Joseph Laurence Lynch (16 July 1926 – 1 August 2001) was an Irish actor who had a long career in both comedy and drama. He provided voice work for children's animated series, in particular '' Chorlton and the Wheelies''. Lynch was also a singer and songwriter, performing in the film '' Johnny Nobody'' (1961). He also recorded work by other songwriters, including Leo Maguire's " The Whistling Gypsy" and Dick Farrelly's " Cottage by the Lee", one of his biggest 1950s recordings.

Early life

Born in Mallow in

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

, Lynch attended the North Monastery Christian Brothers School. He had a number of other jobs before moving into acting and broadcasting full time.

Career

Initially acting part-time with the Cork Shakespearean Company and at the Cork Opera House, by 1947 Lynch was acting full-time. He was a founding member of the

Radio Éireann Players The Radio Éireann Players (RÉP) were a repertory company for radio in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed in 1947, which performed in regular drama productions for Irish broadcaster, RTÉ Radio 1, Radio Éireann. After the depredations of the Th ...

and appeared in productions of Teresa Deevy plays among others. Between 1967–81, he acted onstage with the Abbey Theatre. During the 1950s he was responsible for a Radio Éireann show ''Living with Lynch'', broadcast on Sunday nights — the first comedy series on Radio Éireann. Lynch appeared in the popular ABC/ Thames Television sitcom '' Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width'' (1968–70), and its spin-off

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

in 1973. 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 ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

''. In 1962, and again in 1977, Lynch won a Jacob's Award for his acting on RTÉ television.McGarry, Patsy.
Late writer Wesley Burrowes best remembered for ‘Glenroe’
. '' Irish Times'', 1 January 2020. Retrieved 27 August 2020 By 1979, Lynch was back in Ireland, and made his first appearances as ''Dinny Byrne'' in the RTÉ soap '' Bracken''. Later the Byrne character would feature in the long-running RTÉ soap '' Glenroe''. Lynch quit ''Glenroe'' after he claimed to have been "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 disputed those claims. 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." Lynch voiced the main antagonist, "Grundel the Toad", in the Don Bluth film ''

Thumbelina Thumbelina (; ) is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in the se ...

'', his final audio work before his death seven years later.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

Joe Lynch at the Abbey Theatre Archive

Joe Lynch at the Teresa Deevy Archive

Audio clip
from Radio Éireann's ''Living with Lynch'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Joe 1925 births 2001 deaths Irish male film actors Irish male singer-songwriters Irish singer-songwriters Irish male soap opera actors Irish male television actors Irish male voice actors Jacob's Award winners People from Mallow, County Cork RTÉ Radio presenters RTÉ Radio 1 presenters 20th-century Irish male singers People educated at North Monastery Actors from County Cork Broadcasters from County Cork