List of Irish-American actors

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This is a list of famous Irish American actors.

It is currently organized chronologically, listing actors by their birth decades.

1980s -- 1970s -- 1960s -- 1950s -- 1940s -- 1930s -- 1920s -- 1910s -- 1900s -- 1890s -- 1870s

[edit] Actors

[edit] 1980s

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 1960s

[edit] 1950s

[edit] 1940s

[edit] 1930s

[edit] 1920s

[edit] 1910s

[edit] 1900s

[edit] 1890s

[edit] 1870s

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ [1] "I’m an English-Irish girl who grew up in New York and moved around a lot with her dad’s job" [2] "My mother's Irish--she went to school in London when she was young--but she's full-on Irish, you can trace it back as far as you want. My father is from Manchester, England, with the accent."
  2. ^ [3] (Mila Kunis on Culkin) "Yeah. No my boyfriend was raised Irish Catholic... We consider him an honorary Jew."
  3. ^ [4] "Q: What nationality are you? A: Irish Italian"
  4. ^ [5] "This half Irish, half Cuban actor can dance for six hours straight! "I'm proud to have the Latin hips," he says!"
  5. ^ from interview found at "wow.ie/cinema/index.php?view_ film_interview=1&interview_id=2213" - no longer online: "Hathaway's heritage actually goes back Ireland, and in particular, Cork and Donegal. "On my father's side, we have relatives all over Cork and Donegal. Ireland is such an amazing country, and I have this little dream in the back of my head that someday I'll end up living there. When I've established myself in America, and I don't need to live near the action, so to speak. If you're good, the work will come to you. I feel very Irish; maybe that's why I've been so lucky with my career.""
  6. ^ Keegan - [6] "Miss September is red, hot and Irish"
  7. ^ [7] "This place was a fair reflection of her Irish-Italian Catholic family's fortunes at this point."
  8. ^ Described as an "Italian-Irish beauty" at [8]
  9. ^ [9] "We're Irish Catholic Russian Jewish. I'm a total mutt."
  10. ^ Affleck - [10] "Only half a Mick (mom's side-- Affleck is Scottish) sad to say..."
  11. ^ [11] "Being an Irish Chicagoan came with all the rites of passage for Boyle, including weekend trips with her mother to Notre Dame football games, Irish dance lessons, and braving the Windy City's frigid breezes to dance in the city's St. Patrick's Day parades... Boyle maintains that she is "seven-eighths Irish," a fact borne out by the traditions bestowed on her by her paternal grandmother, Helen O'Shaughnessy, her paternal grandfather, Jack Boyle, and her maternal grandmother, Kathleen Flynn, from whom she obtained the middle name "Flynn." Although neither side has definitively traced its Irish roots, Boyle believes that her maternal ancestors came from County Mayo, while her paternal side emigrated from Cork. "The Irish are a singing, storytelling people. And all of the Irish stereotypes were alive and well within my family," she said. In particular, she recalls the colorful stories told by her Great-grandfather Flynn. "That's what the holidays are for—for one person to tell the stories and another to dispute them. Isn't that the Irish way?" she asked."
  12. ^ [12] "Being an Irish-American..."
  13. ^ [13] "Mariah is half white/caucasian (Irish)..."
  14. ^ [14] "My grandfather was born in the US, and my great grandparents were Irish... Ultimately I’m an Irish Catholic Jew. I’m riddled with guilt!"
  15. ^ [15] ""I'm Irish, so I mean, please," gripes Fallon. "They should never stop selling alcohol in general."
  16. ^ [16] "She says she rebelled against a strict Irish Catholic upbringing. Her parents counter that it wasn't especially rigid."
  17. ^ [17] "She's a redhead, Irish and both sexy and funny."
  18. ^ [18] "...the half-Irish, half-German natural blonde was a child model for Sears catalogs before landing small roles in commercial work."
  19. ^ Kutcher - said he was "Irish, Bohemian and Native American" on the The Tonight Show, 8/12/03; Kutcher's mother is Irish-American
  20. ^ [19] "McCarthy grew up in Chicago in an Irish Catholic family..."
  21. ^ [20] "Very close to the dark shade that I have now. I am Irish after all and I come by the black hair and white skin thing naturally. Unlike Michael Jackson."
