Sinéad Cusack
Cusack performing poetry at the British Library in October 2021
Born	Jane Moira Cusack (1948-02-18)18 February 1948 (age 77)[1] Dalkey, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1967–present
Spouse	Jeremy Irons ​ (m. 1978)​
Children	3, includingMax Irons andRichard Boyd Barrett
Parents	Cyril Cusack Maureen Cusack
Relatives	Sorcha Cusack (sister) Niamh Cusack (sister) Pádraig Cusack (brother) Catherine Cusack (paternal half-sister) Calam Lynch (nephew)

Sinéad Moira Cusack (/ʃɪˈneɪd/shin-AYD; born 18 February 1948) is an Irish actress. Her first acting roles were at theAbbey Theatre in Dublin, before moving to London in 1969 to join theRoyal Shakespeare Company. She has won theCritics' Circle andEvening Standard Awards for her performance inSebastian Barry'sOur Lady of Sligo.

Cusack has received twoTony Award nominations: once forBest Leading Actress inMuch Ado About Nothing (1985), and again forBest Featured Actress inRock 'n' Roll (2008). She has also received fiveOlivier Award nominations forAs You Like (1981),The Maid's Tragedy (also 1981),The Taming of the Shrew (1983),Our Lady of Sligo (1998) andRock 'n' Roll (2007). In 2020, she was listed at number 25 onThe Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors.^[2]

Cusack was born Jane Moira Cusack inDalkey,County Dublin, the daughter of actressMaureen Cusack (born Mary Margaret Kiely) and actorCyril Cusack.^[3] She is the sister of actressesSorcha Cusack,Niamh Cusack, and half-sister toCatherine Cusack. Her father was born in South Africa, to anIrish father and anEnglish mother, and had worked withMicheál Mac Liammóir at Dublin'sGate Theatre.^[4]

Her first acting roles were at theAbbey Theatre in Dublin. In 1975, she moved to London and joined theRoyal Shakespeare Company (RSC), starring inDion Boucicault'sLondon Assurance in the West End. Cusack's work with the RSC continued with an award-winning performance as Celia inAs You Like It which included the Clarence Derwent Award and her firstOlivier Award nomination. She secured a second Olivier Award nomination for her performance inThe Maid's Tragedy byFrancis Beaumont andJohn Fletcher in 1981, followed two years later with a third Olivier Award nomination as Kate inThe Taming of the Shrew.^{[citation needed]}

She made her Broadway debut in 1984, performing in repertory with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Starring oppositeDerek Jacobi, she played Roxane inAnthony Burgess' translation ofEdmond Rostand'sCyrano de Bergerac andBeatrice inWilliam Shakespeare'sMuch Ado About Nothing, directed byTerry Hands.Much Ado was first produced at theRoyal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1982–83, then moved to London'sBarbican Theatre for the 1983–1984 season where it was joined byCyrano, before both plays transferred to New York'sGershwin Theatre from October 1984 to January 1985, for which Cusack received aTony Award nomination for her performance as Beatrice, and costar Derek Jacobi won the award for his Benedick. The production ofCyrano de Bergerac was later filmed in 1985.^{[citation needed]}

During this period, Cusack and her husband,Jeremy Irons, appeared in aShakespeare Winter's Eve, a major fundraiser for theRiverside Shakespeare Company in New York, along with other members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Following the Broadway run, the plays toured the US, making stops in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Cusack's connection with the Royal Shakespeare Company continued with a series of leading roles include Portia inThe Merchant of Venice oppositeDavid Suchet, Lady Macbeth oppositeJonathan Pryce inMacbeth and Cleopatra inAntony and Cleopatra in Stratford-upon-Avon and at London'sHaymarket Theatre in the West End.

In 1990, Cusack, in the role of Masha, joined two of her sisters, Niamh (as Irina) and Sorcha (as Olga), and her father, Cyril Cusack (as Chebutykin) for a well-received production ofAnton Chekhov's tragi-comedyThe Three Sisters in a new version byFrank McGuinness, directed byAdrian Noble at the Gate Theatre, Dublin before transferring to theRoyal Court Theatre in London. The production also featured Niamh's husbandFinbar Lynch as Solenyi andLesley Manville as Natasha. The production won the three real-life sisters theIrish Life Award in 1992.

