Sinéad Cusack

Sinéad Cusack, born Jane Moira Cusack on 18 February 1948 in Dalkey, County Dublin, is an Irish actress with a career spanning theatre, film, and television across Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She is the daughter of actors Cyril Cusack and Maureen Cusack, and the sister of actresses Sorcha Cusack and Niamh Cusack, with Catherine Cusack as a half-sister. Her father, who was born in South Africa to an Irish father and an English mother, had worked with Micheál Mac Liammóir at Dublin's Gate Theatre. Cusack began her acting career at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin before relocating to London in 1975 to join the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Her early work with the RSC brought significant recognition. Playing Celia in As You Like It earned her the Clarence Derwent Award and her first Olivier Award nomination in 1981. That same year she received a second Olivier nomination for The Maid's Tragedy, a work by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, and a third followed in 1983 for her portrayal of Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. Her RSC work also included Portia opposite David Suchet in The Merchant of Venice, Lady Macbeth opposite Jonathan Pryce, and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, performed both in Stratford-upon-Avon and at London's Haymarket Theatre.

Cusack made her Broadway debut in 1984, performing in repertory with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Gershwin Theatre. She played Roxane in Anthony Burgess's translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac and Beatrice in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, both directed by Terry Hands and both starring Derek Jacobi. Much Ado had originally been produced at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon during the 1982–83 season before moving to London's Barbican Theatre, where Cyrano joined the repertory, and the two productions then ran in New York from October 1984 to January 1985, followed by a US tour with stops in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Cusack received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Beatrice, while Jacobi won the Tony for his Benedick. The Cyrano de Bergerac production was subsequently filmed in 1985. During the New York engagement, Cusack and her husband Jeremy Irons participated in Shakespeare Winter's Eve, a fundraiser for the Riverside Shakespeare Company, alongside other RSC members.

In 1990, Cusack joined two of her sisters and her father in a production of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters in a new version by Frank McGuinness, directed by Adrian Noble. She played Masha, with Niamh Cusack as Irina, Sorcha Cusack as Olga, and Cyril Cusack as Chebutykin. The production also featured Finbar Lynch and Lesley Manville, opened at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, and transferred to the Royal Court Theatre in London. The three sisters received the Irish Life Award for the production in 1992.

One of Cusack's most celebrated stage roles came in 1998 with Sebastian Barry's Our Lady of Sligo, in which she played the central character Mai O'Hara in productions in Ireland, at the National Theatre in London, and on Broadway. The performance earned her the 1998 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress, the 1998 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress, and a fourth Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2006 and 2007, she starred opposite Rufus Sewell in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll, which originated at the Royal Court Theatre, transferred to the West End, and subsequently moved to Broadway. The production brought Cusack her fifth Olivier Award nomination and her second Tony Award nomination, this time for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2008.

In 2015, Cusack returned to the Abbey Theatre, where she had begun her career, to appear in the world premiere of Mark O'Rowe's Our Few and Evil Days opposite Ciarán Hinds. She received the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Actress for that performance. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked her 25th on its list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

Her screen work has been equally extensive. She appeared opposite Peter Sellers in the film Hoffman in 1970 and guest-starred in the television series The Persuaders! in 1971. She made three appearances in the TV series Quiller in 1975 and took the title role in a BBC adaptation of George du Maurier's Trilby in 1976. Cusack and Irons appeared together in Waterland in 1992, in a television adaptation of Tales from Hollywood the same year, and in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty in 1996. Her film credits also include Passion of Mind in 2000, V for Vendetta in 2005, and Eastern Promises in 2007, directed by David Cronenberg. Her performance in The Tiger's Tail in 2007 earned her an IFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and she won the IFTA Award for her work in The Sea in 2013, adapted from John Banville's novel. She received a further IFTA nomination for John Boorman's Queen and Country in 2014, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Her television work for the BBC includes Frank McGuinness's The Hen House in 1989, the five-part series Oliver's Travels alongside Alan Bates in 1995, and the miniseries Have Your Cake and Eat It in 1997, for which she won the RTS Award for Best Actress. In 2004 she played Mrs. Thornton in North and South, an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel. She appeared in the Starz historical fantasy series Camelot in 2011, playing the nun Sibyl. Additional television credits include the miniseries The Deep in 2014 and the first season of the crime series Marcella in 2016.

Cusack married British actor Jeremy Irons in 1978, and they have two sons, Samuel James and Maximilian Paul. She contributed to Carol Rutter's book Clamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today, published in 1994, alongside actresses including Paola Dionisotti, Fiona Shaw, Juliet Stevenson, and Harriet Walter, a volume that examined modern acting interpretations of female Shakespearean roles.