  22. ^ [21] "...she is Irish on both sides of her family. Her mother’s family are Moriartys from County Donegal and County Clare. Her father’s side are Moynahans from County Cork. She has visited Ireland many times, and has an Aunt Bridget in Ireland who was delighted to meet her, largely because she was so happy that her name was being passed along..."
  23. ^ [22] "Jerry O'Connell and his younger brother Charlie (Sliders) have always been close. "We're Irish twins, 14 months apart," says Jerry, 30."
  24. ^ [23] "Jerry O'Connell and his younger brother Charlie (Sliders) have always been close. "We're Irish twins, 14 months apart," says Jerry, 30."
  25. ^ [24] "38. Chris O'Donnell. Partially Irish Chris is one of those actors you hardly notice, and every film he snags costs millions and becomes forgettable in about 24 hours. Remember The Bachelor? Vertical Limit? Batman and Robin? Didn't think so." [25] "When he called his Irish-Catholic parents back in Chicago to tell them about it, his mother was so upset she hung up on him."
  26. ^ [26] "Around the age of 14, the Irish Catholic was attracted to the calm and order of the orders, but her final career decision was helped along by the fact that she was married and pregnant at 19."
  27. ^ [27] "The big-eyed, freckle-faced twenty-five-year-old Irish-American actress from the South Side of Chicago..."
  28. ^ [28] "The youngest of nine children in a strict Irish Catholic family, Wahlberg spent much of his teen years dealing drugs and picking fights on the streets of Dorchester, Mass., a working-class section of Boston."
  29. ^ [29]"I’m Irish and German, I thought that I could go toe-to-toe but it’s hard to keep up with the Aussies."
  30. ^ a b c d Baldwins - [30] "The Irish-Catholic Baldwins lived in Nassau Shores"
  31. ^ [31] [32] "My father has Irish heritage. My mom took a trip to Ireland — a very short trip — and when she saw Ireland, she was like, “I’ve got to take my husband here because he will be amazed to see all his relatives.”"
  32. ^ [33] "Edward Burns, writer, director, and featured actor in "The Brothers McMullen" is now being hailed as the Irish-American Woody Allen."
  33. ^ [34] [35] "My mom's 100 percent Irish, and in my family we've always called acting blarney."
  34. ^ a b c 100 Top Irish-Americans!!!. Rincenatiarna (2006-03-17). Retrieved on January 8, 2007.
  35. ^ [36]
  36. ^ [37] "The institute’s advisory board includes such American Irish luminaries as... actress Karen Duffy..."
  37. ^ [38] "We were a large, Irish family growing up in the Midwest who wanted to see humor in everything."
  38. ^ [39] "But I'm just a guy with an Irish face and Yiddish timing..."
  39. ^ [40]"School Ties, a passion project of Stanley Jaffe's, chief of Paramount and one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, in which the Irish Catholic Fraser played a Jewish quarterback in a bigoted '60s prep school."
  40. ^ [41] "This half-Italian, half-Irish, New Jersey transplant says she may have the leading role..."
  41. ^ [42] "LAUREN: Yeah, and you’re Irish and I’m Irish."
  42. ^ [43] "And I don’t want to be comfortable. I’m 100% Irish Catholic, and what am I going to do?"
  43. ^ Hall - said he was "Irish and Italian" on The Late Late Show (CBS TV series), can be seen at [44]
  44. ^ [45] "After growing up as part of a large Irish family (seven kids), she trained as a nurse and worked specifically with cancer patients."
  45. ^ [46] "Instead, the 29-year-old Irish-American New Yorker has been living off the independent film industry since 1993."
  46. ^ [47] "I'm friggin' Irish, my name is Robert Patrick Kelly...I look like a little Mexican dishwasher, I don't know what the hell happened...maybe my mother had sex with the paper boy Raul."
  47. ^ [48] "The Irish-born actor intends to play Joe Astor..."
  48. ^ [49] "Waterbury, Connecticut, October 26, 1961 - Mark Anthony McDermott is born to a pair of Catholic teenagers: the Italian American Diane, only 15 years of age, and the Irish American Richard, just 17." [50] ""I'm Irish", he says, pinching his cheeks, "It goes right to my face.""
  49. ^ [51] "It was love at first sight, he says, tears puddling his ice-blue eyes. "She was, 'Who is this Irish guy?' She didn't understand."
