Tony Award Winner Anna Manahan Dies at Age 84

Award-winning actress Anna Manahan, who won the Tony for her last appearance on Broadway in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, has died. The stage and screen actress was 84.

A native of Ireland, Manahan was born October 18, 1924. She was discovered by Irish theater greats Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards, and went on to make a name for herself as a stage actress in plays such as Big Maggie, written for her by playwright John B. Keane, the Drama Desk Award-nominated Sisters, off-Broadway’s The Matchmaker, Broadway’s Lovers, for which she was nominated for a 1969 Tony Award and Beauty Queen in 1998. The performer was honored in her home county in 2002 when she wanted granted the Freedom of Waterford.

Widowed by director and husband Colm O’Kelly in the 1950s, Manahan had no children and never remarried. The actress achieved some notoriety in 1957, when she and several members of the Irish cast of Tennesse Williams’ The Rose Tattoo were arrested for alleged possession of a condom on stage.

Manahan also had a career on the big and small screen that spanned nearly 50 years, appearing in films including Ulysses, The Viking Queen, Clash of the Titans, Heaven Only Knows and A Man of No Importance, as well as on TV series such as The Irish R.M. and the recent Fair City.

“Anna was a consummate professional, with the art of theatre acting in her bones,” Irish Chairman of the Arts Council Pat Moylan told local press of the passing. “Her work brought pleasure to audiences throughout Ireland and the world.”

The actress is survived by her brothers, who reside in County Waterford, Ireland.