Barry Fitzgerald

William Joseph Shields (10 March 1888 – 4 January 1961), known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor.

He attended Skerry's College in Dublin before going on to work in the civil service, starting as a junior clerk at the Dublin Board of Trade in 1911.

He later went to work for the unemployment office.

"It was an easy job, full of leisure," he later said.

Interested in acting, he began appearing in amateur dramatic societies such as the Kincora Players.

He joined his brother Arthur Shields in the Abbey in 1915.

He chose the stage name Barry Fitzgerald so as not to get in trouble with his superiors in the civil service.

Fitzgerald's early appearances at the Abbey included bit parts in plays such as The Casting Out of Martin Whelan and a four-word part in The Critic.

His breakthrough performance at the Abbey came in 1919, when he was in The Dragon by Lady Gregory.

In 1924, Fitzgerald's salary at the Abbey was £2'10 a week.

That year he appeared in the world premiere of Juno and the Paycock by famed playwright Seán O'Casey.

Fitzgerald played Captain Jack Boyle.

He received much acclaim for his performance in Paul Twyning during 1925.

The following year he was in the premiere of O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, playing Fluther Good.

The play was controversial, causing riots and protests.

One night in February 1926, three gunmen turned up to Fitzgerald's mother's house intending to kidnap him and prevent the play from being performed, but they were unable to find him.

In 1926, Fitzgerald was in The Would-Be Gentleman.

Other appearances at the Abbey included The Far Off Hills, Shadow of a Gunman and The Playboy.

O'Casey wrote a part especially for Fitzgerald in the play The Silver Tassie, but it was rejected by the Abbey.

However he continued to act part-time until 1929, keeping his job at the civil service during the day.

He was in The Bribe, An Imaginary Conversation, John Bull's Other Island and others.

The play was picked up for production in London in 1929.

Fitzgerald decided to leave his civil service job to join the production and at age 41, he became a full-time actor.

Fitzergald made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's version of Juno and the Paycock (1930), shot in London.

In early 1931, Fitzgerald toured England in a production of Paul Twyning.

He returned to Ireland in June of that year to perform the play at the Abbey.

Between 1931 and 1936, he appeared in three plays by Irish playwright Teresa DeevyA Disciple, In Search of Valour and Katie Roche which were also Abbey Theatre productions.

In 1932, Fitzgerald traveled to the United States with the Abbey Players to appear in Things That Are Caesar's and The Far-off Hills.

Fitzgerald and the Players returned to the US in 1934 to tour a series of plays in repertory around the country.

These included The Plough and the Stars, Drama at Inish, The Far-off Hills, Look at the Heffernans, The Playboy of the Western World, The Shadow of the Glen, Church Street, The Well of the Saints and Juno and the Paycock.

Fitzgerald appeared in a short Irish silent film, Guests of the Nation, released only in Ireland in 1935.

In March 1936, Fitzgerald and three other members of the Abbey arrived in Hollywood to star in the film version of The Plough and the Stars (1936), directed by John Ford.

In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), Going My Way (1944), None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Quiet Man (1952).

For Going My Way, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and was simultaneously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields.

The film was not seen or distributed outside of Ireland until 2011.

In 2020, he was listed at number 11 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Fitzgerald was born William Joseph Shields in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland, the son of Fanny Sophia (née Ungerland) and Adolphus Shields.

His father was Irish and his mother was German.

He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields.