Micheál Mac Liammóir
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Micheál Mac Liammóir (born Alfred Willmore; 25 October 1899 – 6 March 1978) was an actor, designer, dramatist, writer and impresario in 20th-century Ireland. Though born in London to an English family with no Irish connections, he emigrated to Ireland in early adulthood, changed his name, invented an Irish ancestry, and remained based there for the rest of his life, successfully maintaining a fabricated identity as a native Irishman born in
Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
. With his partner,
Hilton Edwards Hilton Edwards (2 February 1903 – 18 November 1982) was an English-born Irish actor, lighting designer and theatrical producer. He co-founded the Gate Theatre with his partner Micheál Mac Liammóir and two others, and has been referred to as ...
, and two others, Mac Liammóir founded the Gate Theatre in Dublin, and became one of the most recognisable figures in the arts in twentieth-century Ireland. As well as acting at the Gate and internationally, he designed numerous productions, wrote eleven plays, and published stories, verse and travel books in Irish and English. He wrote and appeared in three one-man shows, of which ''
The Importance of Being Oscar ''The Importance of Being Oscar'' is a one man show devised by the ''soi-disant'' ("self-styled") Irish actor Micheál Mac Liammóir and based on the writings of Oscar Wilde. It intersperses excerpts from Wilde's plays and other writings with bio ...
'' (1960) was the most celebrated, achieving more than 1,300 performances.


Life and career


Early years

Mac Liammóir was born Alfred Lee Willmore, in Willesden, in north-west London, into a family with no Irish connections. He was the youngest child and only son of Alfred George Willmore (1863–1934), a forage buyer for the firm of Whitney's of
Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...
, and his wife, Mary, ''née'' Lee (1867–1918).Fitz-Simon, Christophe
MacLiammóir, Micheál"
''Dictionary of Irish Biography'', Royal Irish Academy. Retrieved 10 April 2021
He attended primary school in Willesden and then attended a children's theatre academy run by Lila Field. He became a professional actor at the age of twelve; his sister Marjorie took charge of his general education and was his chaperone on tours that included visits to venues in Ireland as well as Britain. He made his debut as 1911, as King Goldfish in Field's play ''The Goldfish'', alongside another child actor,
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
. He later said, "I learned from Lila Field the absolute ABC of getting on and off the stage without disgracing oneself; I learned what a cue meant, what a stick of greasepaint was, the elements of timing, and that ghastly thing, the exploitation of childish charm"."Micheal Mac Liammoir Talking About Friends Who Influenced His Life and Work", ''The Stage'', 21 January 1965, p. 19 In September of that year he first worked for
Sir Herbert Tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager. Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous program ...
, playing Macduff's son in ''
Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...
''. From Tree he quickly learned "a rude lesson" that charm was not enough: "I think it was Tree who first awoke the actor's imagination in me and made me feel the terror of the Witches' Coven and the horror of the ghost-haunted banquet". In the Christmas season of 1911 he played Michael Darling in '' Peter Pan'', and in June 1912, he played
Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...
in Tree's revival of the stage version of the novel. After two further child roles, and appearances in four silent films (now lost) he temporarily abandoned acting. After a summer in Spain, visiting his grandparents and becoming fluent in Spanish,"Mac Liammóir, Micheál (1899–1978)"
AINM. (In Irish.) Retrieved 11 April 2021
he studied painting at
Willesden Polytechnic The College of North West London (CNWL) is a large further education college in north-west London, England. It was established in 1991 by the merger between Willesden Technical College and Kilburn Polytechnic in the London Borough of Brent. Today ...
and then the
Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
in 1915–16. With a fellow student, Mary O'Keefe, he attended Irish language classes at the
Ludgate Circus Ludgate Circus is a road junction in the City of London where Farringdon Street/New Bridge Street (the A201) crosses Fleet Street/Ludgate Hill. (Ludgate Hill is a gentle rise to St Paul's Cathedral.) Fleet Street was the only direct road betwe ...
branch of the Gaelic League; the biographer Christopher Fitz-Simon thinks it probable that they saw plays by
W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, Lady Gregory and
J. M. 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 ...
during the visits of the Abbey Theatre company in this period. Both students developed a keen interest in the Irish Literary Revival.


