John Joseph MacGowran was an Irish actor, probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett. His last film role was as the alcoholic director Burke Dennings in The Exorcist.
Stage career
MacGowran was born on 13 October 1918 in Dublin. He established his professional reputation as a member of the Abbey Players in Dublin, while he achieved stage renown for his knowing interpretations of the works of Samuel Beckett. He appeared as Lucky in Waiting For Godot at the Royal Court Theatre, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Endgame at the Aldwych Theatre. He released an LP record, MacGowran Speaking Beckett, to coincide with Samuel Beckett's 60th birthday in 1966, and won the 1970–71 Obie for Best Performance By an Actor in the off-Broadway play MacGowran in the works of Beckett. He also specialised in the work of Seán O'Casey, creating the role of Joxer in the Broadway musicalJuno in 1959, based with O'Casey's 1924 play about the Troubles, Juno and the Paycock. Fittingly, he played O'Casey's brother Archie in Young Cassidy, one of John Ford's last films. In 1954 he moved to London, where he became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. There he struck up a lasting friendship with Peter O'Toole, with whom he later appeared in Richard Brooks' Lord Jim. However he apparently had a somewhat fractious relationship with Royal Shakespeare director Peter Hall. He was Old Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice and when the set arrived Hall called all the cast into the theatre to view it. MacGowran was not there, still in his dressing room. An assistant was sent to fetch him. He returned alone: "Mr MacGowran says, Mr. Hall, that if you had read the play you would know that Old Gobbo was blind." MacGowran played the title role of "Gandhi" in the Broadway play written by Gurney Campbell in 1971, directed by Jose Quintero.
Film career
MacGowran's film career started in Ireland with the film No Resting Place, and many of his earlier films were set in Ireland. Notably The Quiet Man, The Gentle Gunman, Rooney and Darby O'Gill and the Little People. In 1966 Roman Polanski cast him as the gangster Albie in Cul-de-sac, before creating Professor Abronsius in The Fearless Vampire Killers especially for him. Other notable film appearances include the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt, Tony Richardson's Tom Jones, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago, Richard Lester's How I Won the War, Peter Brook's King Lear, the leading role of Professor Collins in Wonderwall, and Age of Consent. On TV he also appeared in "The Happening", an episode of The Champions and as professor Poole in The Winged Avenger episode of The Avengers TV Series. He played a safecracker opposite Kenneth Cope in "The Ghost Talks" episode of Randall and Hopkirk . His last film was The Exorcist, where he played Burke Dennings, an alcoholic director and Regan's first victim.
Personal life
In 1963, he married Aileen Gloria Nugent, daughter of the Irish MP for South Westmeath and Senator of the Irish Free State, Sir Walter Nugent, Bt. Shortly after completing work on The Exorcist, while in New York City appearing as Fluther in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, MacGowran died at 54 from influenza after complications resulting from the recent London flu epidemic. He had one daughter.
