Daragh O'Malley

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Nationality Irlande
Birth 25 may 1954 (69 years) at Dublin (Irlande)

Daragh O'Malley (born 25 May 1954) is an Irish born film, theatre and television actor who has appeared in a large number of TV series, films and films for television. O'Malley is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the ever-faithful Patrick Harper in the long-running [1993-2009] Sharpe TV series with Sean Bean. O'Malley has appeared in a wide range of productions beginning with roles in the iconic films The Long Good Friday and Withnail and I, guest roles in many UK television series including Waking The Dead, Wire in the Blood, Silent Witness and Vera, and leading roles in a number of US productions including The Magnificent Seven, Texas, Vendetta, Cleopatra and Shaughnessy. In 2011 O'Malley returned to the stage after a twelve-year absence playing Father Jack in a UK National Tour of Dancing at Lughnasa which was nominated for an MTA Best Production Award and followed that playing John Rainey in a London revival of Irvine's Mixed Marriage which received very positive reviews. In Autumn 2014, O'Malley appeared as Big Daddy in a widely acclaimed production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester for which O'Malley was nominated for an MTA Best Actor award . http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/?p=4249. UK's The Stage selected O'Malley's performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as one of the Top Five Performances in UK theatre in 2014. In 2015 it was announced that O'Malley would star as the screen legend Marlon Brando in the one man stage play "Brando - Memoirs of A Giant".

Biography

Daragh O'Malley was born in Holles Street Hospital in Dublin on May 25, 1954 and was raised in Limerick and educated by the Jesuits at Crescent College and later by Carmelite monks at Terenure College in Dublin. On the day O'Malley was born, his father, Donogh O'Malley, was first elected to Dáil Éireann – the Irish parliament. Donogh O'Malley served as a TD for Limerick East from 1954 to 1968 and as his country's Minister for Health and later as Minister for Education, introducing a Free Secondary and Third Level education system in Ireland which is credited with the subsequent large upsurge in the Irish economy. On Donogh O'Malley's sudden death, aged 47, he became one of just a select few Irishmen who have been given a full Irish State Funeral – others included Michael Collins – O'Malley's funeral was attended by the then President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera.

O'Malley's mother, Hilda, is the subject of Patrick Kavanagh's famous love poem On Raglan Road

O'Malley has seemingly been approached many times over the years by the Fianna Fáil party to put his name forward for election in his father's constituency, then Limerick East now Limerick City, but on each occasion O'Malley declined the invitation. On the Sam Smyth Radio Show in Ireland in 2004 O'Malley stated, "The stress of politics killed my father at 47 – while I would like nothing better than appearing in the great theatre that is Dail Eireann [the Irish Parliament] even for just one day, I feel the price one would pay is far too high. Politics is a thankless business which ultimately ends in failure – no matter how well intentioned one is "

O'Malley studied at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. On leaving LAMDA O'Malley was a founder member of Common Stock Theatre Company, one of London's first community theatre groups, which was based in an old church on Pentonville Road in London – where Grimaldi The Clown is buried - and which took theatre to the poor of London's East End. A fellow founder member of Common Stock with O'Malley was Dame Harriet Walter.

When Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) was killed off from Dallas, he and O'Malley formed a partnership in the film production company called European Motion Pictures.

O'Malley appeared with Sean Bean in the ITV Sharpe TV series from 1993 to 2009 which was filmed in Ukraine, Crimea, Portugal, Turkey, India and London and Bradford in the UK.

In the mid-1990s, O'Malley was cast as Debra Winger's husband in the ill-fated feature Divine Rapture, which also starred Marlon Brando, John Hurt and Johnny Depp. The production spectacularly collapsed a few weeks into filming when Orion, the major Los Angeles production company backing the film, suddenly went bankrupt. O'Malley lived in Los Angeles for 10 years and remained close to Brando until the screen legend died.

In 2011 O'Malley returned to the stage after a twelve-year absence appearing as Father Jack in a 16-city UK touring production of Brien Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa and as Trade Unionist John Rainey in a much-acclaimed London production of Irving's Mixed Marriage. Michael Billington of The Guadian described O'Malley's performance as "magnificent" in "the most compelling play in London"

In late 2014 O'Malley appeared as Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre. O'Malley was nominated as Best Actor at The MTA Theatre Awards who stated "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof seethes with unhappy people circling the central character, partriarch Big Daddy. Daragh O’Malley blistered his way through this famous role with great physical presence tempered by emotional vulnerability"

O'Malley is the voice of the iconic crooked lawyer Nick Virago in the multi-million-selling Lucas Arts CD ROM Grim Fandango.