Move to Ireland

Mac Liammóir, now calling himself "Michael Willmore", made a brief return to the stage in February 1917, in ''Felix Gets a Month'', a "whimsical comedy" at the
Haymarket Theatre The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foote ...
. The following month he went with O'Keefe and her mother to Ireland, the former having contracted tuberculosis and been prescribed "fresh air", the latter anxious to escape Zeppelin raids. Fitz-Simon suggests that Mac Liammóir's motive was to escape conscription into the army in the latter stages of the First World War. In Ireland Mac Liammóir earned a modest living as a freelance illustrator for newspapers and books, acted from time to time, and designed for the Irish Theatre and Dublin Drama League. He assimilated himself into Irish culture and politics. He campaigned for Sinn Féin in the 1918 General Election, published his first book, a collection of stories in Irish, in 1922, and continued to write verse and prose in Irish and English. He experimented with various gaelicised versions of his name, including "Mac Uaimmhóir" and "Mac Liaimmhóir". He built up a fictitious identity as a native Irishman born in Cork. During most of the 1920s Mac Liammóir continued to live with the O'Keefes. In search of a healthy environment for Mary they moved between Switzerland and the French riviera. He exhibited successfully in local galleries and, in 1923, at the Leigh Gallery in London. He later wrote a book of recollections – in Irish – about his travels. In 1925 he starred in a silent film, ''Land of Her Fathers'' with a cast of mainly Abbey Theatre players. Mary O'Keefe died in 1927 and Mac Liammóir, now known by that name, returned to the theatre. His sister Marjorie had married the actor-manager
Anew McMaster Anew McMaster (24 December 1891 – 24 August 1962) was a British stage actor who during his nearly 45 year acting career toured the UK, Ireland, Australia and the United States. For almost 35 years he toured as actor-manager of his own theatri ...
whose touring company Mac Liammóir joined, playing Shakespearean roles including Bassanio in '' The Merchant of Venice'', Laertes in '' Hamlet'' and Cassio in ''
Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
''. While on tour in the south of Ireland, he met another young English actor,
Hilton Edwards Hilton Edwards (2 February 1903 – 18 November 1982) was an English-born Irish actor, lighting designer and theatrical producer. He co-founded the Gate Theatre with his partner Micheál Mac Liammóir and two others, and has been referred to as ...
, who was to become his lifelong partner, both personal and professional. Mac Liammóir and Edwards decided to settle in Dublin, with the intention of setting up their own theatre there.Walshe, Eibhear
"MacLiammóir, Micheál (formerly Alfred Lee Willmore) (1899–1978), actor and playwright"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2006. Retrieved 11 April


