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Susan FitzGerald obituary Susan FitzGerald obituary
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Ice cool on stage, with sharp good looks and a wit to match them, Susan FitzGerald, who has died aged 64, was a distinguished, versatile and much-loved actor over four decades on the Irish stage, mostly associated with the Gate theatre in Dublin. A career in the arts was inevitable from the moment she played the Virgin Mary in the school nativity aged five; her family was full of actors and writers. She was the niece and goddaughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald, the Hollywood and Broadway star from County Wicklow, and a cousin of the novelist Jennifer Johnston (whose father was the playwright Denis Johnston) and the actor Tara Fitzgerald.Ice cool on stage, with sharp good looks and a wit to match them, Susan FitzGerald, who has died aged 64, was a distinguished, versatile and much-loved actor over four decades on the Irish stage, mostly associated with the Gate theatre in Dublin. A career in the arts was inevitable from the moment she played the Virgin Mary in the school nativity aged five; her family was full of actors and writers. She was the niece and goddaughter of Geraldine Fitzgerald, the Hollywood and Broadway star from County Wicklow, and a cousin of the novelist Jennifer Johnston (whose father was the playwright Denis Johnston) and the actor Tara Fitzgerald.
There have been only two artistic regimes at the Gate since it was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, and FitzGerald was employed in both. For Edwards, she appeared in Lady Windermere's Fan in 1973, returning to the theatre in 1986 as Belinda in Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings. By then she was married to the new artistic director, Michael Colgan (who took over from "the boys," as they were known, in 1983), for whom she played a series of cut-glass society dames – the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Liz Essendine in Present Laughter, Lady Croom in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia – as well as a malevolent, squinty-eyed Madame Raquin in a Zola adaptation and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.There have been only two artistic regimes at the Gate since it was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, and FitzGerald was employed in both. For Edwards, she appeared in Lady Windermere's Fan in 1973, returning to the theatre in 1986 as Belinda in Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings. By then she was married to the new artistic director, Michael Colgan (who took over from "the boys," as they were known, in 1983), for whom she played a series of cut-glass society dames – the Marquise de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Liz Essendine in Present Laughter, Lady Croom in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia – as well as a malevolent, squinty-eyed Madame Raquin in a Zola adaptation and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations.
She tended towards the European, rather than exclusively Irish, repertoire, as well, when she occasionally went round the corner to the Abbey theatre, appearing on the national stage in Pirandello, Shakespeare and Ibsen. It was significant that, although she featured in Colgan's Beckett festival in 1991, playing both the discombobulated, relentlessly pacing up and down old May in Footfalls, and Ru, one of the three stranded biddies in Come and Go ("May we not speak of the old days?"), she made her professional debut in Dublin (in the long gone Eblana theatre in the basement of the bus station) as the derided English rose Alison in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger.She tended towards the European, rather than exclusively Irish, repertoire, as well, when she occasionally went round the corner to the Abbey theatre, appearing on the national stage in Pirandello, Shakespeare and Ibsen. It was significant that, although she featured in Colgan's Beckett festival in 1991, playing both the discombobulated, relentlessly pacing up and down old May in Footfalls, and Ru, one of the three stranded biddies in Come and Go ("May we not speak of the old days?"), she made her professional debut in Dublin (in the long gone Eblana theatre in the basement of the bus station) as the derided English rose Alison in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger.
For she was actually born and raised in England, where her father, William FitzGerald, was a doctor, a GP in Leicester, having moved there from Dublin with his wife, Emily Irwin, during the second world war. Susan, the eldest of six children, was educated at Evington Hall convent school in Leicester before the family moved back to Kinsale, in County Cork, in 1966. She and her sister Rosie commuted back to school, staying with the Latin teacher in Leicester for their final school terms.For she was actually born and raised in England, where her father, William FitzGerald, was a doctor, a GP in Leicester, having moved there from Dublin with his wife, Emily Irwin, during the second world war. Susan, the eldest of six children, was educated at Evington Hall convent school in Leicester before the family moved back to Kinsale, in County Cork, in 1966. She and her sister Rosie commuted back to school, staying with the Latin teacher in Leicester for their final school terms.
FitzGerald met Colgan soon after entering Trinity College Dublin in 1968 to read English, philosophy and history, and they married while active with the Trinity Players (Colgan, the president, was known as "the king").FitzGerald met Colgan soon after entering Trinity College Dublin in 1968 to read English, philosophy and history, and they married while active with the Trinity Players (Colgan, the president, was known as "the king").
She managed to maintain a career while raising three children, establishing herself in major television series such as RTE's long-running soap Fair City, the BBC mini-series Rebel Heart (2001) and RTE's Bachelors Walk (2003) and The Big Bow Wow (2004). Her first movie was Joseph Strick's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977), followed later by The Serpent's Kiss (1997) and Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes (1999).She managed to maintain a career while raising three children, establishing herself in major television series such as RTE's long-running soap Fair City, the BBC mini-series Rebel Heart (2001) and RTE's Bachelors Walk (2003) and The Big Bow Wow (2004). Her first movie was Joseph Strick's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977), followed later by The Serpent's Kiss (1997) and Alan Parker's Angela's Ashes (1999).
Footfalls went with the Beckett festival to New York in 1996 and the Barbican in London in 1999, before being filmed in 2000. At the Gate, FitzGerald revisited Lady Windermere's Fan, this time as the Duchess of Berwick, commenting tartly on those good souls who sit at their windows making ugly things for the poor. I particularly admired her sharp-as-pins Mrs Linde in Karel Reisz's beautiful production of Ibsen's A Doll's House in 1993, with Niamh Cusack as Nora.Footfalls went with the Beckett festival to New York in 1996 and the Barbican in London in 1999, before being filmed in 2000. At the Gate, FitzGerald revisited Lady Windermere's Fan, this time as the Duchess of Berwick, commenting tartly on those good souls who sit at their windows making ugly things for the poor. I particularly admired her sharp-as-pins Mrs Linde in Karel Reisz's beautiful production of Ibsen's A Doll's House in 1993, with Niamh Cusack as Nora.
In her last stage appearance, in Landmark Productions' successful touring version, directed by Jimmy Fay, of Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, she played the highfalutin mother of Paul Howard's riotously repellent anti-hero, Ross O'Carroll-Kelly. The show opened in 2010 and visited the Cork Opera House in 2011. By this time she was suffering with secondaries from the bowel cancer diagnosed in 2005.In her last stage appearance, in Landmark Productions' successful touring version, directed by Jimmy Fay, of Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, she played the highfalutin mother of Paul Howard's riotously repellent anti-hero, Ross O'Carroll-Kelly. The show opened in 2010 and visited the Cork Opera House in 2011. By this time she was suffering with secondaries from the bowel cancer diagnosed in 2005.
She and Colgan divorced in 2010, after a long period of separation, though they remained on good terms. She is survived by their three children, Sarah, Sophie and Richard, and her five siblings.She and Colgan divorced in 2010, after a long period of separation, though they remained on good terms. She is survived by their three children, Sarah, Sophie and Richard, and her five siblings.
• Susan Mary Theresa FitzGerald, actor, born 28 May 1949; died 9 September 2013 • Susan Mary Theresa FitzGerald, actor, born 28 May 1949; died 9 September 2013
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