May Cluskey

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

May Cluskey
Born
Mary Elizabeth Cluskey

18 May 1927
Dublin, Ireland
Died15 May 1991
Dublin
NationalityIrish
Occupationactress
Years active1960s to 1980s
RelativesFrank Cluskey (brother)

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).[6]

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.[12]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1964Of Human BondageSisterUncredited
1965Young CassidyWoman in Foyer
1967UlyssesMrs. Yelverton Barry
1967 The Plough and the Stars Mrs. Ginnie Gogan
1970Ryan's DaughterStorekeeperUncredited
1977The Purple Taxi
1978On a Paving Stone Mountedlast film role

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