Joseph Sylvester Maher (29 December 1933 – 17 July 1998) was an Irish actor, playwright, and occasional theatre director. He was best known for his roles in the comedies of Joe Orton. He received three

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

nominations for his roles in the plays ''Spokesong'', '' Night and Day'', and '' Loot'', with the last winning him a

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a signific ...

. His other accolades included an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

and a

Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in West End theatre, professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of We ...

nomination.

Early life

Maher was born in Westport,

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

, Ireland, on 29 December 1933. He was one of ten children born to Delia A. (née O'Malley) and Joseph Maher Sr., a schoolteacher. Maher immigrated to Canada in 1956 and in his youth worked for an oil company. He started acting with the Canadian Players and performed across Canada for three years before moving to New York.

Career

Maher's

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

credits include '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'', '' King Henry V'', '' The Royal Family'', '' Night and Day'', and '' Loot''. Maher's film credits include '' For Pete's Sake'', '' Heaven Can Wait'', '' Time After Time'', '' Just Tell Me What You Want'', '' I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can'', '' The Evil That Men Do'', '' Frankenweenie'', '' My Stepmother is an Alien'', '' Sister Act'', '' Funny Farm'', '' I.Q.'', '' In & Out'', ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibs ...

'', '' Mars Attacks!'' and '' The Out-of-Towners''. Maher's appearances on television included roles in the

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

s ''

Guiding Light ''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. ''Guiding Light'' aired on CBS for 57 years between June 30, 1952, and September 18, 2009, overlapping a 19-year broadcast on radio ...

'' and '' Another World''. He also guest-starred in several other TV series including '' M*A*S*H'', ''

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

'', '' When Things Were Rotten'', ''

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...

'', '' St. Elsewhere'', '' ALF'', '' Gimme a Break!'', '' Moonlighting'', '' Thirtysomething'', ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...

'', ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...

'', '' Tales from the Crypt'' and '' Chicago Hope''.

Death

Maher died of a brain tumor at his home in Los Angeles, California, on 17 July 1998, at age 64. He was buried at Aughaval Cemetery in his hometown of Westport,

Partial filmography

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Joseph Maher papers, 1960-1998
held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maher, Joseph 1933 births 1998 deaths Deaths from brain cancer in California Drama Desk Award winners Irish emigrants to the United States Irish male film actors Irish male stage actors Irish male television actors Irish male voice actors People from Westport, County Mayo 20th-century Irish male actors Actors from County Mayo