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16 Facts About Anna Manahan

1.

Anna Maria Manahan was an Irish stage, film and television actress.

2.

Anna Manahan was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award in her career spanned more than 60 years.

3.

Anna Manahan interpreted the works of, among others, Sean O'Casey, John B Keane, John Millington Synge, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Martin McDonagh, Christy Brown, and Brian Friel.

4.

Anna Manahan was born in County Waterford in what was then the Irish Free State.

5.

Anna Manahan's career began when, as a young woman, she was recruited by the legendary Irish impresarios and theatrical directors Micheal MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards.

6.

Anna Manahan later married stage director Colm O'Kelly, who died not long afterwards of polio, which he contracted after swimming in the Nile during a theatre tour of Egypt.

7.

Anna Manahan played a minor role in the Irish cult soap opera The Riordans, and as Mrs Mary Kenefick in the TV comedy Me Mammy.

8.

Anna Manahan had an extensive theatre portfolio having played at theatres throughout Ireland including the Abbey Theatre, the UK, continental Europe, the US and Australia.

9.

Anna Manahan won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Mag in Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane on Broadway.

10.

Anna Manahan previously received a Tony nomination in 1969 for Brian Friel's Lovers.

11.

Anna Manahan appeared in films starring, among others, Laurence Olivier, Peter Cushing, Kenneth More, Christopher Walken, Maggie Smith, Albert Finney and Brenda Fricker, and with John Gielgud in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

12.

Anna Manahan received the Gold Medal of the Eire Society of Boston in 1984 and thus joined the company of past recipients such as John F Kennedy, and film makers John Ford and John Huston.

13.

Anna Manahan received an honorary doctorate in letters from the University of Limerick in 2003.

14.

Anna Manahan was granted the freedom of the city of Waterford in 2002 in recognition of her life's achievement in the arts.

15.

Anna Manahan thus became the 28th Freeman of Waterford since Isaac Butt in 1877.

16.

Anna Manahan died of multiple organ failure on 8 March 2009 in Waterford, Ireland.