One of her best-known stage roles wasOur Lady of Sligo bySebastian Barry in 1998, in which she played the principal role of Mai O'Hara in performances in Ireland, on Broadway and at theNational Theatre. For this, she won the 1998Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Best Actress, the 1998Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress and her fourthOlivier Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2006/7 she starred withRufus Sewell inTom Stoppard'sRock 'n' Roll at the Royal Court Theatre in London which transferred to the West End and Broadway, winning Cusack her fifthOlivier Award nomination and her secondTony Award nomination.^{[citation needed]}

In 2015, Cusack returned to Ireland'sAbbey Theatre, where she began her theatre career. She appeared in the world première ofMark O'Rowe's playOur Few And Evil Days, acting opposite long-time collaboratorCiarán Hinds. She won theIrish Times Theatre Award forBest Actress.^{[citation needed]}

Cusack starred withPeter Sellers in the filmHoffman (1970). She guest-starred in an episode ofThe Persuaders! (1971), a TV series starringTony Curtis andRoger Moore, as Jenny Lindley, a wealthy heiress who suspects that a man claiming to be her dead brother is in fact an impostor. In 1975, she made three appearances in the TV seriesQuiller as the character Rosalind. The following year she was featured in the title role ofGeorge du Maurier'sTrilby (1976), in an adaptation for the BBC'sPlay of the Month, withAlan Badel as Svengali.

Cusack and her husband Jeremy Irons appeared together in the filmWaterland (1992), in a television adaptation ofChristopher Hampton'sTales from Hollywood (also 1992), and again inBernardo Bertolucci'sStealing Beauty (1996). Further film work includesPassion of Mind (2000),V for Vendetta (2005), andEastern Promises (2007), a thriller directed byDavid Cronenberg. Her performance inThe Tiger's Tail (also 2007) won her a firstIFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She won the IFTA Award for her performance inThe Sea (2013), adapted from the novel byJohn Banville. Cusack was nominated once more for an IFTA Award for her performance inJohn Boorman's drama filmQueen and Country (2014), which premièred at theCannes Film Festival.^{[citation needed]}

Further starring roles in productions for the BBC include lead roles inFrank McGuinness'sThe Hen House (1989), the five-part seriesOliver's Travels alongsideAlan Bates (1995), and the mini seriesHave Your Cake and Eat It (1997), for which she won theRTS Award for Best Actress. In 2004 Cusack played Mrs. Thornton inNorth and South, an adaptation of the 1855 novel byElizabeth Gaskell into a mini series. She also appeared in a BBC sitcom calledHome Again (2006). In 2011 the historical fantasy seriesCamelot was broadcast onStarz, in which she played the motherly nunSibyl, who gets beheaded in the first seasons 10th and final episode. Cusack had featured roles in the mini-seriesThe Deep (2014) and in the first season of the crime noirMarcella (2016).

Along with other actresses, includingPaola Dionisotti,Fiona Shaw,Juliet Stevenson andHarriet Walter, Cusack contributed to a book by Carol Rutter calledClamorous Voices: Shakespeare's Women Today (1994).^[5] The book analysed modern acting interpretations of female Shakespearean roles.

Cusack married British actorJeremy Irons in 1978, and they have two sons, Samuel James andMaximilian Paul.^{[citation needed]}

Before marrying Irons, Cusack gave birth to a son in 1967 and placed the boy for adoption. In 2007, a journalist for the IrishSunday Independent, Daniel McConnell, revealed that Cusack was the mother of left-wing general election candidate and now member ofDáil ÉireannRichard Boyd Barrett.^[6] The two have since been reunited.^[7] Cusack campaigned for Boyd Barrett when he stood unsuccessfully inIreland's 2007 general election as thePeople Before Profit Alliance's candidate forDún Laoghaire constituency.^[8][9] She also joined him in the count centre as he awaited the outcome of the2011 general election, at which he was elected toDáil Éireann.^[10] In May 2013, Boyd Barrett revealed that theatre directorVincent Dowling was his biological father.^[11]

Cusack had a short relationship with the footballerGeorge Best in 1971.^[12] While married to Irons, she had a long relationship with playwrightSir Tom Stoppard but made it clear that she wanted to remain married to her husband. After her reunion with Boyd Barrett, she also wanted to spend time with him in Dublin rather than with Stoppard in France, where they shared a house.^[13]

Cusack is a patron of theBurma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.

In 1998, Cusack was named, along with her husband, in a list of the biggest private financial donors to theBritish Labour Party.^[14] In August 2010, Cusack signed the "Irish artists' pledge toboycott Israel" initiated by theIreland Palestine Solidarity Campaign.^[15]

• Sinéad Cusack atIMDb
• Sinéad Cusack at theInternet Broadway Database
• FilmReference.com's page on Sinead Cusack's filmography

• 1948 births
• Living people
• 20th-century Irish actresses
• 21st-century Irish actresses
• Actresses from County Dublin
• Critics' Circle Theatre Award winners
• Cusack family (Ireland)
• Irish expatriates in England
• Irish film actresses
• Irish people of English descent
• Irish stage actresses
• Irish television actresses
• Labour Party (UK) donors
• People from Ballydehob
• People from Dalkey
• Royal Shakespeare Company members

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