Gate Theatre

In 1928 Mac Liammóir wrote, directed, designed and starred in ''
Diarmuid and Gráinne Diarmaid () is a masculine given name in the Irish language, which has historically been anglicized as Jeremiah or Jeremy, names with which it is etymologically unrelated. Earlier forms of the name include Diarmit and Diarmuit. Variations of the ...
'' for the opening of the Irish language theatre,
An Taibhdhearc An Taibhdhearc is the national Irish language theatre of Ireland. It was founded in 1928. The word ''taibhdhearc'' appears as a gloss for the Latin ''teatrum'' (theatre) in an old Irish document, derived from roots meaning "dream" and "glance ...
, in Galway. He subsequently produced twenty plays there. Also in 1928, Mac Liammóir was one of the four founders of the Gate Theatre Studio, later simply the Gate Theatre, alongside
Hilton Edwards Hilton Edwards (2 February 1903 – 18 November 1982) was an English-born Irish actor, lighting designer and theatrical producer. He co-founded the Gate Theatre with his partner Micheál Mac Liammóir and two others, and has been referred to as ...
,
Daisy Bannard Cogley Daisy "Toto" Bannard Cogley (born Jeanne Marie Desirée Bannard; 5 May 1884 – 8 September 1965) was a French-born Irish theatre actress, director, producer and designer. A socialist, she was active in the Irish War of Independence from 1917, ...
, and Gearóid Ó Lochlainn. Mac Liammóir and Edwards had been considering theatrical plans for Dublin, while Bannard Cogley (a friend of Mac Liammóir) and Ó Lochlainn had been discussing finding a more permanent theatre space, and they met, along with some mutual friends, in Bannard Cogley's club at 7 Harcourt Street, in spring 1928. After further meetings, the quartet rented the Peacock Theatre and launched the Gate Theatre Studio there on 14 October 1928. The theatre studio spent its early years at the 102-seat Peacock Theatre and opened with a production of ''
Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five- act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed ''Per Gynt'', the Norwegian fairy tale on wh ...
'', and Mac Liammóir subsequently acted in and designed nearly 300 productions at the Peacock and, after the company gained its own home in 1930, on Cavendish Row, at the Gate.Herbert, pp. 1131–1132 He appeared in a wide range of plays, from Shakespeare (Romeo and Othello) to
Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...
(Oswald in ''
Ghosts A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
'' and the title role in '' Brand'') and Eugene O'Neill (Orin in ''
Mourning Becomes Electra ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a play cycle written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The play premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on 26 October 1931 where it ran for 150 performances before closing in March 1932, starring Lee Baker ...
''), as well as lighter pieces. Over the next fifty years the Gate Theatre company presented a programme of new or experimental plays by Wilde,
Shaw Shaw may refer to: Places Australia *Shaw, Queensland Canada *Shaw Street, a street in Toronto England *Shaw, Berkshire, a village *Shaw, Greater Manchester, a location in the parish of Shaw and Crompton *Shaw, Swindon, a List of United Kingdom ...
, Coward and many others. Mac Liammóir and Edwards fostered the careers of new Irish dramatists such as
Denis Johnston (William) Denis Johnston (18 June 1901 – 8 August 1984) was an Irish writer. Born in Dublin, he wrote mostly plays, but also works of literary criticism, a book-length biographical essay of Jonathan Swift, a memoir and an eccentric work on co ...
and rising young actors including Orson Welles. Mac Liammóir returned to the West End in 1935, with the Gate company. The theatrical paper '' The Era'' rated his Hamlet one of the best in recent years: "charged with force, intelligence, humanity and dramatic certainty … a dominating and moving piece of acting", and said that the Gate company "looks like putting the Abbey in the shade". The cosmopolitan atmosphere of Mac Liammóir and Edwards' Gate Theatre was contrasted with the earnest Celticism of the Abbey, and the two Dublin theatres were affectionately dubbed "Sodom and Begorrah".


