Joe Lynch (actor)

Joseph Laurence 'Joe' Lynch (16 July 1925 – 1 August 2001) was an Irish actor who enjoyed a long career in both serious drama and light comedy. He also did voice work for children's animated series, in particular Chorlton and the Wheelies. He had a fine singing voice and composed songs, such as for the film Johnny Nobody (1961). He also recorded the work of other songwriters, including Leo Maguire's "The Whistling Gypsy" and Dick Farrelly's "Cottage by the Lee", one of Joe's biggest 1950s recordings.

Joe Lynch attended the North Monastery CBS and first came to fame in Ireland in the 1950s when his radio show Living with Lynch was broadcast on Sunday nights on Radio Éireann. He was also a founding member of the Radio Éireann Players and played in productions of Teresa Deevy^[1] plays amongst others. He had a career with the Abbey Theatre^[2] between 1967-1981 where he appeared on stage. Lynch appeared in the popular ABC/Thames TV sitcom Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width between 1968 and 1970, and in its spin-off feature film in 1973. His other notable film roles included The Siege of Sidney Street (1960), The Running Man (1963), Girl with Green Eyes (1964), The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Ulysses (1967), Loot (1970), The Mackintosh Man (1973), The Outsider (1980), If You Go Down in the Woods Today (1981) and Eat the Peach (1986). In the 1970s Lynch made regular guest appearances as Elsie Tanner's boyfriend in the long-running Granada TV soap Coronation Street.

In 1962, and again in 1977, Lynch won a Jacob's Award for his acting on RTÉ television.

By 1979 Lynch was back in Ireland and made his first appearances as Dinny Byrne in the RTÉ soap Bracken. Later the Dinny Byrne character would feature in the long-running RTÉ soap Glenroe – along with his catchphrase "Is there an'thin' stirrin?"

Lynch quit Glenroe after being "shamefully treated" and offered "small potatoes" when he asked for a pay rise. He was also upset that he was not to get a pension. RTÉ refuted these claims.^[3] Lynch criticised RTÉ for preventing him from doing other acting work alongside Glenroe. "I was terrible restricted in RTÉ, they wouldn't let me off for anything, even commercials."^[4]

Lynch was also the voice of the main antagonist Grundel the Toad of the Don Bluth film Thumbelina, his final audio work before his death seven years later.

References

External links

• Joe Lynch at the Internet Movie Database
• Joe Lynch at the Abbey Theatre Archive
• Joe Lynch at the Teresa Deevy Archive
• An audio clip from Radio Éireann's Living with Lynch
• Obituary in The Independent