F. J. McCormick

After living in Skerries in his early years, at age 10 he moved to Dublin and proceeded to live here for the majority of the duration of his life. He was educated locally in Skerries. His father, Michael Judge, was a maltser and later became a brewery manager. McCormick was of medium height, with "expressive eyes" and thick brown hair. As a young man, he began writing by contributing articles to the press. He worked briefly as a post office clerk in London but returned to Dublin to work as a junior clerk in the Civil Service. McCormick's mother died when he was 2 years old. He and his family moved to Dublin when he was 10 or 12 years old. He was raised in Skerries and attended the Holy Faith Convent for primary education. McCormick described his childhood in Skerries "as a very happy one". They met at the Abbey where Crowe was also an actor. The couple had two children, a son, David, and a daughter, Marie. == Career ==

After moving briefly to London, McCormick returned to Dublin, where he worked in the Civil Service. He also took acting roles in the Workmen's Club on York Street, and for the first time under the pseudonym by which he became known for roles with the Queen's Theatre, Dublin. McCormick acted in over 500 plays at the Abbey Theatre, becoming particularly associated with the plays of Sean O'Casey staged there. Of his performance as Seumus Sheilds in The Shadow of a Gunman, O'Casey said that the actor had created a character greater than that O'Casey had written. He played Capt. Brennan in the filmed version of O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars but it was his return to film in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947) that saw him singled out for praise in contemporaneous reviews. The Irish Times wrote that "the acting of the Irish players was unremittingly professional, and, in the case of F. J. McCormick, as Shell, a weak-minded and elderly corner-boy, quite outstanding." The Times of London found "it is Mr. F. J. McCormick as a sly, bird-like creature, who stops just the right side of informing, who catches most surely at the imagination." In their review of the film Hungry Hill (also 1947), The New York Times wrote, "As the butler who served John Brodrick, his sons, and their sons in turn, the late F. J. McCormick is truly magnificent, giving an even more subtle portrayal of Irish character than he did as the wily tramp in Odd Man Out." == Later life and death ==

In the last 5 years of McCormick's life he continued to work in the Abbey where he acted in over 70 plays before he died. He only starred in one play in the theatre in the final year of his life, the play They Got What They Wanted playing the role of Bartley Murnaghan. He continued to work right up until his death. == Legacy ==

There are many popular plays and films that McCormick was part of which are still remembered to this day by many, some of them include the original The Plough and the Stars in (1926) where he originated the role of Commandant Jack Clitheroe. He also played the role of Captain Brennan in the John Ford film version of the play in 1936. In his appreciation for McCormick, Gabriel Fallon remembered him as both a great actor and a great man. It is said that he was one of the most versatile actors of his generation, his early death was a huge loss to the Irish arts and more specifically the Abbey Theatre where he carried most of his work. ==Filmography==