Mac Liammóir, Mícheál (1899–1978)

Irish actor, artist, and writer. After establishing a reputation as a painter and designer, Mac Liammóir founded the Gate Theatre Company in Dublin in 1928 with his partner Hilton Edwards (1903–1982). He is perhaps best known for his internationally acclaimed one-man shows The Importance of Being Oscar (1960), about the life of Oscar Wilde; I Must Be Talking to My Friends (1963), on Irish history and literature; and Mostly About Yeats (1970).

Mac Liammóir was born into an Irish family in London and became a child actor, playing alongside Noel Coward in Herbert Beerbohm Tree's production of Peter Pan. He studied art at the Slade School and toured Ireland with the Shakespearean company of Anew McMaster (1894–1962). With the Gate Theatre, as well as promoting contemporary Irish writing and presenting innovative productions of classical works, he introduced Dublin audiences to new European drama. His written works includes fiction, plays, and memoirs, both in Irish and in English. His film roles include Iago in Orson Welles's Othello (1949) and the narrator in Tom Jones (1963).