Michael Anthony Doyle (21 July 1935 – 28 January 2000)"Doyle, Michael Anthony (‘Tony’)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 4 June 2022. was an Irish television and film actor. He became widely known in Ireland as a then-radical priest in the popular Irish rural drama The Riordans, which began in 1965. He worked consistently in series, television films, and feature films throughout his life. He died unexpectedly in 2000, at the time playing in another well-known Irish rural drama, Ballykissangel.
Acting career He first came to prominence playing a liberal Catholic priest, Father Sheehy, in RTÉ's rural drama The Riordans. He appeared in such popular shows as Travelling Man (Granada TV series, 1984-5), Coronation Street, Between the Lines, 1990, Children of the North, Ballykissangel and Four Fathers, and won an Irish Film and Television Academy Award for best leading performance for his role in the 1998 miniseries Amongst Women. Tony Doyle also appeared in the first Minder episode, "Gunfight at the OK Laundrette", playing a drunken Irishman.
His most famous film role saw Tony as the head of the SAS, Colonel Hadley, in the 1982 British film Who Dares Wins. His other film roles included appearances in Ulysses (1967), Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970), Loophole (1981), Eat the Peach (1986), Secret Friends (1991), Damage (1992), Circle of Friends (1995) and as Tom French in I Went Down (1997).
He played George Ferguson in ten episodes of Kay Mellor's Band of Gold TV drama from 1995 to 1996.
He was married to Sally and was the father of six children, including the actress Susannah Doyle.
Death and legacy He died at St Thomas's Hospital in Lambeth, London, England."New & Noteworthy: BallyK star Tony Doyle dead at 58", Irish Echo, 16 February 2000. Accessed 7 November 2014
Brian Quigley, Doyle's Ballykissangel character, was written out of the show in the first episode of the final series, where Quigley fakes his own suicide by drowning before fleeing to Brazil.
The Tony Doyle Bursary for New Writing was launched by the BBC following his death. Judges include his friend and Ballykissangel co-star Lorcan Cranitch."Tony Doyle Bursary Submissions Sought By BBC" 4rfv.co.uk 13 Dec 2006 . Accessed 7 November 2014 Cranitch subsequently starred in the BBC detective series McCready and Daughter, which had been written with Doyle in mind.Jacques Peretti, "One step beyond", The Guardian, 12 June 2000. Accessed 7 November 2014
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1967 Ulysses Lt. Gardner 1970 Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx Mike 19771990David Brett1981 Loophole Nolan 1982 Who Dares Wins Colonel Hadley 1986 Eat the Peach Sean Murtagh 1987 Quinn 1991 Secret Friends Martin 1991 Adventures in Dinosaur City Rex 1991 Murder in Eden Tim Roarty BBC Miniseries1992 Damage Prime Minister 1995 Circle of Friends Dr. Foley 1997 I Went Down Tom French 1998 Amongst Women "Daddy" Michael Moran RTE Miniseries1999 The Boxer Uncredited1999 A Love Divided Father Stafford
References
External links
BBC News article reporting his death BBC News obituary to Tony Doyle