Denis O'Dea
Actor
Biography
Denis O'Dea (26 April 1905 – 5 November 1978) was an Irish stage and film actor.
He was born in Dublin and attended Synge Street CBS. When very young he and his mother Kathleen (from County Kerry) moved in with her sister, who kept a boarding house at 54 South Richmond Street. He worked in insurance until taking up acting. O'Dea was a leading member of Dublin's Abbey Theatre where he had a great acting career from 1929 to 1953; a list of his performances can be found in the Abbey archives. He also appeared in numerous plays by Irish playwright Teresa Deevy, some of which toured New York and England. His work led to a number of notable film roles, including two mid-1930s John Ford films, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars (1936), and the part of the police inspector in pursuit of IRA man James Mason in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).
Filmography
Treasure Island
as Dr. Livesy 1950
Odd Man Out
as Inspector 1947
The Fallen Idol
as Inspector Crowe 1948
Under Capricorn
as Mr. Corrigan 1949
Mogambo
as Father Josef 1953
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
as Father Murphy 1959
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
as RAdm. Sir Rodney Leighton 1951
The Informer
as Street Singer 1935
Sea Devils
as Lethierry 1953
The Rising of the Moon
as Police Sergeant Tom O'Hara (segment '1921') 1957
Captain Lightfoot
as Regis Donnell 1955
Esther and the King
as Mordecai 1960
The Plough and the Stars
as The Covey 1936
The Story of Esther Costello
as Father Devlin 1957
The Long Dark Hall
as Sir Charles Morton 1951
Beloved Enemy
as Sean's I.R.A. Friend (Uncredited) 1936