Joseph Tomelty

Irish actor, playwright and novelist

Lena Milligan

(m. 1942)

Children2, including Frances TomeltyFamilyJoe Sumner
(grandson)

Joseph Tomelty (5 March 1911 – 7 June 1995)^[1] was an Irish actor, playwright, novelist, short-story writer and theatre manager. He worked in film, television, radio and on the stage,^[2] starring in Sam Thompson's 1960 play Over the Bridge.

Life and career

Born in Portaferry in 1911, he was the son of James Tomelty, a skilled fiddler who was nicknamed "Rollicking"; and the brother of Peter Tomelty, a tenor and recording artist.^[1] Tomelty's exposure to music at a young age influenced his work as a playwright, with several of his stage works being named after songs, including The Singing Bird (1948), Down the Heather Glen (1953) and The Drunken Sailor (1954).^[1]

Tomelty was a co-founder, in 1940,of the Group Theatre in Belfast, and served as its general manager until 1951.^[3]

He married Lena Milligan in 1942.^[4] They had two daughters together: Frances Tomelty is an actress and the first wife of singer and musician Sting; while Roma Tomelty (d. 22 April 2020) was also an actress.^[2]

Works

Plays

Barnum Was Right (1939)
Idolatry at Inishargie (1942)
Poor Errand (1943)
Right Again Barnum (1943)
The End House (1944)
All Souls' Night (1948)
The Singing Bird (1948)
Down the Heather Glen (1953)
April in Assagh (1954)
The Drunken Sailor (1954)
Is the Priest at Home? (1954)
A Year in Marlfield (1965)

Novels

Red Is the Port Light (1948)
The Apprentice (1953)

Radio

Barnum Is Right (1938)
Elopement (1939)
The McCooeys (1948)

Complete filmography

Odd Man Out (1947) - 'Gin' Jimmy, the cabbie
Shark Island (1951) - Seán
Treasure Hunt (1952) - Poacher
The Sound Barrier (1952) - Will Sparks
You're Only Young Twice (1952) - Dan McEntee
The Gentle Gunman (1952) - Dr Brannigan
The Gentle Maiden (1953 TV movie) - John Clarke
The Oracle (1953) - Terry Roche
Melba (1953) - Thomas Mitchell
Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953) - Mr. Pedelty
Hell Below Zero (1954) - Capt. McPhee
Front Page Story (1954) - Dan
Hobson's Choice (1954) - Jim Heeler
Devil Girl from Mars (1954) - Prof. Arnold Hennessey
Happy Ever After (1954) - Dooley
The Young Lovers (1954) - Moffatt
Simba (1955) - Dr. Hughes
Bedevilled (1955) - Father Cunningham
A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) - Vagrant
John and Julie (1955) - Mr. Davidson
Timeslip (1955) - Detective Inspector Cleary
A Prize of Gold (1955) - Uncle Dan
Moby Dick (1956) - Peter Coffin (voice dubbed by John Huston)
A Night to Remember (1958) - Dr. William O'Loughlin
Tread Softly Stranger (1958) - Joe Ryan
The Captain's Table (1959) - Dalrymple
Upstairs and Downstairs (1959) - Arthur Farringdon
Next to No Wife (1959 TV movie) - Canon Fergus Brodie
Life Is a Circus (1960) - Joe Winter
Hell Is a City (1960) - Furnisher Steele
The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960) - Cohoun
Lancelot and Guinevere (1963) - Sir Kaye
The Black Torment (1964) - Sir Giles Fordyke

The McCooeys

Tumelty's family-based radio sitcom The McCooeys was first broadcast on the BBC Home Service in Northern Ireland on 14 May 1949, becoming the region's most listened-to programme over the next six years. Centre Stage Theatre Company, co-founded by his daughter Roma and her husband Colin Carnegie, revived four of the episodes in a stage version, directed by Michael Quinn and performed in the refurbished Grand Opera House Studio Theatre in February 2022.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Damian Smyth (12 June 1995). "OBITUARY:Joseph Tomelty". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022.
^ ^a ^b Smyth, Damian (November 2008). "Tomelty Country". Celebrating Strangford Lough. p. 1.
^ The Dictionary of Ulster Biography. "Joseph Tomelty (1911 - 1995): Writer, actor and playwright". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
^ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaryjoseph-to melty-1586249.html