Donal Donnelly was an English actor best known in the cinema for roles in
Der gewisse Kniff (1965) and Der Pate 3 (1990) and on stage for his work in the
plays of Brian Friel. He was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire,
England, on the 6th of July 1931, but raised in Dublin, Ireland. In Dublin, he
went to a Christian Brothers School where he acted in school plays with
classmates Jack MacGowran and Milo O'Shea. Subsequently, he
toured Ireland with Anew McMaster's repertory company.
On-stage, he established professional reputation in 1964 playing Gar
Private in the Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1974) at Dublin's Gate Theatre. He was
nominated for a Tony Award when the show transferred to Broadway in
1966, where it was a hit, racking up 326 performances. Two years later,
he replaced Albert Finney in the 1968 Broadway production of
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972). From 1969 through 1995, he appeared in an additional
nine Broadway productions, including Mord mit kleinen Fehlern (1972) and
Der Elefantenmensch (1980), and Friel's "The Mundy Scheme", Tanz in die Freiheit (1998), and
"Translations".
In 1965, he co-starred with Michael Crawford and Rita Tushingham in
Richard Lester's movie adaption of Ann Jellicoe's hit play "The
Knack". It was a hit. He played the scheming Archbishop Gilday out to
fleece Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in "The Godfather Part III"
and gave a critically acclaimed performance in John Huston's
adaption of James Joyce's short story The Dead (1987). He also
appeared on British television, most memorably in Freie Hand für Barlow (1962) and
the 1970s situation-comedy Yes, Honestly (1976).
Donal Donnelly died from cancer on the 4th of January 2010 in Chicago. He was 78
years old. He and his wife Patsy had two children.
