Eugene Lambert
| Eugene Lambert | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1928 County Sligo, Ireland |
| Died |
23 February 2010 (aged 81) Monkstown, County Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Puppeteer |
| Known for | His puppetry, Wanderly Wagon |
Eugene Lambert (1928 – 22 February 2010) was an Irish puppeteer and actor from County Sligo. He was owner of the Lambert Puppet Theatre in Monkstown, County Dublin. He was noted for co-starring as O'Brien in the RTÉ television series Wanderly Wagon. Lambert's Puppet Theatre also produced the iconic children's television character Bosco. He died in 2010 at the age of 81.
Lambert was born and raised in County Sligo. His father was the county librarian, but died at the age of 35. His mother took on his father's old job and Lambert was raised in a bookish home. He made his first puppet aged 8 and was a proficient ventriloquist by the time he reached his early teens.
Lambert was long a stalwart of the Irish vaudeville scene, particularly in Dublin, although he also toured the country frequently with his wife Mai. His most common acts were with Finnegan, a mischievous storyteller, and Judge, a pensive dog. With the rise of television in the 1960s, the Lambert puppet theatre became a fixture in Irish broadcasting. In the early 1960s, Lambert devised a puppet series for children entitled Murphy agus a Chairde ("Murphy and His Friends"). Murphy was a giant who lived in a magical kingdom. Its king, "An Rí", only had one problem - constant mischief from two witches, Feemy and Babóg. RTÉ was the only station most people in Ireland could then access and Murphy's adventures were soon an important part of most children's viewing. Murphy himself appeared as the in-vision continuity announcer all through one of RTÉ's Christmas Day broadcasts.
In November 1963, Lambert drew international attention after he successfully acquired a driver's license for his puppet Finnegan. Lambert reported that he did so simply to show how easy it was for anybody in Ireland to obtain a license.
He later co-starred in the children's television series Wanderly Wagon as the mischievous and greedy O'Brien, known for his childlike curiosity and cowardice in the face of magical events. Lambert and his family provided many regular (puppet) characters — Judge the dog, Mr Crow (who lived in a cuckoo clock), the mysterious Foxy Loxy, and the untrustworthy Ssneaky Ssnake. The series also featured Irish actor Frank Kelly who played Dr Astro in the series, who later appeared as Fr. Jack Hackett in Father Ted.
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