Irish Actress Siobhan McKenna Dies

Irish actress Siobhan McKenna, acclaimed for the roles of tragic heroines she performed during a stage and screen career spanning more than 40 years, has died of a heart attack at the age of 63.

She died Sunday, a week after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, according to a spokeswoman at Blackrock Clinic in Dublin.

In her youth, Miss McKenna was the classic red-haired Irish beauty, “the physical embodiment of Mother Ireland,” said Irish theater critic Fintan O’Toole during the recent Dublin Theater Festival.

She was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on May 24, 1923, and made her first stage appearances at a Gaelic-speaking theater in Galway. In 1943, she headed to Dublin’s famed Abbey Theater, where she stayed for four years, performing in both English and Gaelic.

She won her greatest fame for her performance of the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan” in London in 1954.

“From the moment she made her entrance, barefoot, in a tattered red flannel dress, she held the audience spellbound,” today’s Times of London said.

In 1955, she headed for Broadway, where she starred opposite Gladys Cooper in Enid Bagnold’s “The Chalk Garden.”

Later North American engagements included “Saint Joan” in Cambridge, Mass., and New York in 1956 and the lead role in an off-Broadway production of “Hamlet” in 1957.

Her film work included Nicholas Ray’s 1961 “King of Kings,” a 1964 remake of “Of Human Bondage,” and David Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago” in 1965.

Miss McKenna was married for 22 years to Hollywood actor Denis O’Dea, who died in 1978, and had one son, Donnacha.