Writer Eugene O'Brien bids a fond farewell to his friend and colleague, actor Gary Lydon, who has died aged 61.
Lydon earned acclaim for his film roles in Calvary, The Guard, The Guarantee and The Banshees of Inisherin, as well as for his television work in The Clinic and Love/Hate. On stage, he appeared in plays by Billy Roche, Martin McDonagh, Tom Murphy and Conor McPherson.
O’Brien and Lydon first worked together on RTÉ One’s acclaimed series Pure Mule and had recently reunited for the upcoming feature film One Sweet Hour, in which Lydon plays an aging Elvis impersonator.
When I see Gary now in my mind's eye, he is sitting in a chair in the back room of a pub location dressed as Elvis, quietly observing the world around him. We’d talk nonsense in exaggerated producer-type American voices and we’d laugh. A temporary break in the complete focus he had at work.
He was taciturn, not a gregarious type, needing to hear the sound of his own voice. He was softly spoken with that London-Irish Pogues accent with the hint of Wexford and he could be dreamy, in his own world sometimes, but he was always listening… always observing.
I remember our time in my home town of Edenderry where we went to see a real-life Elvis impersonator, Greg Traynor, doing his thing. Gary stood and drank him in, every move, every gesture… the job started there and then, a full eight months before we shot. He would ask questions about every aspect of the character, times and dates of births and deaths and backstories, and then there was the Elvis training which he worked so hard at. Endless hours of singing and movement, determined to pull it off. Putting pressure on himself to get it right. He was becoming the King!
I had first seen him on screen in a film called Country, and what struck me was that this actor absolutely was from the country. Never a city bloke - although of course he was born in London - but it just seemed that he had walked off the streets of some provincial Irish town and onto the screen, or out of a snooker hall, or pub, or bookies onto the set of the great plays of Billy Roche.
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Listen: Gary Lydon and Billy Roche talk to RTÉ Arena earlier this year
He was a gift for writers like Billy and Tom Murphy who so honestly portrayed small-town life and the wounded Irish male, men who had been taught to be strong and never show emotion and never to cry.
There was no one better at embodying the emotional turmoil of such men and the slow process of showing their vulnerabilities than Gary.
His Bomber Brennan in Pure Mule, the TV show I wrote, was another case in point. A man, scarred by a violent home, exploding with anger - but we saw the real softness in him too. Gary got every nuance and contradiction in the character.
It seemed to me that Gary had been in a very good place in his life. Work was thriving, and he was very happy in his personal life. He seemed to be a man content with his lot. He was very proud of his sons Sean Luke and James, and he was talking of working with James in the Billy Roche play Of Mornington which they did earlier this year to great acclaim.
He will be missed by so many of us, lucky to have been around him and laughed with him and worked with him. His performance in our film One Sweet Hour, a leading role, the Elvis impersonator, is sublime and I am so immensely proud of his work in it. Gary was indeed a king.
