Sam Amico
Noted actor Malachy McCourt, who had major roles in soap operas and movies, has died. He was 92.
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McCourt was one of seven siblings and the last one still alive following the death of his younger brother in 2016. His older brother, Frank McCourt, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who died in 2009. Fran McCourt was known for being the author of the book Angela’s Ashes.
Malachy’s wife Diana confirmed his death.
He had starred in movies and on television and stage, including The Molly Maguires (1970), The Brink’s Job (1978), Q (1982), Brewster’s Millions (1985), Tales from the Darkside as Dr Stillman in the “Ursu Minor” episode (2/10 – 1985), The January Man (1989), Beyond the Pale (2000), and Ash Wednesday (2002).
Along with acting, McCourt wrote two memoirs — A Monk Swimming and Singing My Him Song, detailing his life in Ireland and return to America. He also authored a book on the history of the ballad Danny Boy, as well as a collection of Irish writings, Voices of Ireland.
Per the New York Times:
Malachy left school in Limerick when he was 13, two years after his heavy-drinking father deserted the family, leaving his mother, Angela, to raise the four of their surviving seven children. The family, Malachy would write, was “not poor, but poverty-stricken.”
… Malachy Gerard McCourt was born on Sept. 20, 1931, in Brooklyn. His father, also named Malachy, had fled to New York from the British as an Irish Republican Army terrorist — or patriot, depending on the storyteller’s perspective. His father met his mother, Angela Sheehan, after he was released from jail for hijacking a truck.
The McCourts returned to Ireland seeking work during the Depression after the death of a 7-week-old daughter. Malachy was 3 years old.
“I was a smiley little fella with a raging heart and murderous instincts,” he wrote, adding that relatives and neighbors described him as cute, which “in Ireland meant cunning and devious.”
