Joseph Laurence Lynch (16 July 1925 – 1 August 2001) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

actor who had a long career in both comedy and drama. He provided voice work for children's animated series, in particular ''

Chorlton and the Wheelies ''Chorlton and the Wheelies'' is an animated children's television series that ran from 26 September 1976 until 17 December 1978 on the British television channel ITV. 40 episodes were produced. The show followed the adventures of Chorlton, a f ...

''. Lynch was also a singer and songwriter, performing in the film ''

Johnny Nobody ''Johnny Nobody'' is a 1961 British drama film made by Viceroy Films Limited, with John R. Sloan as producer, and Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli as executive producers. It was directed by the British film and stage actor Nigel Patrick, who ...

'' (1961). He also recorded work by other songwriters, including

Leo Maguire Patrick Leo Maguire (1903 – 17 December 1985) was an Irish singer, songwriter, and radio broadcaster. Born in Dublin's inner city, Maguire trained as a baritone under Vincent O'Brien, John McCormack's voice teacher. For many years he perf ...

's "

The Whistling Gypsy "The Whistling Gypsy", sometimes known simply as "The Gypsy Rover", is a well-known ballad composed and copyrighted by Dublin songwriter Leo Maguire in the 1950s. There are a number of similar traditional songs about a well-off woman's encounter ...

" and

Dick Farrelly Richard Farrelly (17 February 1916 – 11 August 1990) was an Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, composer of "The Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered. His parents were publicans and when Farrelly was twenty-three he ...

's "

Cottage by the Lee "Cottage by the Lee" is a song written by Irish songwriter Dick Farrelly. It was composed in the early 1950s and is published by Waltons Music Publishing in Dublin, Ireland. The song was originally recorded on the Waltons Glenside record label by ...

", one of his biggest 1950s recordings.

Early life

Born in Mallow in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

, Lynch attended the North Monastery Christian Brothers School. He had a number of other jobs before moving into acting and broadcasting full time.

Career

Initially acting part-time with the Cork Shakespearean Company and at the

Cork Opera House Cork Opera House is a theatre and opera house in Cork in Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the Nort ...

, by 1947 Lynch was acting full-time. He was a founding member of the

Radio Éireann Players The Radio Éireann Players (RÉP) were a repertory company for radio in Ireland, formed in 1947, which performed in regular drama productions for Irish broadcaster, Radio Éireann. After the depredations of the war-time years and a devastating fir ...

and appeared in productions of

Teresa Deevy Teresa Deevy (21 January 1894 – 19 January 1963) was an Irish dramatist and writer, who was deaf from the age of 19. Best known for her works for theatre, she was also a short story writer, and writer for radio. Early life Teresa Deevy w ...

plays among others. Between 1967–81, he acted onstage with the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

. During the 1950s he was responsible for a

Radio Éireann Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

show ''Living with Lynch'', broadcast on Sunday nights — the first comedy series on Radio Éireann. Lynch appeared in the popular

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

sitcom ''

Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width ''Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width'' is a British television sitcom first broadcast in 1967 as a single play in the ''Armchair Theatre'' anthology series, later becoming a series of half-hour episodes, which ran until 1971. A total of 40 ...

'' (1968–70), and its spin-off

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

in 1973. Other notable film roles included ''

The Siege of Sidney Street ''The Siege of Sidney Street'' is a 1960 British historical drama film co-directed by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman. It stars Donald Sinden, Nicole Berger and Kieron Moore. The film dramatises the 1909 Tottenham Outrage - a bungled wag ...

'' (1960), '' The Running Man'' (1963), ''

Girl with Green Eyes ''Girl with Green Eyes'' is a 1964 British film, which Edna O'Brien adapted from her novel ''The Lonely Girl''. It tells the story of a young, naive country girl's romance with a sophisticated older man. Directed by Desmond Davis Desmond St ...

'' (1964), ''

The Face of Fu Manchu ''The Face of Fu Manchu'' is a 1965 thriller film directed by Don Sharp and based on the characters created by Sax Rohmer. It stars Christopher Lee as the eponymous villain, a Chinese criminal mastermind, and Nigel Green as his pursuing rival N ...

'' (1965), ''

Ulysses Ulysses is one form of the Roman name for Odysseus, a hero in ancient Greek literature. Ulysses may also refer to: People * Ulysses (given name), including a list of people with this name Places in the United States * Ulysses, Kansas * Ulysse ...

'' (1967), '' Loot'' (1970), ''

The Mackintosh Man ''The Mackintosh Man'' is a 1973 British Cold War neo noir spy thriller film, directed by John Huston and starring Paul Newman, Dominique Sanda and James Mason. Huston called it "a spy thriller with some amusing moments" that was similar to ...

'' (1973), '' The Outsider'' (1980), ''

If You Go Down in the Woods Today ''If You Go Down in the Woods Today'' is a British TV film comedy released in 1981, written, directed and starring Eric Sykes, also featuring Fulton Mackay and Roy Kinnear amongst a cast of dozens. The film, produced by Thames TV, was described ...

'' (1981) and ''

Eat the Peach ''Eat the Peach'' is a 1986 Irish comedy film, directed by Peter Ormrod. The title derives from the T. S. Eliot poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." It was written by Peter Ormrod with John Kelleher. Filming ''Eat The Peach'' was filme ...

'' (1986). In the 1970s, Lynch made regular guest appearances as

Elsie Tanner Elsie Gregory (also Grimshaw, Howard and Tanner) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Pat Phoenix from the series' inception in 1960 to 1973, and again from 1976 until 1984. Elsie Tanner was ...

's boyfriend in the long-running

Granada TV ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

soap ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Origi ...

''. In 1962, and again in 1977, Lynch won a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

for his acting on

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

television.McGarry, Patsy.
Late writer Wesley Burrowes best remembered for ‘Glenroe’
. ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', 1 January 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020 By 1979, Lynch was back in Ireland, and made his first appearances as ''Dinny Byrne'' in the

soap ''

Bracken Bracken (''Pteridium'') is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells (eggs ...

''. Later the Byrne character would feature in the long-running RTÉ soap ''

Glenroe ''Glenroe'' was a television drama series broadcast on RTÉ One in Ireland between September 1983, when the first episode was aired, and May 2001. A spin-off from ''Bracken'' — a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from ''The Riordans'' � ...

''. Lynch quit ''Glenroe'' after he claimed to have been "shamefully treated" and offered "small potatoes" when he asked for a pay rise. He was also upset that he was not to get a pension. RTÉ disputed those claims. Lynch criticised RTÉ for preventing him from doing other acting work alongside ''Glenroe''. "I was terrible restricted in RTÉ, they wouldn't let me off for anything, even commercials." Lynch voiced the main antagonist, "Grundel the Toad", in the

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including ''The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...

film ''

Thumbelina Thumbelina (; da, Tommelise) is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in t ...

'', his final audio work before his death seven years later.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Joe Lynch at the Abbey Theatre Archive

Joe Lynch at the Teresa Deevy Archive

Audio clip
from

's ''Living with Lynch'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Joe 1925 births 2001 deaths Irish male film actors Irish male singer-songwriters Irish male soap opera actors Irish male television actors Irish male voice actors Jacob's Award winners People from County Cork RTÉ Radio presenters RTÉ Radio 1 presenters 20th-century Irish male singers People educated at North Monastery