1. Michael Ryan Flatley was born on July 16,1958 and is an American former professional performer and choreographer of Irish dance.
53 Facts About Michael Flatley
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Michael Flatley created and performed in Irish dance shows Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, Celtic Tiger Live and Michael Flatley's Christmas Dance Spectacular.
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Michael Flatley's shows have played to more than 60 million people in 60 countries and have grossed more than $1 billion.
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Michael Flatley has been an actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and philanthropist.
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Michael Flatley formerly held the Guinness World Record for tap dancing 35 times per second, and his feet were at one time insured for $57.6 million.
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Michael Flatley retired from dance in 2016 due to constant spinal, knee, foot, and rib pain.
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Michael Flatley was a plumber from County Sligo, and Eilish was a gifted step dancer from County Carlow whose mother, Hannah Ryan, was a champion dancer.
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When Michael Flatley was two months old, the family moved from Detroit to Chicago's South Side.
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In Chicago, Flatley began dance lessons at age eleven with Dennis G Dennehy at the Dennehy School of Irish Dance.
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Michael Flatley attended Brother Rice High School, an all-boys Catholic private school.
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In 1975, at age 17, Michael Flatley was the first American to win a World Irish Dance title at Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, the Irish dancing championships.
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In 1975 and 1976, Michael Flatley won twice in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil concert flute competitions.
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Michael Flatley stated that he continued to flirt with the idea of becoming a professional into the early 1980s, but ultimately stayed with a career in dance.
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Michael Flatley later became a philanthropic donor to the Golden Gloves organization.
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In 2023 Michael Flatley was one of four fighters to be named a Titan of Chicago Golden Gloves Boxing during their 100th Anniversary celebrations.
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From 1978 to 1979, Michael Flatley toured with Green Fields of America.
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Michael Flatley performed in a 7-minute show titled "Riverdance" for the interval act of the contest, which was held in Ireland.
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In September 1995, after the show sold out, Michael Flatley left Riverdance to pursue what would eventually become Lord of the Dance.
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Michael Flatley had been in a dispute with the Riverdance producers over his salary and royalty fees.
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Michael Flatley was fired the night before the show was set to begin its second run in London and replaced with Colin Dunne.
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In 1998, Michael Flatley created an expanded version of the show called Feet of Flames which served as its one-off performance and his final performance in Lord of the Dance.
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Michael Flatley's next show, Celtic Tiger Live, opened in July 2005.
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Michael Flatley wrote "I will be a dancer until the day I die" in the program book of the show.
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On November 15,2006, prior to planned European performances of the show, Michael Flatley was admitted to a London hospital with a viral infection.
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Michael Flatley was discharged two weeks later, but cancelled the tour.
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Michael Flatley performed the solo "Capone" from Celtic Tiger on the show.
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Michael Flatley was the host of Superstars of Dance, an NBC series that ran for 5 episodes in early 2009.
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Michael Flatley performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, during the 1997 Academy Awards ceremony, and was interviewed on Piers Morgan's Life Stories in 2011.
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In December 2009, Michael Flatley performed in a limited run of the "Hyde Park" version of Feet of Flames in Taiwan.
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In 2011, Michael Flatley released On A Different Note, a flute album.
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Also in the same year, Michael Flatley created a revised spin-off of Lord of the Dance, entitled Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games, which featured a similar storyline with new numbers, as well as new music by Gerard Fahy, who previously served as a bandleader and musical director in Michael Flatley's shows.
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In November 2015, Michael Flatley's show Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games premiered at the Lyric Theatre, a Broadway theatre.
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In January 2017, Michael Flatley introduced his troupe for a performance at the inauguration of Donald Trump as president, which he called "a great honour".
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In 2018, Michael Flatley wrote, directed, financed and starred in Blackbird, a spy film set in Barbados, Ireland and the UK.
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Blackbird had its world premiere in a private showing at the Raindance Film Festival in London, where Michael Flatley was a member of the Festival Jury.
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In 1988, Michael Flatley received a National Heritage Fellowship, the highest folk-related honor awarded by the US National Endowment for the Arts.
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In December 2001, Michael Flatley became the first recipient of the Irish Dancing Commission Fellowship award, and was made a Fellow of the American Irish Dance Teachers' Association.
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In 2003 Michael Flatley received a special award from Prince Rainier of Monaco for his charity work, and in March 2003 Irish America magazine named Michael Flatley Irish American of the Year.
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In 2004, Michael Flatley received an honorary doctorate degree from University College Dublin, and that same year received the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor in New York.
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On October 24,2013, Michael Flatley received the Lifetime Achievement Award at The Irish Post Awards on Park Lane.
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In June 2006, Michael Flatley began dating Niamh O'Brien, a longtime dancer from several of his shows.
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Michael Flatley and his wife have a son, Michael St James, born in 2007.
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In 1997, Michael Flatley purchased Park Villas Place in London after a bidding war against Madonna; he sold the home in 2024.
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Michael Flatley has invested a significant portion of his wealth in Berkshire Hathaway.
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In 2006, Michael Flatley released Lord of the Dance: My Story, his autobiography.
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In 2010, Michael Flatley dedicated the Garden of Memory and Music in Culfadda, County Sligo, the village his father left to seek a new life in America.
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Michael Flatley has hosted annual Christmas fundraisers for vulnerable children at his estate.
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In 2010, Michael Flatley participated in the fundraising JP McManus Pro-Am in Adare, County Limerick, Ireland.
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Michael Flatley is a supporter of the Irish Fund for Great Britain that provides social support for Irish citizens living in the UK.
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Michael Flatley has spent time as an advocate for cancer research.
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In 2021, Michael Flatley was named an Ambassador of Culture for Co Saolfada, a cancer research advocacy program.
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Michael Flatley himself was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in 2003 and has since recovered.
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Michael Flatley has advocated an anti-war sentiment - in 2003 he performed the anti-war piece Warlord before an audience of national leaders meeting in St Petersburg.