Barry Fitzgerald

Barry Fitzgerald, born William Joseph Shields on 10 March 1888 in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland, was an Irish stage, film, and television actor whose career spanned nearly four decades. The son of Adolphus Shields, who was Irish, and Fanny Sophia Shields, née Ungerland, who was German, he was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. Although he was frequently cast as stereotypical Irish Catholics throughout his career, Fitzgerald was raised in the Church of Ireland. He attended Skerry's College in Dublin before entering the civil service, beginning as a junior clerk at the Dublin Board of Trade in 1911 and later working for the unemployment office. He adopted the stage name Barry Fitzgerald to avoid professional consequences from his civil service superiors.

Fitzgerald's interest in acting led him to amateur dramatic societies, including the Kincora Players, before he joined his brother Arthur at the Abbey Theatre in 1915. His early Abbey appearances included small parts in productions such as The Casting Out of Martin Whelan and a four-word role in The Critic. A breakthrough came in 1919 with The Dragon by Lady Gregory, though he continued working in the civil service during the day until 1929. His Abbey salary in 1924 stood at £2/10 per week. That same year he appeared in the world premiere of Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, playing Captain Jack Boyle. In 1925 he received considerable acclaim for his work in Paul Twyning, and the following year he appeared in the premiere of O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars as Fluther Good, a production so controversial it provoked riots and protests. In February 1926, three gunmen arrived at his mother's house intending to kidnap him to prevent the play from being performed, but failed to locate him. O'Casey later wrote a role specifically for Fitzgerald in The Silver Tassie, which the Abbey rejected; when the play was taken up for production in London in 1929, Fitzgerald left the civil service at age 41 to join it, becoming a full-time actor.

Fitzgerald made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Juno and the Paycock in 1930, shot in London. In early 1931 he toured England in Paul Twyning and returned to Ireland that June to perform it at the Abbey. Between 1931 and 1936 he appeared in three plays by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy — A Disciple, In Search of Valour, and Katie Roche — all Abbey productions. In 1932 he traveled to the United States with the Abbey Players to appear in Things That Are Caesar's and The Far-off Hills, marking the beginning of his Broadway association. The company returned to the US in 1934 for a repertory tour that included The Plough and the Stars, The Well of the Saints, Juno and the Paycock, and several other productions. A short Irish silent film, Guests of the Nation, in which Fitzgerald appeared, was released only in Ireland in 1935 and was not distributed outside the country until 2011.

In March 1936, Fitzgerald traveled to Hollywood with three other Abbey members to appear in John Ford's film version of The Plough and the Stars. He chose to remain in Hollywood afterward, quickly establishing himself as a character actor. His film work during this period included Ebb Tide (1937) at Paramount, Bringing Up Baby (1938) at RKO, Four Men and a Prayer (1938) directed by Ford for 20th Century-Fox, and The Dawn Patrol (1938) at Warner Bros. He made a series of films at RKO — Pacific Liner (1939), The Saint Strikes Back (1939), and Full Confession (1939) — before returning to Broadway in 1939 for The White Steed. He followed that engagement with Kindred (1939–40) and a revival of Juno and the Paycock (1940), the latter running for 105 performances. Back in Hollywood, he reunited with Ford on The Long Voyage Home (1940), then appeared in San Francisco Docks (1940) and The Sea Wolf (1941) before making How Green Was My Valley (1941) with Ford for Fox and Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941) at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1941, Fitzgerald and his brother Arthur Shields appeared together on Broadway in Tanyard Street, directed by Shields, which had a short run though Fitzgerald's personal notices were strong.

Fitzgerald's career reached its peak when director Leo McCarey cast him opposite Bing Crosby in Going My Way, released by Paramount in 1944. His portrayal of Father Fitzgibbon in the film earned him both the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a simultaneous nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the same performance — a dual nomination that prompted a rule change preventing such occurrences in the future. Because Oscar statuettes during World War II were made of plaster rather than gold-plated bronze due to wartime metal shortages, Fitzgerald's award was particularly fragile; he accidentally decapitated it while practicing his golf swing, and the Academy provided a replacement. In March 1944, Fitzgerald was involved in a car accident that resulted in the death of a woman and injury to her daughter; he was charged with manslaughter but acquitted in January 1945 due to lack of evidence. Following Going My Way, Paramount signed him to a long-term contract. His subsequent film credits included None But the Lonely Heart (1944), And Then There Were None (1945), California (1947), Welcome Stranger (1947) again with Crosby, and The Quiet Man (1952). By January 1945 his fee was reported to be $75,000 per film.

Born on 10 March 1888, Fitzgerald died on 4 January 1961. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked him eleventh on its list of Ireland's greatest film actors.