Maureen Cusack (24 November 1920 – 18 December 1977) was an Irish actress. She was born in 1920 in

Glenties Glenties () is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is situated where two glens meet, north-west of the Bluestack Mountains, near the confluence of two rivers. Glenties is the largest centre of population in the parish of Iniskeel. Glenties has ...

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

as Mary Margaret Kiely. She was married to Irish actor

Cyril Cusack Cyril James Cusack (26 November 1910 – 7 October 1993) was an Irish stage and screen actor with a career that spanned more than 70 years. During his lifetime, he was considered one of Ireland’s finest thespians, and was renowned for his int ...

and they had five children Sinéad, Sorcha, Niamh, Paul and Pádraig.

Sinéad Sinéad ( , ) is an Irish feminine name. It is derived from the French ''Jeanette'', which is cognate to the English Janet, itself a feminine form of the Hebrew ''Yohannan'', "God forgave/God gratified". In English, ''Sinéad'' is also commonly ...

, Sorcha and Niamh are all actresses and

Pádraig Pádraig ( ; ), Pádraic or Páraic ( , ; ) is an Irish male name deriving from the Latin ''Patricius'', meaning "of the patrician class", introduced via the name of Saint Patrick. Patrick is the English version. Diminutives include Páidín, ...

is a theatre producer. Her grandsons are actors

Max Irons Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (born 17 October 1985) is an English-Irish actor and model. He is known for his roles in films such as ''Red Riding Hood'' (2011), '' The White Queen'' (2013), '' The Host'' (2013), '' Woman in Gold'' (2014), ''Th ...

and

Calam Lynch Calam Finbar Lynch (born 7 November 1994) is a British actor of Irish descent. His films include the Disney adaptation of ''Black Beauty'' (2020) and Terence Davies' ''Benediction'' (2021). On television, he appeared in the BBC One drama ''Mrs W ...

, and the politician

Richard Boyd Barrett Richard Boyd Barrett (born 6 February 1967) is an Irish People Before Profit/Solidarity politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dún Laoghaire constituency since the 2011 general election. Boyd Barrett is a former member of Dún L ...

. Her granddaughter is the actress Megan Cusack. She was a leading actress at

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a Theater (structure), theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Ge ...

with transfers to

London's West End The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...

in the late 1940s, she also was part of 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 ...

Dublin in 1948 as a visiting company member with The Lyric Theatre Company where she appeared in ''The Viscount of Blarney'' in1948. In 1946 she appeared in a

Radio Eireann 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 transmitt ...

production of a play by Irish playwright

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 ...

called ''

Katie Roche ''Katie Roche'' is a 1936 expressionist play by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy. It has been staged by the Abbey Theatre eleven times with the most recent revival being in 2017. Described as a "reputed favourite with amateur dramatic societies an ...

'' and again in 1947 in ''

Wife to James Whelan ''Wife to James Whelan: A Play in Three Acts'', is a play written in 1937 by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy. This was Deevy's first work to be rejected after having six consecutive plays produced and performed at the Abbey Theatre. The play follow ...

'', these were both produced by

Gabriel Fallon Gabriel Fallon (1898–10 June 1980) was an Irish theatre critic, actor and theatre director. He was born in Dublin and joined the Civil Service in 1914. He became an actor in the Abbey Theatre, where he remained until 1930 when he started t ...

. She is best known for her roles in ''

Odd Man Out ''Odd Man Out'' is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade polic ...

'' (1947), '' The Rising of the Moon'' (1957), ''

Von Richthofen and Brown ''Von Richthofen and Brown'', alternatively titled ''The Red Baron'', is a 1971 war film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as Manfred von Richthofen and Roy Brown. Although names of real people are used and em ...

'' (1971), also ''The Loves of Cass Maguire'' (1975), and ''

Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (o ...

'' (1946). She died on 18 December 1977, in Dublin and is buried in Saint Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, County Dublin, Ireland.

Filmography

*''

'' (1946) *''

'' (1947) *'' The Rising of the Moon'' (1957) *''

'' (The Red Baron) (1971) *''The Loves of Cass Maguire'' (1975)

Theatrical work

*''The Barrel Organ'' (1942) –

Robert Collis William Robert Fitzgerald Collis (1900–1975) was an Irish doctor and writer. As an author he was known as Robert Collis. As a doctor, he was commonly known as Dr Bob Collis. Maurice Collis was his elder brother. John Stewart Collis was his tw ...

*''Assembly at Druim Ceat'' (1943) – Roibeárd Ó Faracháin *''The Kiss'' (1944) – Austin Clarke *''The Viscount of Blarney'' (1944) – Austin Clarke *''

'' (1946) – Teresa Deevy *''The Second Kiss'' (1946) - Austin Clarke *''Ill Met by Moonlight'' (1946) -

Micheál MacLiammóir Micheal is a masculine given name. It is sometimes an anglicized form of the Irish names Micheál, Mícheál and Michéal; or the Scottish Gaelic name Mìcheal. It is also a spelling variant of the common masculine given name '' Michael'', and is ...

, followed by transfer to London's West End (1947) *''

'' (1947) – Teresa Deevy *''Home for Christmas'' (1950) -

*''

Arms and the Man ''Arms and the Man'' is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's ''Aeneid'', in Latin: ''Arma virumque cano'' ("Of arms and the man I sing"). The play was first produced on 21 April 1894 at the Aven ...

'' (1951) -

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

*''A Slipper for the Moon'' (1954) -

*''

The Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (o ...

'' (1955) -

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play ''The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly r ...

*''The Bishop's Bonfire'' (1955) -

Seán O'Casey Seán O'Casey ( ga, Seán Ó Cathasaigh ; born John Casey; 30 March 1880 – 18 September 1964) was an Irish dramatist and memoirist. A committed socialist, he was the first Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working classes. ...

* '' Androcles and the Lion'' (1956) -

*'' The Rising of the Moon'' (1956) -

Lady Gregory Isabella Augusta, Lady Gregory (''née'' Persse; 15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932) was an Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager. With William Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, ...

*''Roger Casement'' (1958) - Roger McHugh *''The Temptation of Mr O (1961) -

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

adapted for the stage by

References

External links

* *Maureen Cusack a
The Abbey Theatre
*Maureen Cusack at the Teresa Deevy Archive *Maureen Cusack a
Radio Eireann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cusack, Maureen 1920 births 1977 deaths 20th-century Irish actresses Actresses from County Donegal Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish film actresses Irish stage actresses