Cyril Cusack

His sons, Paul and Pádraig, work as a producer with RTÉ and in computers, respectively.
. His four daughters, Niamh, Sorcha, Sinéad and Catherine are actresses.
. Cusack's last stage performance was in Chekhov's The Three Sisters, in which three of his daughters played the sisters. In July 2004, in a poll of industry experts conducted by Radio Times magazine, he was voted the 19th Most Powerful Person in Television Drama. In 1989 his performance in the film My Left Foot, with Daniel Day-Lewis, contributed to its success. In March 2004, it was announced that Eccleston is to play the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in the revival of the legendary BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, to be broadcast in 2005.

In 1984 he appeared as the shop-keeper and Thought Police spy Charrington in the film version of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. He won the RTS Best Actor award for a second time in 2003, this time for his performance in Flesh and Blood. He received honorary doctorates in 1977 and 1980 from the NUI and the University of Dublin respectively. He did, however, triumph in the Best Actor categories at the 1997 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and the Royal Television Society Awards, winning for Our Friends in the North. Two years later in 1979 he married Mary Rose Cunningham. His first nomination came in 1997 for Our Friends in the North, when he lost out to Nigel Hawthorne (for The Fragile Heart), and he was nominated again in 2004 for The Second Coming, this time being beaten by Bill Nighy (for State of Play). In 1977 Cusack's wife, Maureen Kiely, an actress, died. A very highly-regarded actor, he has twice been nominated in the Best Actor category at the BAFTA Television Awards, the UK's premier TV awards ceremony.

By this stage he had established a successful career in films. On stage, his highest-profile production has been his starring role in Hamlet at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 2002. The West Yorkshire Playhouse is a favourite venue of his, and he most recently returned there in the new play Electricity, which ran in March and April 2004. In 1963 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and appeared there for several seasons. He also finds time for the occasional light-hearted role, however, as his guest appearances in episodes of the comedy drama Linda Green (2001) and macabre sketch show The League of Gentlemen (2002) have shown. In 1947 Cusack formed his own company and staged productions in Dublin, Paris and New York City. These have included Clocking Off (2000) and Flesh and Blood (2002) for the BBC and Hillsborough (1997), a modern version of Othello (2002, playing 'Ben Jago', the Iago character) and the religious telefantasy epic The Second Coming (2003) for ITV. Between then and 1945 he performed in over sixty productions, particularly excelling in the plays of Sean O'Casey. Despite his successful film career, he has continued to appear in a variety of meaty television roles, racking up credits in some of the most challenging and thought-provoking British television dramas of recent years.

He left without a degree and joined the Abbey Theatre in 1932. He has starred alongside two major Hollywood actresses in smaller independent movies, playing opposite Renée Zellweger in A Price Above Rubies (1998) and Cameron Diaz in The Invisible Circus (2001). Cusack was educated in Newbridge, Kildare, and University College, Dublin. His film career has since taken off with a variety of high-profile but never quite – except in one or two cases – really mainstream roles, including parts in Elizabeth (1998), eXistenZ (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), The Others (2001), 24-Hour Party People (2002) and another Danny Boyle film, the horror movie 28 Days Later (2002). Cyril made his first stage performance at the age of seven. The same year, he won the part of Nicky Hutchinson in the epic BBC drama serial Our Friends in the North, and it was the transmission of this production on BBC Two in 1996 that perhaps really made him into a household name in the UK. Cusack's mother and her partner, Breifne O'Rorke, joined the O'Brien and Ireland Players. He appeared in the low-budget Danny Boyle film Shallow Grave in 1994, in which he co-starred with another up-and-coming young British actor by the name of Ewan McGregor.

His parents separated when he was young and his mother took him to England, and then to Ireland. However, it was a regular role in the TV series Cracker (1993-94) – culminating in his character's dramatic death in the second series – that made him a recognisable figure in the UK. He was the son of a sergeant in the mounted police and an actress. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and first came to public attention as Derek Bentley in the 1991 film Let Him Have It, based on true events. Cyril Cusack (26 November 1910 - 7 October 1993) was an Irish actor, born in Natal, South Africa. As a child his ambition was to play football for his beloved Manchester United, but he found himself to be a much better actor than he was a footballer, and inspired by television dramas such as Boys from the Blackstuff, he took to acting as his profession. Christopher Eccleston (born on 16 February 1964 in Salford, Lancashire, England, UK) is a British stage, television and film actor, best known for his roles in several high profile "prestige" films and television series.