TONY DOYLE

Tony Doyle
(1942 - 2000)

TP was invited to join those making their eulogies for Tony Doyle at his memorial service held at St.Paul's Church, Covent Garden (The Actor's Church) on Tuesday 27th June 2000.

Tony's sudden death came as a terrible shock to all those who knew him, but all the more so for TP and his wife May who had been talking with him just hours before at a first-night performance of Krapp's Last Tape with John Hurt.  (May actually knew Tony some years ahead of TP when they worked as assistants to Brendan Smith when he was producing one of the first Dublin Theatre Festivals).

Aside from being the finest of actors, not to say utterly professional and disciplined, he was a very charming and friendly man.  The word charismatic would probably do him best justice.

While they worked together only sporadically they became firm friends and it was with delight that TP watched him expand and grow as an actor.  It pleased him equally, to see the great successes that were finally to come Tony Doyle's way in a series of big, hit series including Between the Lines, Band of Gold and, of course, Ballykissangel.

However, TP in his address highlighted two particular triumphs that had made the greatest impression on him.  First, his appearance in the Almedia Theatre's revival of Tom Murphy's The Gigli Concert directed by Karel Reisz in 1992.  This was a performance which, TP recalled, made him aware just how much Tony Doyle was 'a great actor',  and secondly, how that impression was re-enforced when he took on the role of the tyrannical father in the television adaptation of John McGahern's Amongst Women.

For TP,  this was a crowning performance and in tribute he recited the closing pages of McGahern's novel.

Ger Lynch with Tony Doyle in the 1998 TV adaptation of
John McGahern's novel, 'Amongst Women'.