From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ray McAnally (March 30, 1926 – June 15, 1989) was an Irish actor famous for his performances in films such as The Mission, My Left Foot, and A Very British Coup.

Ray McAnally was born in the Donegal seaside town of Buncrana on March 30th, 1926. The son of a bank manager, he was educated at St. Eunan's College in Letterkenny, after which he entered a seminary at the age of 18. However, he left the seminary after a short time having decided that the priesthood was not his vocation. He joined the Abbey Theatre in 1947 where he met and married actress Ronnie Masterson. They would later form Old Quay Productions and present an assortment of classic plays in the 1960s and '70s. He made his theatre debut in 1962 with A Nice Bunch of Cheap Flowers and gave a well-received performance as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite actress Constance Cummings, at the Piccadilly Theatre.

He regularly acted in the Abbey Theatre and Irish festivals, but then, in the last decade of life, achieved award-winning notice on TV and films. His impressive performance as Cardinal Altamirano in the film The Mission (1986) earned him Evening Standard and BAFTA awards. His role in the BBC production of A Perfect Spy (1987) also earned him a BAFTA award. In the last year of his life, he was stunning as Daniel Day-Lewis's father in the Academy Award-winning film My Left Foot (1989), the story of cerebral palsy victim Christy Brown, who overcame his severe disability to become a flourishing artist and writer.

McAnally died suddenly of a heart attack on June 15th of that year at the home he shared with Irish actress Britta Smith and received a posthumous BAFTA award for this last movie in 1990. At the time of his death, he was due to play The Bull McCabe in Jim Sheridan's film The Field, the part eventually going to Richard Harris (who would receive an Oscar nomination for his performance). McAnally had four children, Conor, Aongus, Maire and Niamh. Aongus went on to become a television presenter, well known in Ireland, while Maire became a nun, joining the Dominican Sisters.

• My Left Foot (1989)
• Venus Peter (1989)
• We're No Angels (1989)
• A Very British Coup (1988) - British TV movie
• Empire State (1987)
• The Fourth Protocol (1987)
• The Sicilian (1987)
• Taffin (1987)
• White Mischief (1987)
• The Mission (1986)
• No Surrender (1985)
• Cal (1984)
• The Outsider (1979)
• Fear Is the Key (1972)
• Quest for Love (1971)
• The Looking Glass War (1969)
• Sea of Sand (1958)

• Ray McAnally at the Internet Movie Database