Life
1888-1961 [stage-name of William Joseph Shields]; b. Dublin, br. of Boss
Shields; ed. Merchant Taylor’s School; joined Civil Service in 1911;
first acted with Kincora Players; acted part-time in the Abbey, 1918-29
and afterwards as part of Abbey Company; created parts of Captain Boyle
in Juno and the Paycock; Fluther in Plough and the Stars;
Paul in Paul Twining; St. Leger in The Big House, etc.;
played Englishman in Denis Johnston’s film of Guests of the Nation
(1934); voted best character actor in NY by George Jean Nathan and
other critics in 1934 (as Fluther); lived USA 1936, and settled in Hollywood
for 20 years; Fr. Fitzgibbon in Going My Way; The Quiet Man,
dir. John Ford; spent summers in Dublin, sailing; returned to Ireland,
1959; d. 4 Jan. BREF DIB
Notes
Brian Cleeve & Anne Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers
(Dublin: Lilliput 1985), gives bio-data as supra; with var., played Abbey
as amateur 1916[sic]-1929, and fulltime thereafter.
Portrait in Brian de Breffny, Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia (London: Thames & Hudson) Plate VII, Fitzgerald as the King in Lady
Gregory’s The Golden Apple, oil on canvas, Dermod O’Brien.
[Orig. in Abbey Foyer], signed 1922. Also Seán O’Sullivan,
drawing in black carbon pencil with white chalk on grey paper, signed
1946 [NGI]; ALSO Fitzgerald as Christie Dudgeon in The Devil’s
Disciple [Abbey Theatre].
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)