Denis O'Dea (26 April 1905 â€" 5 November 1978) was an Irish stage and
film actor.He was born in Dublin and attended Synge Street CBS. When
very young he and his mother Kathleen (from County Kerry) moved in
with her sister, who kept a boarding house at 54 South Richmond
Street. He worked in insurance until taking up acting. O'Dea was a
leading member of Dublin's Abbey Theatre where he had a great acting
career from 1929 to 1953; a list of his performances can be found in
the Abbey archives. He also appeared in numerous plays by Irish
playwright Teresa Deevy, some of which toured New York and England.
His work led to a number of notable film roles, including two
mid-1930s John Ford films, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars
(1936), and the part of the police inspector in pursuit of IRA man
James Mason in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).Other films in which he
appeared include The Mark of Cain (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948, again
for Reed, and again as a police inspector), Alfred Hitchcock's Under
Capricorn (1949), The Bad Lord Byron (1949), Landfall (1949), Marry
Me! (1949), Disney's Treasure Island (1950), Captain Horatio
Hornblower (1951), The Long Dark Hall (1951), Mogambo (1953; another
John Ford film), Niagara (1953), Never Take No for an Answer (1953),
The Rising of the Moon (1957), Captain Lightfoot (1957), Darby O'Gill
and the Little People (1959), and Esther and the King (1960).
film actor.He was born in Dublin and attended Synge Street CBS. When
very young he and his mother Kathleen (from County Kerry) moved in
with her sister, who kept a boarding house at 54 South Richmond
Street. He worked in insurance until taking up acting. O'Dea was a
leading member of Dublin's Abbey Theatre where he had a great acting
career from 1929 to 1953; a list of his performances can be found in
the Abbey archives. He also appeared in numerous plays by Irish
playwright Teresa Deevy, some of which toured New York and England.
His work led to a number of notable film roles, including two
mid-1930s John Ford films, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars
(1936), and the part of the police inspector in pursuit of IRA man
James Mason in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).Other films in which he
appeared include The Mark of Cain (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948, again
for Reed, and again as a police inspector), Alfred Hitchcock's Under
Capricorn (1949), The Bad Lord Byron (1949), Landfall (1949), Marry
Me! (1949), Disney's Treasure Island (1950), Captain Horatio
Hornblower (1951), The Long Dark Hall (1951), Mogambo (1953; another
John Ford film), Niagara (1953), Never Take No for an Answer (1953),
The Rising of the Moon (1957), Captain Lightfoot (1957), Darby O'Gill
and the Little People (1959), and Esther and the King (1960).
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