Brendan O'Carroll

Brendan O'Carroll (born 15 September 1955) is an Irish writer, producer, comedian, actor and director.^[2] A popular comedian in Ireland since the early 1990s, O'Carroll is best known internationally for portraying the foul-mouthed Irish matriarch Agnes Brown in Mrs. Brown's Boys.^[3]

Early life

O'Carroll was born in Finglas West, a suburb of north Dublin. His mother, Maureen, was a Labour Party TD and his father Gerard O’Carroll a carpenter and he says this has had a huge impact on his life. He left school aged 12 and had a string of occupations including waiter, milkman, DJ, before making the move to comedy. Much of his comedy is about his childhood in Finglas and Dublin City. Brendan is the youngest of 11 children (Some of his siblings have appeared in the show: Eilish O'Carroll as returning role Winnie McGoogan. Also Alma Fagan; was O'Carroll, as an extra)

Career

He has appeared in many movies and television shows over the years and has had parts in Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere, Angela's Ashes, Agnes Browne alongside Anjelica Huston (an adaptation of O'Carroll's novel 'The Mammy'),^[4] Sweety Barret with Brendan Gleeson, The Fattest Man in Britain and The Van.

Over a two-year period, he presented Brendan O'Carroll's Hot Milk and Pepper on RTÉ from 1996 until 1998.

In 2013, Brendan also starred in The Security Men written by Caroline Aherne and Jeff Pope, for ITV.

O'Carroll has his own feature length series box set of his most famous character, Mrs Agnes Brown. Mrs. Brown's Boys debuted on RTÉ and BBC in 2011 and is a hit with the audience viewing figures, with some episodes reaching 10 million viewers.^[5] The episode "Buckin' Mammy" was the most watched programme in the UK on Christmas 2013, with 9.4 million viewers overnight.

It was confirmed that there would be a movie starring O'Carroll as Agnes Brown. Filming for this movie started in Dublin in September 2013. The film is under the working title of Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie.

Writing

O'Carroll has written seven novels, including The Mammy (1994), The Chisellers (1995), The Granny (1996), The Scrapper (originally published as "Sparrows Trap", 1997) and The Young Wan (2003); a number of these have been translated into 12 languages and have been best sellers worldwide.^[6]

He has also written four films and nine comedy shows including The Course (1995), Grandad's Sure Lilly's Still Alive (1997), The Last Wedding (1999), Mourning Mrs. Brown (2000), Mrs. Brown Rides Again (2004), For the Love of Mrs. Brown (2007), How Now Mrs. Brown Cow? (2009), and Good Mourning Mrs. Brown (2011).

Personal life

He is a member of Mensa with an IQ of 156.^[7][8]

He married his childhood sweetheart Doreen in 1977; they had four children together before separating in 1999 and subsequently divorcing. In 2005 O'Carroll married his second wife, the actress Jennifer Gibney (Goodbye to the Hill, Some Mother's Son, Cathy Browne, Mrs. Brown's Boys).^[9]

O'Carroll has four children: Brendan (born 23–26 February 1976 who died at just a few days old suffering from spina bifida and hydrocephalus), Fiona (born 14 September 1980), Daniel "Danny" (born 15 October 1983) and Eric (born 6 May 1992).^[10] He turned down a move to the United States so that he could spend more time with them.^[11]

Filmography

References

External links

• Brendan O'Carroll at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x17n9