  50. ^ [52] "I come from an Irish Catholic family that suffered a tragedy where emotions weren't dealt with on any kind of real level." [53] "LAUREN: Yeah, and you’re Irish and I’m Irish."
  51. ^ [54] "I am, in this moment, a part of the O'Malley clan and we're in Massachusetts; so, technically, I'm Irish and this shouldn't be a problem."
  52. ^ [55] [56] "Now 39, John Reilly grew up in a tough neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago. He was the fifth of six children born to a Lithuanian mother and an Irish-Catholic father."
  53. ^ [57] "CrankyCritic: So where does Mary come from? Molly Shannon: It's a lot based on my own experience. I'm from an Irish Catholic family."
  54. ^ [58] "He is half Jewish and half Irish..." [59] "Being of Irish and Jewish heritage, Stiller’s parents, serve green matzoh ball soup during their annual Saint Patrick’s Day dinner... Stiller’s great-grandfather, James Meara came to the United States from Liverpool aboard the Parthia on 19 May 1881."
  55. ^ [60] "The oldest of a large Irish Catholic family, Julia's first step on the path to disillusion comes when her mother tells her that her birthday is in October, not September."
  56. ^ [61] "L.A. residents are famous (and ridiculed) for their reluctance to flout jaywalking laws, but "it was my Boston Irish Catholic upbringing" that stopped her, she explains."
  57. ^ [62] "I'd have to eat every two weeks. I'm sturdy Irish stock. I can lift things."
  58. ^ [63]
  59. ^ [64] "Wilson grew up in Dallas, the middle child of Irish Catholic parents who were both funny and creative; his mother is a photographer, his father a writer. The family is prone to a melancholy moodiness, an "Irish strain of depression," Wilson said, that goes back generations. "The Irish way of dealing with that is humor," he added." [65] ""It's supposed to be England, if we go back to Jack the Ripper time. I don't know where, maybe Prague and London. I would like it to be Dublin, to be Ireland, because that's where my ancestors are from and I think I get along well with Irish people." Ah, the luck of the Irish!"
  60. ^ [66] [67]
  61. ^ [68] "still something a little too real about this morgue-pale, floppy-thin Irish-Italian for him to count as a bona fide star."
  62. ^ [69] "When not working, Lenny would spend time kibitzing with his large, Irish family, sharing his unique blue-collar take on life."
  63. ^ [70] "Christened Mary Cathleen Collins, she was known as Cathleen or Cathy in this Irish/German/Dutch-California family..."
  64. ^ [71] "...with his full, pouting lips and black-Irish good looks - one of the most insolently sexy men in show business."
  65. ^ [72] "The forty-one-year-old Heaton, who grew up in an Irish Catholic family of five in Cleveland, readily admits that her own childhood was hardly fancy fare."
  66. ^ [73] "How far out can a girl who grew up as one of three children in a German/Irish Catholic family go?"
  67. ^ [74] "Q: "Even though you were born into an Irish Catholic blue-collar family, just about everyone assumes that you're Jewish and that you changed your name from Rabinowitz. How did that impression catch hold and how do you feel about it?"" [75] "Lane sprouted from an Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Jersey City..."
  68. ^ [76] "American-Irish comedian and the last angry man Denis Leary in-true-form defied Irish smoking laws and sparked-up numerous cigarettes during his sold-out Point concert at the weekend..."
  69. ^ [77] "KING: Are you angry, Bill? Are you by nature angry? MAHER: You see that I'm trying -- Irish, all Irish people are. KING: Why is that? We have never discussed this. MAHER: Potatoes, Larry. We didn't have enough potatoes in the 1850s. They ran out of them. It has been in out blood ever since. KING: It does stem back from that? MAHER: But I think we need more angry people, and among them Democrats. That's why Democrats used to be great Irish politicians. And there is not enough of those Irish..."
  70. ^ [78] "McGinley, whose paternal great-grandfather hailed from Donegal..."
  71. ^ Murray - [79] [80] "Murray, who will be spending more time at home in upstate New York, has come a distance from his humble Irish roots. Growing up in a large Catholic family in the suburbs of Chicago, Murray was one of nine children of Lucille and Edward Murray, a lumber salesman." [81] "I'm a hundred per cent Irish. I'm an American - but the blood is green."
