Denis O'Dea

Denis O'Dea (26 April 1905 – 5 November 1978) was an Irish actor who worked in stage and film. Born in Dublin, he attended Synge Street CBS and spent part of his early childhood at 54 South Richmond Street, where his mother Kathleen, originally from County Kerry, lived with her sister, who operated a boarding house there. Before pursuing acting, O'Dea worked in the insurance industry.

O'Dea became a leading member of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, where his stage career spanned from 1929 to 1953. He also performed in a number of plays by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy, some of which toured to New York and England. His Broadway career extended from 1932 to 1955 and included productions such as the drama The Righteous Are Bold, as well as the plays Drama at Inish, Juno and the Paycock, The New Gossoon, and The Playboy of the Western World.

His stage work brought him to the attention of filmmakers, and he went on to appear in two John Ford productions in the mid-1930s, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars (1936). He later took the role of the police inspector tracking IRA man James Mason in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947), and reunited with Reed the following year for The Fallen Idol (1948), again playing a police inspector. His film credits also include Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (1949), The Mark of Cain (1947), The Bad Lord Byron (1949), Landfall (1949), Marry Me! (1949), Disney's Treasure Island (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), The Long Dark Hall (1951), Niagara (1953), Never Take No for an Answer (1953), and a third John Ford film, Mogambo (1953). Later film appearances included The Rising of the Moon (1957), Captain Lightfoot (1957), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), and Esther and the King (1960).

In 1946, O'Dea married actress Siobhán McKenna. The marriage lasted until his death on 5 November 1978, when he was 73 years old. The couple had one son, Donnacha O'Dea, who became a champion swimmer and professional poker player.