Fitzgerald's birthplace on Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin
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.[3][4][5] He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields.
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.[6][7] He later went to work for the unemployment office. "It was an easy job, full of leisure," he later said.[8]
Career
Abbey Theatre
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.[7]
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.[9][10]
His breakthrough performance at the Abbey came in 1919, when he was in The Dragon by Lady Gregory.[11] However he continued to act part-time until 1929, keeping his job in the civil service during the day.[8] He was in The Bribe, An Imaginary Conversation, John Bull's Other Island and others.[11]
In 1924, Fitzgerald's salary at the Abbey was £2/10 a week.[12] That year he appeared in the world premiere of Juno and the Paycock by famed playwright Seán O'Casey.[13] 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.[14]
In 1926, Fitzgerald was in The Would-Be Gentleman.[15] Other appearances at the Abbey included The Far Off Hills, Shadow of a Gunman and The Playboy.[16]
O'Casey wrote a part, especially for Fitzgerald in the play The Silver Tassie, but it was rejected by the Abbey. 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.[9]
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.[17] Between 1931 and 1936, he appeared in three plays by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy—A Disciple,[18]In Search of Valour[19] and Katie Roche[20]—which were also Abbey Theatre productions.
In 1932, Fitzgerald travelled to the United States with the Abbey Players to appear in Things That Are Caesar's and The Far-off Hills.[21]
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.[22]
Fitzgerald appeared in a short Irish silent film, Guests of the Nation, released only in Ireland in 1935. The film was not seen or distributed outside of Ireland until 2011.
After Full Confession Fitzgerald went back to Broadway with Kindred (1939–40) and a revival of Juno and the Paycock (1940) which went for 105 performances.[9]
Fitzgerald and Shields starred in Tanyard Street (1941) on Broadway, directed by Shields, which only had a short run. However, Fitzgerald's personal notices were excellent, The New York Times calling him "the incarnation of the comic spirit. People start laughing the moment he pokes his squint face on set."[24]
Fitzgerald unexpectedly became a leading man when Leo McCarey cast him opposite Bing Crosby in Going My Way released by Paramount in 1944. The film was a huge success and Fitzgerald's performance as Father Fitzgibbon was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (which he ultimately won) and the Academy Award for Best Actor;[4] voting rules were changed shortly after this occurrence to prevent further dual nominations for the same role. An avid golfer, he later accidentally decapitated his Oscar while practising his golf swing. During World War II, Oscar statuettes were made of plaster instead of gold-plated bronze to accommodate wartime metal shortages. The academy provided Fitzgerald with a replacement statuette.[25]
After Going My Way, Paramount signed Fitzgerald to a long-term contract. The studio cast him in a supporting role in I Love a Soldier (1944) and he was borrowed by RKO for None But the Lonely Heart (1944).
In March 1944, Fitzgerald was involved in a car accident which resulted in the death of a woman and the injury of her daughter. He was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted in January 1945 due to lack of evidence.[26]
He had a supporting role in MGM's The Catered Affair (1956) and was top billed in the British comedy Rooney (1958).
Fitzgerald was top billed in the Irish film Broth of a Boy (1959).
Later years
Fitzgerald never married. In Hollywood, he shared an apartment with his stand-in, Angus D. Taillon, who died in 1953.[21][28] Fitzgerald returned to live in Dublin in 1959,[4] where he lived at 2 Seafield Ave, Monkstown. In October that year, he underwent brain surgery.[29] He appeared to recover, but in late 1960 he re-entered the hospital. He died, as William Joseph Shields, of a heart attack in St Patrick's Hospital, James Street, on 4 January 1961.[30][31][7]
Fitzgerald has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for motion pictures at 6252 Hollywood Boulevard and for television at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.[32]
^ abcdBARRY FITZGERALD DIES IN DUBLIN HOSPITAL The Irish Times 5 January 1961: 4.
^ abBARRY FITZGERALD: MR. FITZGERALD, DRIVER OF 'THE WHITE STEED' By THEODORE STRAUSS New York Times 12 February 1939: 129.
^ abcRobinson, Jerome (14 January 1940). "OF THAT IRISHMAN NAMED BARRY FITZGERALD: Captain Jack Boyle, From the Abbey to Broadway, a Couple of Times". The New York Times. p. X3.
^Fitzgerald freed in Charge of Manslaughter Los Angeles Times 10 January 1945: A1.
^Fitzgerald Meets Fame--and He Frowns: The limelight focuses fiercely on the actor and he finds it 'downright boring.' Fitzgerald Meets Fame BY FRED STANLEY. New York Times 14 January 1945: SM8.
^ANGUS D. TAILLON The New York Times 10 May 1953: 88
^Barry Fitzgerald Has Brain Surgery in Dublin Los Angeles Times 16 October 1959: 15.
Boylan, Henry (1999). A Dictionary of Irish Biography. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. ISBN0-7171-2945-4.
Further reading
Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Barry Fitzgerald". The Name Below the Title: 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 97–100. ISBN978-1-7200-3837-5.
