Sinead Cusack
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
"Normally I'm rather grim, willful, I tend to over-dramatize things and there's a great saying in my family about 'doing a Janey.' That's the name I was christened with and only epople I've known before the age of twelve use it. It means wanting what someone else has got." --Sinead Cusack quoted in Time Out, July 18, 1990.
"Sinead had a complicated relationship with Cyril [her father, the actor Cyril Cusack] but she's come through that and blossomed and it shows in her face and her aura. She is more beautiful now, at 53, than she was when I first met her. In her twenties there was a prettiness but it was vapid. Recently she went through a stage of saying, 'I've got to have a face-lift,' and I said, 'Don't you dare, because what's in you shines out of your face.'" --husband Jeremy Irons quoted in The Daily Telegraph, February 19, 2001.
Biography
This petite blonde stage-trained Irish actress is best-known for her work on the London stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the Royal Court Theatre. The daughter of noted actor Cyril Cusack, she began her professional career at the famed Abbey Theater of Dublin. In the late 1960s, Cusack moved to London and soon thereafter began her collaboration with the RSC. She also made her feature debut with a small part in Clive Donner's "Alfred the Great" (1969). The next year, she starred opposite Peter Sellers in the small comedy "Hoffman" but for the better part of the next two decades, she concentrated on working in the theater.
Cusack has played leading Shakespearean roles in RSC and Royal Court productions of "Macbeth" (as Lady Macbeth), "The Taming of the Shrew" (as Kate) and "The Merchant of Venice" (as Portia). In 1984, she made her Broadway debut opposite Derek Jacobi in the repertory productions of "Much Ado About Nothing" (as Beatrice) and "Cyrano de Bergerac" (as Roxanne), earning a Tony nomination for her work in the former. Six years later, she returned to London's West End for an acclaimed production of "The Three Sisters," co-starring her father and her sisters Sorcha and Niamh.
In the late 1980s, Cusack resumed her big screen career and has co-starred in a handful of mostly European-made features. Her American films have included "Rocket Gibraltar" and "Dublin Murders" (both 1988), while her other credits have included the fantasies "Venus Peter" (1989), "Waterland" (1992) with her husband Jeremy Irons, Les Blair's comedy "Bad Behaviour" (1993), opposite Stephen Rea, and the dramas "The Cement Garden" (1993) and "The Nephew" (lensed 1996). In Italy, she co-starred with Vanessa Redgrave and Johnathon Schaech in Franco Zeffirelli's "Sparrow" (1993) and again teamed with her Irons and Liv Tyler in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty" (1996).
Cusack made her TV debut in 1970 playing Emily to her father's Barkis in a British production of "David Copperfield." She went to appear in several British-made TV-movies, including the thriller "The Eyes Have It" (1974), two "Quiller" mysteries, "Night of the Father" and "Price of Violence" (both 1975), in which she was cast as a detective's right-hand, "Twelfth Night" (1980), as Olivia, and "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1994), as Roxanne. She and Irons both played supporting roles to Rosemary Harris' George Sand in the multi-part biography "Notorious Woman" (PBS, 1975) and "Tales from Hollywood" (PBS, 1992). More recently, Cusack was seen opposite Alan Bates in the BBC mystery "Oliver's Travels" (1996).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1960
Made stage debut in "The Importance of Mr. O"
1969
Feature acting debut, "Alfred the Great"
1970
TV acting debut, "David Copperfield"
1972
London stage debut, "Romeo and Juliet"
1975
First onscreen collaboration with Jeremy Irons, in the television production of "Notorious Woman"
1977
Last feature film for over a decade, "The Last Remake of Beau Geste"
1984
Co-starred in the tandem Broadway productions of the RSC's revivals of "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Cyrano de Bergerac"; received Tony Award nomination for the former
1988
Returned to films to appear in "Rocket Gibraltar"
1990
Co-starred with her father and sisters Sorcha and Niamh in the West End revival of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters"
1992
Had featured role alongside her husband Jeremy Irons in "Waterland"
1996
Appeared opposite husband Jeremy Irons in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty"
1999
Garnered praise for her stage performance in "Our Lady of Sligo"; reprised role in NYC in 2000
2000
Co-starred in "Passion of Mind"
2001
Acted on the London stage in "A Lie of the Mind"
2002
Starred opposite Stuart Wilson in the Royal Shakespeare Company's staging of "Antony and Cleopatra"
2006
Starred in the BBC sitcom "Home Again"
2006
Cast in the Wachowski brothers' "V for Vendetta" based on the acclaimed graphic novel by author Alan Moore
2007
Co-starred with Viggo Mortensen in director David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises"
2008
Cast in Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll"; received a Tony award for Featured Actress in a Play
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Normally I'm rather grim, willful, I tend to over-dramatize things and there's a great saying in my family about 'doing a Janey.' That's the name I was christened with and only epople I've known before the age of twelve use it. It means wanting what someone else has got." --Sinead Cusack quoted in Time Out, July 18, 1990.
"Sinead had a complicated relationship with Cyril [her father, the actor Cyril Cusack] but she's come through that and blossomed and it shows in her face and her aura. She is more beautiful now, at 53, than she was when I first met her. In her twenties there was a prettiness but it was vapid. Recently she went through a stage of saying, 'I've got to have a face-lift,' and I said, 'Don't you dare, because what's in you shines out of your face.'" --husband Jeremy Irons quoted in The Daily Telegraph, February 19, 2001.
