Lalor Roddy facts for kids

Lalor Roddy, born on November 30, 1954, is a talented Irish actor. A well-known theatre critic, Fintan O'Toole, once called him "surely the finest Irish actor of his generation." This means many people think he is one of the best actors from Ireland of his time.

Early Life and Education

Lalor Roddy grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His mother was involved with the Lyric Theatre when it was first starting.

When he was younger, he went to the United States to play football. After returning to Northern Ireland, he studied psychology at the University of Ulster. He worked as a psychologist in England for a while. Then, at 33 years old, he came back to Ireland to start his acting career.

Acting in Theatre

In 1988, Lalor Roddy helped start a theatre company called Tinderbox in Belfast. He founded it with Tim Loane and Stephen Wright. They put on plays by famous writers like Harold Pinter. These first plays were made with a very small budget.

In 1989, the Tinderbox company received a special cheque from the playwright Samuel Beckett. This was seen as a huge compliment in the world of Irish theatre. From 1989 to 2000, Tinderbox held a yearly festival. This festival showed new Irish plays that were meant to be "artistically daring." The goal of Tinderbox was to bring people together through theatre. They wanted to put on new plays that could help people understand each other better. Lalor Roddy was one of the main directors of the company. Tinderbox became one of the most important theatre companies in Belfast during the 1990s and 2000s.

Roddy's acting in Belfast caught the attention of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). He performed in their plays, including Amphibians and King Baby. In 1998, he spent a whole season acting with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. He also starred in two plays at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. These plays were Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and In a Little World of Our Own. For his role in In a Little World of Our Own, he won an award for best supporting actor.

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme was a very important play in Dublin. It showed the lives of Protestant men from Ulster who fought in the British Army during the First World War. Lalor Roddy's performance in this play made him even more famous. In a Little World of Our Own was also a significant play. Roddy mentioned that the writer of In a Little World of Our Own, Gary Mitchell, was Protestant. The writer of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Frank McGuinness, was Catholic. In 2004, Roddy was nominated for another award for his acting in the play The Weir.

In 2004 and again in 2014, he acted in a play called Defender of the Faith. This play was set in 1986 on a farm in County Armagh. It was about a family who suspected one of their own might be sharing secrets.

Television and Film Roles

Even though Lalor Roddy is mainly a theatre actor in Ireland, he is also well-known around the world for his work in movies and TV shows. He has appeared in over sixty films and television episodes.

One of his most famous roles on screen was also one of his shortest. He played an assassin who tried to harm Bran Stark in the The Kingsroad episode of Game of Thrones. In 2013, he shared his thoughts on acting with a journalist. He said that being a professional actor means keeping your own personality while also becoming someone else. In 2018, he starred in a short film called Séamus. This film was written and directed by Gursimran Sandhu.

Film and TV Shows