1. Dermot John Morgan was an Irish comedian and actor, best known for his role as the title character on the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted.
28 Facts About Dermot Morgan
1. 2.
Dermot Morgan's father died young of an aneurysm, leaving Holly with three children: Dermot, Paul, and Denise.
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Dermot Morgan was educated at Oatlands College in Stillorgan and University College Dublin, where he studied English literature and philosophy.
4.
Dermot Morgan made his debut in the media on the Morning Ireland radio show produced by Gene Martin, whose sister Ella was the mother of one of Dermot Morgan's friends.
5.
Dermot Morgan came to prominence as part of the team behind the highly successful RTE television show The Live Mike, presented by Mike Murphy.
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Between 1979 and 1982 Dermot Morgan played a range of comic characters who appeared between segments of the show.
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Dermot Morgan lampooned the rampant Modernism within the Post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church in Ireland by creating Father Trendy, a wishy-washy, trying-to-be-cool hippie-priest.
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Dermot Morgan was given to drawing ludicrous parallels between religion and secularism in two-minute 'sermons' to the camera.
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Dermot Morgan satirised extreme nationalist "Little Irelanders", by playing an irate and bigoted GAA member who waved his hurley around while verbally attacking his pet hates.
10.
At the height of The Troubles, Dermot Morgan lampooned both the Wolfe Tones and the cliches of Irish rebel songs, which he said: "always have lots of blood and guts and fire and thunder in them".
11.
Dermot Morgan then sang his own parody of Thomas Osborne Davis' iconic song "A Nation Once Again", about the martyrdom of Fido, a dog who saves his IRA master by eating a hand grenade during a search of the house by the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence.
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Dermot Morgan released a comedy single, "Thank You Very Much, Mr Eastwood", in December 1985 on Dolphin Records.
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Dermot Morgan pilloried Haughey's propensity for claiming a family connection to almost every part of Ireland he visited by referring to a famous advertisement for Harp lager, which played on the image of someone returning home and seeking friends.
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Dermot Morgan lashed the decision, calling it "a shameless act of broadcasting cowardice and political subservience".
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In 1991, Dermot Morgan received a Jacob's Award for his contribution to Scrap Saturday from the Irish national newspaper radio critics.
16.
Already a celebrity in Ireland, Dermot Morgan got his big break in Britain with Channel 4's Irish sitcom Father Ted, which ran for three series from 1995 to 1998.
17.
Writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews auditioned many actors for the title role, but Dermot Morgan's enthusiasm won him the part.
18.
In 1999, Father Ted won a second BAFTA for Best Comedy, with Dermot Morgan being awarded Best Comedy Performance posthumously.
19.
Dermot Morgan said in an interview with Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show in 1996 that he was writing a screenplay titled Miracle of the Magyars, based on a real-life incident in the 1950s when the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid forbade Catholics from attending a football match between the Republic of Ireland and Yugoslavia on religious and spiritual grounds.
20.
Dermot Morgan had been commissioned to write a drama series for the BBC.
21.
Dermot Morgan was married to Susanne Garmatz, a German woman, with whom he had two sons.
22.
Dermot Morgan later began a relationship with Fiona Clarke, with whom he had another son.
23.
Dermot Morgan supported Irish football clubs Shamrock Rovers FC and UCD, as well as English football club Chelsea.
24.
On 28 February 1998, one day after recording the series' final episode, Dermot Morgan suffered a heart attack while hosting a dinner party at his home in London's Hounslow area, at which the Scottish musician Jim Diamond was present.
25.
Dermot Morgan was rushed to the hospital, but died soon afterward.
26.
Dermot Morgan had a heart attack, and I didn't recognize it.
27.
Dermot Morgan apologised for having left the room and the next thing he just collapsed.
28.
Dermot Morgan's body was cremated at Glasnevin Cemetery, and his ashes were buried in the family plot at Deans Grange Cemetery.