Wartime and later years

Mac Liammóir remained based in Ireland during the Second World War. In the post-war years he returned to the West End in his own play ''Ill Met by Moonlight''. '' The Stage'' thought the piece "too obscure and too discursive", but praised the performances of Mac Liammóir, Edwards and their supporting cast. The following year the company played a short season on Broadway – Mac Liammóir's début there – giving his ''Where Stars Walk'', Johnston's ''The Old Lady Says No!'', and Shaw's '' John Bull's Other Island''. In 1951 he played Iago to Welles's Othello in the latter's
film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...
. In his early fifties he was unusually old for the role, but Welles wanted Iago played as an older, impotent man consumed by envy of the younger Othello. Mac Liammóir returned to the role onstage at the Dublin Festival in 1962 opposite William Marshall in the title role. In 1954 Mac Liammóir returned to London, playing Brack in '' Hedda Gabler'' with Peggy Ashcroft as Hedda. In the role he was judged to be both sinister and amusing. Most of his work continued to be at the Gate, but in 1959 he returned to New York to play Don Pedro in '' Much Ado About Nothing'', with John Gielgud as Benedick and Margaret Leighton as Beatrice. Mac Liammóir's biggest theatrical success came in 1960, with his one-man show ''
The Importance of Being Oscar ''The Importance of Being Oscar'' is a one man show devised by the ''soi-disant'' ("self-styled") Irish actor Micheál Mac Liammóir and based on the writings of Oscar Wilde. It intersperses excerpts from Wilde's plays and other writings with bio ...
'', which won enthusiastic reviews and did well at the box office. It opened at the Gate, after which he played it on Broadway, in London and on tour around the world. He appeared in the piece more than 1,300 times between 1960 and 1975.Wallace, p. 178 He followed this in May 1963 with a new one-man entertainment ''I Must Be Talking to My Friends'', and in 1970 presented a third, ''Talking About Yeats''. In his later years Mac Liammóir relaxed his insistence on his fictitious origins and admitted the truth to interviewers, but for many years after his death reference books nonetheless continued to record him as a native of Cork. Despite Ireland's anti-gay laws, not repealed in their lifetimes, Edwards' and Mac Liammóir's relationship gained wide acceptance. The writer Éibhear Walshe has described them as Ireland's only publicly acknowledged homosexuals. They were jointly created freemen of the city of Dublin in 1973, the first theatre people to be thus honoured. Before that, MacLiammóir had received the Lady Gregory Medal for literature in 1960 and an honorary doctorate from
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in 1963. MacLiammóir made his final stage performance at the Gate in 1975 in ''The Importance of Being Oscar''. He died at his and Edwards's Dublin home, 4
Harcourt Terrace Harcourt Terrace is a Regency and Victorian terrace located in Dublin City, Ireland. It links the Grand Canal at Charlemont Place with Adelaide Road, near the National Concert Hall. History The terrace first appears on maps in 1833, and is ...
, on 6 March 1978. Walshe records, "as a measure of the public acceptance of the MacLiammóir–Edwards partnership, the president of Ireland attended Micheál's funeral, two days later, at St Fintan's, Howth, Dublin, and paid his respects to Hilton Edwards as chief mourner".


Legacy


Plays

In his '' Who's Who in the Theatre'' entry, Mac Liammóir listed ten plays of which he was the author, as well as the three one-man shows, and an unspecified number of adaptations ("''Jane Eyre'', ''The Picture of Dorian Grey'', ''A Tale of Two Cities'', etc.") *''Ford of the Hurdles'' 1928 *''Diarmuid agus Gráinne'' 1929 *''Where Stars Walk'' 1940 *''Dancing Shadows'' 1941 *''Ill Met by Moonlight'' 1946 *''Portrait of Miriam'' 1947 *''The Mountains Look Different'' 1948 *''Home for Christmas'' 1950 *''A Slipper for the Moon'' 1954 *''Saint Patrick'' 1955 :One-man shows: :* ''
The Importance of Being Oscar ''The Importance of Being Oscar'' is a one man show devised by the ''soi-disant'' ("self-styled") Irish actor Micheál Mac Liammóir and based on the writings of Oscar Wilde. It intersperses excerpts from Wilde's plays and other writings with bio ...
'' :* ''I Must Be Talking to my Friends issued as an LP argo RG493' :* ''Talking About Yeats''


Books

* ''Put Money In Thy Purse'' * ''Each Actor On His Ass'' * ''Ceo Meala Lá Seaca'' * ''Enter a Goldfish'' * ''All For Hecuba'' * ''Oícheanna Sidhe'' * ''Lá agus Oíche'' * ''Aisteoirí Faoi Dhá Sholas'' * ''Theatre in Ireland'' * ''Ireland'' * ''Bláth agus Taibhse'' * ''An Oscar of No Importance'' * ''W.B.Yeats and his world'', with Eavan Boland


Films

The British Film Institute lists eleven films in which Mac Liammóir took part. *''
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
'' (Page) 1911 *''
Enoch Arden ''Enoch Arden'' is a narrative poem published in 1864 by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, during his tenure as England's poet laureate. The story on which it was based was provided to Tennyson by Thomas Woolner. The poem lent its name to a principle in ...
'' 1914 *'' The Little Minister'' (Micah Dow) 1915 *''Comin' Thro' the Rye'' 1916 *''Land of Her Fathers'' 1924 *''Hamlet at Elsinore 1951 *''
Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'' (Iago) 1951 *''
Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer * Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...
'' (Narrator) 1963 *''
30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia ''30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia'' is a 1968 British romantic comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Dudley Moore. Plot London jazz pianist and aspiring composer Rupert Street (Dudley Moore) is looking to have a 30th birthday to ...
'' (Irish storyteller) 1968 *''
The Kremlin Letter ''The Kremlin Letter'' is a 1970 American neo-noir DeLuxe Color espionage thriller in PanavisionSeymour, Gene. "100 Greatest Spy Movies: A Special Collector's Edition from the Editors of American History. 2009. Weider History Group. directed by ...
'' (Sweet Alice) 1970 *'' What's the Matter with Helen?'' (Hamilton Starr) 1971


Biographies and commemorations

Books about Mac Liammóir include ''Micheál Mac Liammóir: Designs & Illustrations 1917–1972'', by Richard Pine and Orla Murphy (1973); ''Enter Certain Players: Edwards–MacLiammoir and the Gate 1928–1978'', edited by Peter Luke (1978); a biography, ''The Importance of Being Micheál'' by Micheál Ó hAodha (1990) and ''The Boys: A Double Biography'', by Christopher Fitz-Simon (1996). In 1985, Orson Welles was the narrator for ''Two People... With One Pulse'', a documentary film about Mac Liammoir and Edwards. To mark Mac Liammóir's centenary in 1999 the BBC commissioned a documentary, ''Dear Boy: The Story of Michéal Mac Liammóir'', which included rare archive footage. Mac Liammóir is the subject of the 1990 play ''The Importance of Being Micheál'' by John Keyes; Frank McGuinness's play 2008 "Gates of Gold" is inspired by Edwards and Mac Liammóir. The annual
Dublin Gay Theatre Festival The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival is a theatrical event held annually in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, during the first two weeks of May. The 19th festival will be held from 2–15 May 2022. Over 50% of the festival's content comes fr ...
presents the "Michéal Mac Liammóir Award for Outstanding performance by a male"."2019 Gala Awards Winners Announced"
Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, 21 May 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2021


Notes, references and sources


Notes


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * Academic articles on Mac Liammóir available in open access regime * Markus, Radvan
"Micheál mac Liammóir, the Irish Language, and the Idea of Freedom."
Marguérite Corporaal and Ruud van den Beuken, eds. ''A Stage of Emancipation: Change and Progress at the Dublin Gate Theatre.'' Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021, 113-131. * Dean, Joan Fitzpatrick, and Radvan Markus
"The Internationalist Dramaturgy of Hilton Edwards and Micheál mac Liammóir."
Ondřej Pilný, Ruud van den Beuken, Ian R. Walsh, eds. ''Cultural Convergences: The Dublin Gate Theatre, 1928–1960''. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, 15-46.


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Liammoir, Micheal 1899 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century English painters 20th-century English poets 20th-century Irish painters English male painters Irish male painters Burials at St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton English male film actors English male stage actors Impresarios Irish dramatists and playwrights Irish male film actors Irish poets Irish male stage actors Irish male poets Jacob's Award winners Naturalised citizens of Ireland 20th-century English male actors 20th-century Irish male actors English male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Irish poets 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights Male actors from London Writers from London English male poets LGBT writers from Ireland 20th-century Irish male writers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century LGBT people 20th-century English male artists 20th-century Irish male artists