Hugh Leonard
| Hugh Leonard | |
|---|---|
c.2004
|
|
| Born | John Keyes Byrne 9 November 1926 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 12 February 2009 (aged 82) Dalkey, Ireland |
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality | Ireland |
| Ethnicity | Irish |
| Citizenship | Ireland |
| Notable works | Da, A Life |
| Spouse | Paule Byrne (d. 2000) Katharine Hayes |
| Children | Danielle Byrne |
| Website | |
| www |
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Hugh Leonard (9 November 1926 – 12 February 2009) was an Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist. In a career that spanned 50 years, Leonard wrote nearly 30 full-length plays, 10 one-act plays, three volumes of essays, two autobiographies, three novels and numerous screenplays and teleplays, as well as writing a regular newspaper column.
Leonard was born in Dublin John Joseph Byrne, but was put up for adoption. Raised in Dalkey, a suburb of Dublin, by Nicholas and Margaret Keyes, he changed his name to John Keyes Byrne. For the rest of his life, despite the pen name of "Hugh Leonard" which he later adopted and became well known by, he invited close friends to call him "Jack".
Leonard was educated at the Harold Boys' National School, Dalkey, and Presentation College, Glasthule, winning a scholarship to the latter. He worked as a civil servant, for 14 years. During that time he both acted in and wrote plays for community theatre groups. His first play to be professionally produced was The Big Birthday, which was mounted by the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1956, his career with the Abbey Theatre continued until 1994. After that his plays were produced regularly by Dublin's theatres.
He moved to Manchester for a while, working for Granada Television before returning to Ireland in 1970. There he settled in Dalkey.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Leonard was the first major Irish writer to establish a reputation in television writing extensively for television including original plays, comedies, thrillers and adaptations of classic novels for British television. He was commissioned by RTÉ to write Insurrection, a 50th anniversary dramatic reconstruction of the Irish uprising of Easter 1916. Leonard's Silent Song, adapted for the BBC from a short story by Frank O'Connor, won the Prix Italia in 1967. He wrote the script for the RTÉ adaptation of Strumpet City by James Plunkett.
Three of Leonard's plays have been presented on Broadway: The Au Pair Man (1973), which starred Charles Durning and Julie Harris; Da (1978); and A Life (1980). Of these, Da, which originated off-off-Broadway at the Hudson Guild Theatre before transferring to the Morosco Theatre, was the most successful, running for 20 months and 697 performances, then touring the United States for ten months. It earned Leonard both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for Best Play. It was made into a film in 1988, starring Martin Sheen and Barnard Hughes, who reprised his Tony Award-winning Broadway performance.
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Wikipedia