  72. ^ [82] "One of seven children born into a wealthy Irish-American family..." [83] "The O'Keefe name forever associates him with the Emerald Isle and the third generation Irishman has relatives living in Wicklow, Limerick and Cork..."
  73. ^ [84] "Born in Brooklyn, New York, Colin Quinn has come to represent the quintessential Irish American comedian: pissed off, cynical and hilarious."
  74. ^ [85] "And get this? Washed-up Irish American actor Mickey Rourke was at the center of controversy."
  75. ^ Sayles - [86] "An awful lot of Americans have an Irish ancestry. Do you? Both of my parents are half Irish... it wasn't a real strong part of my upbringing. Being Catholic was but not being Irish... I just felt it would work best for my knowledge and for a general audience being set in Ireland.... Because you yourself are Irish?"
  76. ^ Short - [87] "The show touches on everyone thinking that you're Jewish. "He's Jewish on his manager's side"--that's the line. People do think I'm Jewish. But we're Irish Catholic. My father had a brogue." [88] "Short was born the youngest of five children in an Irish-Catholic family in Hamilton, Ontario, just north of the U.S. border. He said the proximity drew him to American culture."
  77. ^ [89] "But John Travolta has more of a claim than others being half Irish on his mother Helen's side and growing up in a predominantly Irish neighbourhood in New Jersey. His mother was also a drama coach. Although the Italian side of his lineage is what he is most recognised for, Travolta himself sees it differently. He told Plus Magazine recently, "The emotional, romantic, whimsical part of me is Irish. Spiritually, I probably feel more like an Irishman - that's where my heart is.""
  78. ^ Assante - [90] "the handsome Irish-Italian actor..."
  79. ^ [91]
  80. ^ [92] "There’s something about him Irish. “Definitely Irish. Half Irish, half French-Canadian, half English. I’ve kissed the Blarney Stone. My brother fell off the highest peak in Killarney and I rescued him, saved his life. He owes me. My brother, like my father, is a musician, a piano player. I come from a musical family and I was intimidated by it for a long time—I sublimated my musical yearnings.”"
  81. ^ [93] "Im Irish, my mother was Irish, and I have a million superstitions"
  82. ^ [94] "Speaking about his ancestors, Harrison Ford said that he is “Irish as a person but I feel Jewish as an actor.”"
  83. ^ [95] "Garr’s Irish relatives emigrated from Cork to New York in the early part of the last century. “They started a mortuary in midtown and then they moved to Philadelphia.” Garr’s father, Eddie Garr, was an actor-comedian on the vaudeville circuit... “Aunt Alice was smart and funny and a great Irish Catholic. She went to Mass every day but she also liked to have a few drinks and tell dirty jokes. She was so great and sometime I think that’s where I get my humor.”"
  84. ^ [96] "DK: I'm an Irish Catholic. And you know what that means."
  85. ^ [97] "Agnes Kline, his mother, was of Irish descent and a Catholic, and Robert, his father, was Jewish... In fact, after this interview for Irish America, I have to rush off for another one with The Jewish Light."
  86. ^ [98] "Those feelings are not because I had at one dark time been a Liberal, but because I’m Irish-American."
  87. ^ [99] "The bride's father, the hotheaded Irish-American actor Ryan O'Neal..."
  88. ^ [100] [101] "He was born Ramon Estevez in 1940, in Ohio, the seventh of 10 children of a Spanish immigrant father and an Irish mother."
  89. ^ [102] "The blonde actress grew up with a father who was an alcoholic, as were many of her relatives - and she believes her heritage has a lot to do with it. She says, "My people are from Ireland so we have a bit of a drinking problem."
  90. ^ [103] [104] "Born William “Billy” Millar July 4th, 1931 at White House by Belfast, Northern Ireland."
  91. ^ [105] "...wasn't all that unusual a choice for an Irish Catholic middle-class kid growing up in Philadelphia. Cop, priest, fireman, Brother. The options were limited."
