Sinead Cusack (Hannah Thornton)
Sinéad Moira Cusack ( born 18 February 1948) is an Irish stage, television and film actress. She has received two Tony Award nominations: once for Best Leading Actress in Much Ado About Nothing (1985), and again for Best Featured Actress in Rock 'n' Roll (2008).
Cusack was born Jane Moira Cusack in Dalkey, County Dublin, the daughter of Maureen Cusack (née Kiely) and Cyril Cusack, both actors.[1] She is the sister of actresses Sorcha Cusack, Niamh Cusack and half-sister to Catherine Cusack.
Her first acting roles were at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1970, she starred with Peter Sellers in the film Hoffman. In 1971, she guest starred in an episode of The Persuaders! (starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore) as Jenny Lindley, a wealthy heiress who suspects that a man claiming to be her dead brother is in fact an impostor.[2]
In 1975, she moved to London and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Also in 1975 she made three appearances in the TV series Quiller as the character 'Roz'. She made her Broadway debut in 1984 performing in repertory with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Starring opposite Derek Jacobi, she played Roxane in Anthony Burgess' translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (having taken the role over from Alice Krige, who played Roxane through the play's London run) and Beatrice in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Terry Hands. The production of Cyrano de Bergerac was later filmed in 1985. Much Ado was first produced at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1982-83, then moved to London's Barbican Theatre for the 1983-1984 season where it was joined by Cyrano, before both plays came to New York's Gershwin Theatre from October 1984 to January 1985, for which Cusack received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Beatrice, and costar Jacobi won the award for his Benedick. During this period, Cusack and her husband, Jeremy Irons, appeared in a "Shakespeare Winter's Eve", a major fundraiser for the Riverside Shakespeare Company in New York, along with other members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Following the Broadway run, the plays toured the US, making stops in Washington DC and Los Angeles. She appeared in the 1992 film adaptation of Graham Swift's novel Waterland, alongside her husband Jeremy Irons.
One of her best known stage roles was Our Lady of Sligo in 1998, in which she played the principal role of Mai O'Hara in performances in Ireland, on Broadway and at the National Theatre. She also starred in the 2004 BBC miniseries North and South in a scene-stealing role as Mrs. Thornton, and in the 2006 film V for Vendetta.
She was awarded the 1998 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress and the 1998 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress. In 2006, she starred in the BBC sitcom Home Again.
Along with other actresses, including Paola Dionisotti, Fiona Shaw, Juliet Stevenson and Harriet Walter, Cusack contributed to a book by Carol Rutter called Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today (1994).[3] The book analyzed modern acting interpretations of female Shakespearean roles.
She is currently starring in the TV series Camelot.
She married British actor Jeremy Irons in 1978, and they have two sons, Samuel James (Sam), born 16 September 1978, and Maximilian Paul (known as Max Irons), born 17 October 1985.
Prior to marrying Irons, Cusack gave birth to a son in 1968 and placed the child for adoption. Cusack and her son, revealed to be the Irish politician Richard Boyd Barrett, have since been reunited.[4] Cusack campaigned for Boyd Barrett when he stood unsuccessfully in Ireland's 2007 general election as the People Before Profit Alliance's candidate for Dún Laoghaire constituency.[5][6] She also joined him in the count centre as he awaited the outcome of the 2011 general election, at which he was elected to Dáil Éireann.[7]
Sinead Cusack is a patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.
In 1998 Cusack was named, along with her husband Jeremy Irons, in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party.[8]
In August 2010 Cusack signed the "Irish artists' pledge to boycott Israel" initiated by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.[9] (Qtd from Wikipedia)
Cusack was born Jane Moira Cusack in Dalkey, County Dublin, the daughter of Maureen Cusack (née Kiely) and Cyril Cusack, both actors.[1] She is the sister of actresses Sorcha Cusack, Niamh Cusack and half-sister to Catherine Cusack.
Her first acting roles were at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1970, she starred with Peter Sellers in the film Hoffman. In 1971, she guest starred in an episode of The Persuaders! (starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore) as Jenny Lindley, a wealthy heiress who suspects that a man claiming to be her dead brother is in fact an impostor.[2]
In 1975, she moved to London and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Also in 1975 she made three appearances in the TV series Quiller as the character 'Roz'. She made her Broadway debut in 1984 performing in repertory with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Starring opposite Derek Jacobi, she played Roxane in Anthony Burgess' translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (having taken the role over from Alice Krige, who played Roxane through the play's London run) and Beatrice in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Terry Hands. The production of Cyrano de Bergerac was later filmed in 1985. Much Ado was first produced at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1982-83, then moved to London's Barbican Theatre for the 1983-1984 season where it was joined by Cyrano, before both plays came to New York's Gershwin Theatre from October 1984 to January 1985, for which Cusack received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Beatrice, and costar Jacobi won the award for his Benedick. During this period, Cusack and her husband, Jeremy Irons, appeared in a "Shakespeare Winter's Eve", a major fundraiser for the Riverside Shakespeare Company in New York, along with other members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Following the Broadway run, the plays toured the US, making stops in Washington DC and Los Angeles. She appeared in the 1992 film adaptation of Graham Swift's novel Waterland, alongside her husband Jeremy Irons.
One of her best known stage roles was Our Lady of Sligo in 1998, in which she played the principal role of Mai O'Hara in performances in Ireland, on Broadway and at the National Theatre. She also starred in the 2004 BBC miniseries North and South in a scene-stealing role as Mrs. Thornton, and in the 2006 film V for Vendetta.
She was awarded the 1998 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress and the 1998 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress. In 2006, she starred in the BBC sitcom Home Again.
Along with other actresses, including Paola Dionisotti, Fiona Shaw, Juliet Stevenson and Harriet Walter, Cusack contributed to a book by Carol Rutter called Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today (1994).[3] The book analyzed modern acting interpretations of female Shakespearean roles.
She is currently starring in the TV series Camelot.
She married British actor Jeremy Irons in 1978, and they have two sons, Samuel James (Sam), born 16 September 1978, and Maximilian Paul (known as Max Irons), born 17 October 1985.
Prior to marrying Irons, Cusack gave birth to a son in 1968 and placed the child for adoption. Cusack and her son, revealed to be the Irish politician Richard Boyd Barrett, have since been reunited.[4] Cusack campaigned for Boyd Barrett when he stood unsuccessfully in Ireland's 2007 general election as the People Before Profit Alliance's candidate for Dún Laoghaire constituency.[5][6] She also joined him in the count centre as he awaited the outcome of the 2011 general election, at which he was elected to Dáil Éireann.[7]
Sinead Cusack is a patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.
In 1998 Cusack was named, along with her husband Jeremy Irons, in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party.[8]
In August 2010 Cusack signed the "Irish artists' pledge to boycott Israel" initiated by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.[9] (Qtd from Wikipedia)