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Concept
Barry Fitzgerald
Summary
William Joseph Shields (10 March 1888 – 14 January 1961), known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Long Voyage Home (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), Going My Way (1944), None but the Lonely Heart (1944) and The Quiet Man (1952). For Going My Way (1944), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and was simultaneously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields. In 2020, he was listed at number 11 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Fitzgerald was born William Joseph Shields in Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland, the son of Fanny Sophia (née Ungerland) and Adolphus Shields. His father was Irish and his mother was German. He was the older brother of Irish actor Arthur Shields.
He attended Skerry's College in Dublin before going on to work in the civil service, starting as a junior clerk at the Dublin Board of Trade in 1911. He later went to work for the unemployment office. "It was an easy job, full of leisure," he later said.
Interested in acting, he began appearing in amateur dramatic societies such as the Kincora Players. He joined his brother Arthur Shields in the Abbey in 1915. He chose the stage name Barry Fitzgerald so as not to get in trouble with his superiors in the civil service.
Fitzgerald's early appearances at the Abbey included bit parts in plays such as The Casting Out of Martin Whelan and a four-word part in The Critic.
His breakthrough performance at the Abbey came in 1919, when he was in The Dragon by Lady Gregory. However he continued to act part-time until 1929, keeping his job at the civil service during the day. He was in The Bribe, An Imaginary Conversation, John Bull's Other Island and others.
In 1924, Fitzgerald's salary at the Abbey was £2'10 a week. That year he appeared in the world premiere of Juno and the Paycock by famed playwright Seán O'Casey.
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