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Shane Connaughton | |
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| Born | 4 April 1941 Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, actor |
| Years active | 1975–present |
| Spouse | Ann Connaughton |
Shane Connaughton (born 4 April 1941 in Kingscourt, County Cavan [1] [2] ) is an Irish writer and actor, probably best known as co-writer of the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for My Left Foot . [3] He also co-wrote the screenplays for the Academy Award-winning 1980 short film The Dollar Bottom and 1992 film The Playboys , as well as other screenplays and plays. He won the Hennessy Award in 1985. [4]
Connaughton is the author of the books A Border Station (1989), The Run of the Country (1991), and Big Parts (2009). [3] [5] He adapted The Run of the Country for the screen in 1995 and published a book about its filming, A Border Diary, the same year. [4] A Border Station, a short story collection, was a bestseller in Ireland and was shortlisted for the Guinness Peat Award. [6] His first two books are both set in the County Cavan village of Redhills, where he grew up, and The Playboys and The Run of the Country were filmed there. [2]
Connaughton attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has worked as a theatre and film actor, [2] appearing in Coronation Street , Mike Leigh's Four Days in July , Neil Jordan's The Miracle , and The Playboys, among other roles. He acted in the 2020 award-winning black comedy, Redemption of a Rogue .
Connaughton is married and has two children. He lives in London much of the time. [2]
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Alan Bennett is an English playwright, author, actor and screenwriter. Over his entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. He also earned an Academy Award nomination for his film The Madness of King George (1994). In 2005 he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award.
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. His accolades include an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours, and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Martin Brest is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. After his feature debut, Going in Style (1979), he directed the action comedies Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Midnight Run (1988), which were critical and commercial hits.
Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, actor, and screenwriter.
Martin Faranan McDonagh is a British-Irish playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his absurdist dark humour which often challenges the modern theatre aesthetic. He has won numerous accolades including an Academy Award, six BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three Olivier Awards, with nominations for five Tony Awards.
Thomas Patrick McKenna was an Irish actor, born in Mullagh, County Cavan. He had an extensive stage and screen career.
John David Logan is an American playwright and filmmaker. He is known for his work as a screenwriter for such films as Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004) and Hugo (2011), Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Sam Mendes' James Bond films Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015). He has been nominated three times for Academy Awards, and has won a Tony Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Sir Ronald Harwood was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).
Colin Welland was an English actor and screenwriter. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Mr Farthing in Kes (1969) and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Chariots of Fire (1981).
Niamh Cusack is an Irish actress. Born to a family with deep roots in the performing arts, she has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre, and many others. Her most notable television role was as Dr. Kate Rowan in the UK series Heartbeat (1992–1995). Other TV and film credits include Always and Everyone (1999–2002), The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (1992–1995), The Closer You Get (2000), Agatha Christie's Marple, Midsomer Murders (2008), A Touch of Frost (2010), In Love with Alma Cogan (2011), Testament of Youth (2014), Departure (2015), Chick Lit, The Ghoul (2016), The Virtues (2019), Death in Paradise (2021), The Tower (2023). She has been nominated at IFTA for her performance in Too Good to be True (2004).
Gavin Richards is an English actor, writer and director. He is best known for playing Captain Alberto Bertorelli in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! from 1987 to 1989 and Terry Raymond in the BBC soap opera EastEnders between 1996 and 2002.
Kingscourt, historically known as Dunaree, is a town in County Cavan, Ireland. It is located near the Cavan–Meath border. The town was founded near the site of the old village of Cabra, by Mervyn Pratt, towards the end of the 18th century, and was completed by his brother, the Reverend Joseph Pratt. As of the 2022 census, the population was 2,955.
Shane Jacobson is an Australian actor, director, writer, and comedian, best known as the "Dunny Man" for his performances as the eponymous character Kenny Smyth, a plumber working for a portable toilet rental company, in the 2006 film Kenny and the spin-off TV series, Kenny's World. In 2006, he won the Australian Film Institute's Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for that performance. In 2017 and 2018 he presented Little Big Shots, on the Seven Network, based on the American series of the same title. In 2019, Jacobson became a judge on Australia's Got Talent.
John Crowley is an Irish film and theatre director. He is best known for the films Brooklyn (2015) and his debut feature, Intermission (2003), for which he won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Director. He is a brother of the designer Bob Crowley.
Jimmy Murphy is an Irish playwright living in Dublin. He is a former writer in residence at NUI Maynooth (2000–01), a member of the Abbey Theatre’s Honorary Advisory Council, a recipient of three Bursaries in literature from the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíona and was elected a member of Aosdána in 2004.
Michael McElhatton is an Irish actor and writer. He is best known for playing the role of Roose Bolton in the HBO series Game of Thrones from the second to the sixth season (2012–2016). Other credits include I Went Down (1997), Paths to Freedom (2000), Saltwater (2000), Blow Dry (2001), The Actors (2003), Spin the Bottle (2003), Perrier's Bounty (2009), Albert Nobbs (2011), Death of a Superhero (2011), Pentecost (2012), The Fall (2013), The Hallow (2015), The Zookeeper's Wife (2017), Chernobyl (2019), Das Boot (2020), The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (2020), The Wheel of Time (2021), Jack Ryan (2022) and The Long Shadow (2023).
Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright.
The Playboys is a 1992 Irish film directed by Gillies MacKinnon and starring Albert Finney, Aidan Quinn and Robin Wright. The plot follows an unwed young mother whose life is transformed with the arrival of a travelling troupe of actors to her Irish village. The script was written by Shane Connaughton, an Oscar nominee for My Left Foot. The film was shot in his native village Redhills, in County Cavan, Ireland.
The Run of the Country is a 1995 American romantic drama film directed by Peter Yates. It is based on the novel by Shane Connaughton, and stars Albert Finney and Matt Keeslar.
Redhills is a village located in northern County Cavan, Ireland. It is near the N54 road and is home to Redhills GAA club, which has produced four Cavan Inter-County players. The Finn River flows a short distance to the north of Redhills.
