Tom Hickey (1944 – 1 May 2021) was an Irish actor who appeared on stage and screen in a career that began in the early 1960s. He was best known for playing Benjy Riordan in the long-running television series, ''
The Riordans''.
Early life
Born in
Kildare, Hickey began his career in 1963 at
Deirdre O'Connell's Stanislavski Studio in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
where he trained in
Stanislavski's system of acting. He said that he saw his choice of profession as a "vocation", having decided to become an actor when he was five or six years old.
Television
In 1965, Hickey joined the cast of
RTÉ television's new rural drama series, ''
The Riordans''. He went on to play the part of Benjy Riordan in the successful serial for the next sixteen years.
In 2001, he made a rare venture into
television advertising with his appearances in a series of commercials for
Club Orange, a
soft drink. The first of these was directed by
Declan Lowney, the director of ''
Father Ted''. Lowney also directed ''
Moone Boy'', a
Sky television series in which Hickey played Granddad Joe.
Stage
On stage, Hickey favoured parts in the work of modern Irish playwrights such as
Tom Murphy,
Frank McGuinness
Professor Frank McGuinness (born 1953) is an Irish writer. As well as his own plays, which include ''The Factory Girls'', '' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme'', '' Someone Who'll Watch Over Me'' and '' Dolly West's Kitchen ...
,
Bernard Farrell, and
Marina Carr
Marina Carr is an Irish playwright who has written almost thirty plays, including ''By the Bog of Cats'' (1998).
Early life and education
Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland, but spent the majority of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Off ...
. In the early 1980s, the playwright
Tom MacIntyre
Tom MacIntyre (10 December 1931– 31 October 2019) was an Irish poet, playwright and writer. Born in Cavan, he grew up in Bailieborough with his four siblings, and briefly worked as a pharmaceutical chemist, before deciding to write.
MacIntyre ...
asked him to play the lead role in his adaptation of
Patrick Kavanagh's poem ''The Great Hunger''. Following the success of that collaboration, he has become an acclaimed interpreter of MacIntyre's work, in such plays as ''Rise Up Lovely Sweeney'', ''The Gallant John Joe'' and ''What Happened Bridgie Cleary''.
Cinema
As a
character actor, Hickey appeared in numerous films, including ''
My Left Foot'', ''
Fools of Fortune'', ''
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
'', ''
Inside I'm Dancing'', ''
Stella Days'', ''
Breakfast on Pluto'', and ''
Possession''. He was also cast in two of director
Lenny Abrahamson's films: ''
Garage'' and ''
What Richard Did''.
Personal life
In 2013, Hickey was diagnosed with
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
. During an interview on ''
The Marian Finucane Show'' on 11 April 2015, he spoke of his determination to continue acting despite the onset of this condition.
Hickey died on Saturday, 1 May 2021 at age 77, with tributes paid by President
Michael D. Higgins.
References
External links
Tom Hickey at Irish Playography*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, Tom
1944 births
2021 deaths
Irish male film actors
Irish male soap opera actors
Irish male stage actors
Irish male television actors
Male actors from County Kildare
People with Parkinson's disease