  92. ^ [106] "We're also both Irish. "Eccentric," she says. "When I was in Ireland recently, I went there to do a play, I picked up a book called Irish Eccentrics. I wouldn't be anything else. It's the saddest damn history I've ever seen, and now I can't get enough of Irish history. And, I married an Englishman."
  93. ^ [107] [108] "Carlin... primarily raised by their mother...Mary Carlin, a devout Irish Catholic..."
  94. ^ [109] "Brian Dennehy was a burly, light-haired supporting player... whose Irish charm and engaging grin made him a popular second-tier star in the 1980s."
  95. ^ [110] [111] "Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, USA and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland..."
  96. ^ [112] (Diane Keaton on Nicholson): "I love those Irish men. He's a once in a lifetime guy" [113] On Nicholson's maternal grandparents: "She began as Ethel May Rhoads of Chester, Pennsylvania, only daughter of upright Pennsylvania Dutch Protestants, and when she married John Nicholson, a working class Irish Catholic, her irate family broke their ties and disinherited her."
  97. ^ [114][115] "he would usually wind up in Chicago, the home of his mother's Irish-Catholic, lower-middle-class family whose humor Steve described as "sarcastic, volatile, sometimes disparaging, but very funny."" [116] "When Steve Allen was 18 months old, his father died and Isabelle Donahue Allen placed her infant son in the care of her Chicago-based, Irish-Catholic family."
  98. ^ [117] [118] "He came from working-class, Irish Catholic stock..."
  99. ^ [119] "Clooney was born into a troubled family of Irish Catholics in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1928..."
  100. ^ [120] [121] [122] "She's a bonny lass, this Judy Garland, with a well turned leg, and a fine Scottish complexion (is gift from her "Irish Grandmother" she says)."
  101. ^ [123] [124] (On Kelly's parents) "The two were married on January 30, 1924, at which point Mrs. Kelly converted to Catholicism- Jack was a devout Irish Catholic." Grace Kelly's mother was of German descent, her father was of Irish descent
  102. ^ O'Toole, Lesley. "Ben Stiller : 'Doing comedy is scary'", The Independent, 2006-12-22. Retrieved on December 22, 2006.
  103. ^ [125] "Born in the Bronx, NY, to an upper-middle-class Irish family, his father was a well-connected attorney and his mother was a school teacher."
  104. ^ [126] [127] "O'Connor was born in Chicago, the seventh son of circus performers who went into vaudeville. His Irish-born father, John "Chuck" O'Connor, who died when his son was six months old, was a circus strongman and acrobat."
  105. ^ [128] "Radiant, red-haired Irish beauty..." [129] "She was born in Ranelagh, Ireland, on August 17, 1920, as Maureen FitzSimons, the second oldest child of Charles and Marguerita FitzSimons." [130] "And, since I am now an American citizen, I can speak for the people of the United States."
  106. ^ [131] "The Irish American Robards performed in Eugene O'Neill's plays like a blood brother to that moody genius: quixotic, haunted, drink- and guilt-ridden, with a hint of self-destructive violence and a swift and changeable charm."
  107. ^ [132] (Penn's mother) "EILEEN RYAN PENN: I'm half-Irish, half-Italian, I'm a practising Catholic, I was married to a non-practising Jew for forty-one years..."
  108. ^ [133] "Brought up in a strict Irish Catholic family with an alcoholic father, Ms. Stapleton left home..."
  109. ^ [134] "Carney was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 4, 1918, and baptized Arthur William Matthew Carney..."
  110. ^ [135] "A talented Irish actress whose redheaded independence off screen hampered her film career..."
  111. ^ [136] "Jackie Gleason was definitely Irish. Born in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, Gleason’s mother was born in Ireland, while his father was Irish American."
  112. ^ [137] "Gene Kelly, born in 1912 in Philadelphia, was Irish on both sides of his family; he became renowned in Hollywood as a singer and dancer."
  113. ^ [138] "but still good looking man with sparkling Irish eyes..." [139] "Born in New York of Irish parents, Edmond O'Brien starred on Broadway prior to becoming a leading man of the forties."
  114. ^ [140] 1919-2001 "Her Irish father was the captain of detectives of the Los Angeles Police Department and later the city’s deputy district attorney."[141]
