling's death in 2013.[1]

Career

Stage

In 1970 Dowling was part of the company at the Abbey Theatre, where she appeared in The Becauseway (1970) and Rites (1973).[2] In 1977 she worked with her father at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. She shared the stage with her husband Colm Meaney in And a Nightingale Sang in 1985.[3] She was seen on Broadway in Da by Hugh Leonard.[4] In 2011 she appeared in a play by playwright Teresa Deevy, Temporal Powers, a Mint Theatre production presented as part of the Teresa Deevy project.[5][6]

She established an ongoing presence at the Miniature Theatre of Chester in Massachusetts, often working with her father as director or co-star. In 1992 she starred in Last Tag,[7] and in 1993 in An Audience with Fanny Kemble, a one-woman show by Anne Ludlum, based on the life of actress and writer Fanny Kemble.[8] In 2004, she appeared in Isobel Mahon's So Long, Sleeping Beauty, and in 2007, in The Gravity of Honey, in Dear Liar[9] and in Is Life Worth It? in 2009.[10]

Film, television and radio

Dowling's first film appearance was in Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13 (1963).[4] She acted with her husband in the PBS television film Playboy of the Western World in 1983, in John Huston's 1987 film The Dead, and in the 1994 drama War of the Buttons. She also appeared in John Boorman's Zardoz (1973), and Changing Habits (1997).[11] American television credits included roles in Murder She Wrote, Crossing Jordan, Days of our Lives, Star Trek: Voyager and ER. On RTÉ, she was known for a long-running role in The Riordans.[4]

Dowling was a member of The California Artists Radio Theatre (CART) ensemble and performed in over 30 of their live radio plays.[12]

Personal life

Between 1982 and 1994, Dowling was married to actor Colm Meaney,[13] with whom she had a daughter, Brenda, in 1984.[14] Dowling died in 2016, aged 62 years, in New York.[4]

Filmography

Film

Television

References
  1. "Dowling was my father, his death saddens me". independent. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  2. "The Abbey Theatre Archive".
  3. "Families are important at local theater". Santa Maria Times. 1985-08-04. p. 47. Retrieved 2020-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Irish actress Bairbre Dowling (62) dies after short illness". independent. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  5. "The Teresa Deevy Archive".
  6. "Mint Theatre Company".
  7. Borak, Jeffrey (1992-08-15). "Suspense Drama Premieres". The Berkshire Eagle. p. 17. Retrieved 2020-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Borak, Jeffrey (1993-07-31). "Actress' Spirit Returns to the Berkshires". The Berkshire Eagle. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Borak, Jeffrey (2007-10-10). "Two from the Founder". The Berkshire Eagle. p. 23. Retrieved 2020-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Paul O'Brien and Bairbre Dowling Photo (2009-09-10)". www.broadwayworld.com. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  11. Paietta, Ann C. (2015-01-24). Saints, Clergy and Other Religious Figures on Film and Television, 1895-2003. McFarland. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-1-4766-1016-0.
  12. "Bairbre Dowling". California Artists Radio Theatre. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  13. "'I had no time for them crying into their pints'". The Irish Times  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . 2007-09-22. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11.
  14. McGowan, Sharon (2018-07-23). "Actor Colm Meaney pays heartfelt tribute to late mother at funeral in Dublin". dublinlive. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
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