Jack MacGowran, the great Irish character actor known for his roles in the plays of 'Samuel Beckett' , in which he played a doomed film director. Jack MacGowran died on January 31, 1973, of complications from influenza, which he had caught in London during a flu epidemic. The cinema and the stage lost a unique talent that never has been replaced.
Father of Tara MacGowran.
Shortly after completing his role in The Exorcist , he died in New York (he was appearing as Fluther in "The Plough and the Stars" with Siobhan McKenna at the time).
Born in Dublin, Jack MacGowran worked as an insurance assessor for eight years before becoming an actor with the Abbey Theatre. He made his film debut in John Ford s The Quiet Man (1952) . He was also a noted stage actor specialising in works by Sean OCasey and Samuel Beckett. He appeared in "Waiting For Godot" at the Royal Court Theatre London, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in "Endgame" at the Aldwych Theatre. He released an LP record, "MacGowran Speaks Beckett", to coincide with Samuel Becketts 60th birthday. While Jack MacGowran was making Dance of the Vampires , it was suggested by Roman Polanski and Grard Brach , who wrote the original story for Wonderwall , that he play the part of Professor Collins.
Won the 1970-1971 Obie for Best Performance By an Actor in the off-Broadway play "Beckett".
Has appeared in four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: The Quiet Man (1952) , Tom Jones , Doctor Zhivago and The Exorcist . Of those, Tom Jones is a winner in the category.
He was awarded the 1972 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Performance for the play, "The Works of Beckett," at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
[on working with Roman Polanski]: Both "Cul-de-Sac" and "Dance Of The,Vampires" suffered from awkward translations of the original French,scripts. After we had struggled on for a while, Roman said, "Throw away,the script and say what you want to say. " In my opening scene in,"Cul-de-Sac", where I am marooned in the flooded car, I originally had,a speech half-a-page long - completely unnecessary. I cut it completely,and spoke one line only, off my own bat. .