  115. ^ [142] "Peck’s maternal grandmother, Katherine Ashe, a native of Dingle Co. Kerry raised her son—Peck’s father, partly in her native county... When talking about Ireland Peck has been quoted as saying: “The Irish influence has been a big thing in my life. Kind of an anchor–it means a lot to me,” and “I feel drawn to Ireland; I feel a sense of coming home.”"
  116. ^ [143] "But the vast majority of films starring James Cagney, Tyrone Power, Pat O'Brien and other members of the post-leprechaun, Irish-American subculture are not about the Irish per se. The actors merely happened to be Irish-Americans playing charismatic characters in movies."
  117. ^ [144] "KING: Lest we forget, you are half Irish. ANTHONY QUINN: Yes, half Irish... KING: So your father was Irish? ANTHONY QUINN: Half Irish, yes. KING: Your mother was Mexican. ANTHONY QUINN: Yes. KING: How did they meet? ANTHONY QUINN: Oh, the Irish were building the railroads down through Mexico, through Chihuahua. They finished the railroads when they finished out in the West Coast, and they went down and put the trains into Mexico."
  118. ^ [145] Noted as one of "Irish American Political Leaders"; [146] paternal grandparents, John Michael Reagan and Jennie Cusick, were both the children of Irish immigrants
  119. ^ [147] [148] "Bing’s mother was of Irish descent and his father was descended from a maritime family." [149]
  120. ^ [150] "Tall, stocky and darkly handsome with smiling Irish eyes, he was a natural for acting."
  121. ^ [151][152]
  122. ^ [153] "St. Patrick's Day celebrations this year were compromised by the news that theatrical legend Helen Hayes, who once described herself as "a little Irish biddy," had died of congestive heart failure..."
  123. ^ [154] "Irish based firm director John Huston" [155] "My father was born in 1884 in Toronto, Canada, of a Scottish mother... and an Irish father... In 1964 I became an Irish citizen."
  124. ^ [156] "Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky dubbed them the "Irish Mafia", but they preferred to call their group the "Boy's Club". The original members of the club were Frank McHugh, James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Spencer Tracy, all of whom were Irish-Americans hence the name Irish Mafia." [157] "His father John Tracy was Irish; his mother Caroline Brown Tracy could trace her ancestors back to American Colonial days."
  125. ^ Allen - [158] "Gracie was a practicing Irish Catholic... Gracie grew up in a big, loving Irish family. They were so Irish that her sister spoke Gaelic--and they don't speak Gaelic in Ireland."
  126. ^ [159] "As an Irish-American and a primarily New York City star, Cagney was an icon for immigrants ..." [160] "My father was totally Irish, and so I went to Ireland once. I found it to be very much like New York, for it was a beautiful country, and both the women and men were good-looking." [161] "Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky dubbed them the "Irish Mafia", but they preferred to call their group the "Boy's Club". The original members of the club were Frank McHugh, James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Spencer Tracy, all of whom were Irish-Americans hence the name Irish Mafia."
  127. ^ [162] "Many of the biographies on Keaton say that he was, indeed, Irish. But Keaton's sister Louise apparently believed that there back in the family history the Keatons had some Native American blood as well."
  128. ^ [163] "The voters chose as the 94th selection an Irish-American actor who personified the Church in film - William Joseph Patrick O'Brien better known to film buffs as Pat O'Brien, the rugged actor who starred in films from the thirties to the early eighties." [164] "Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky dubbed them the "Irish Mafia", but they preferred to call their group the "Boy's Club". The original members of the club were Frank McHugh, James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Spencer Tracy, all of whom were Irish-Americans hence the name Irish Mafia."
  129. ^ Allgood - [165] "Born to a middle-class Irish family and educated at the Marlborough Street Training College, 19-year-old Sara Allgood joined the Irish National Theatre Society..."
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