Ronan O'Casey (18 August 1922 – 12 April 2012) was a Canadian actor and producer.^[1]

O'Casey was born inMontreal,Quebec, to poet father,Michael Casey, and actress mother, Margaret Sheehy, aDubliner who had co-starred with the youngJames Joyce in his first stage role. At the age of eight Ronan O'Casey began acting in his mother's Montreal theatre company and, after tours in theatre and vaudeville, he moved to Dublin and then to London.

O'Casey was at one time a leading ice hockey player in his native Montreal, skills which he was able to put to use during the filming of children's adventure serialThe New Forest Rustlers, in which he played the leader of a gang planning to steal a priceless Rembrandt.^[2]

O'Casey found early success in post-war films such asThe Mudlark (1950),Talk of a Million (1951) andNorman Wisdom'sTrouble in Store (1953), going on to play the prisoner ofRoom 101 in1984 and the sergeant inNicholas Ray's war filmBitter Victory (1957). While starring in the West End playDetective Story he met actress and singerLouie Ramsay, whom he married in 1956.^[3][4]

O'Casey's comedy talents brought him his best known role, as Jeff Rogers, Canadian son-in-law ofPeggy Mount, in the TV sitcomThe Larkins (1958–64). He was host of ITV's charades gameshow Don't Say a Word (1963),^[5] a panel game with two teams led byLibby Morris andKenneth Connor.^[6] and co-host ofRediffusion'sSing A Song of Sixpence show.^[7] In 1966 he was cast as Vanessa Redgrave's lover, the "blow-up" ofAntonioni'sBlow-Up (1966).

O'Casey also appeared on stage, in plays such asForever April at theNottingham Playhouse, in which he co-starred withKenneth Connor in 1966.^[8] andEugene O'Neill'sDesire Under the Elms at London'sEmbassy Theatre in 1955.^[9]

As literary head of the production companyCommonwealth United, O'Casey was an associate producer onTerry Southern'sThe Magic Christian (1969) withRingo Starr,Peter Sellers and a soundtrack byBadfinger. O'Casey was divorced from Louie Ramsay in 1979, and, after moving to the United States in 1980, he married the writerCarol Tavris. He had roles in many US television shows, includingL.A. Law,Easy Street,Falcon Crest andDallas andSanta Barbara.In later years he wrote and staged a one-man play inLos Angeles on the poetry ofYeats by O'Casey.

• Ronan O'Casey at the BFI

• 1922 births
• 2012 deaths
• Canadian male film actors
• Canadian male stage actors
• Canadian male television actors
• Male actors from Montreal
• Canadian people of Irish descent
• Canadian emigrants to the United States
• Canadian expatriates in Ireland
• Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom

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