Versatile star of stage and screen who found fame as Dick Moran in ‘Glenroe’

Emmet Bergin, who has died unexpectedly at the age of 79, was one of Ireland’s most accomplished actors whose versatility extended far beyond the part he was best known for, the raffish solicitor Dick Moran in RTÉ television’s Glenroe.

Theatre was always his first love, an avenue he was determined to pursue when he quit school in his mid-teens.

Born in Carlow, he and his family moved to Dublin at the age of 10. His father Paddy had worked for Carlow Sugar Factory and was a trade union official and Labour Party politician. A taoiseach’s nominee to the Seanad in 1954, Paddy and his wife Nora inculcated a sense of social justice in their five children.

When Emmet’s questioning mind and difficulty with authority led to him leaving CBS Westland Row at the age of 15, his parents indicated they would support him as long as he took responsibility for his decision.

He took acting lessons at the Brendan Smith Academy, delivered newspapers and read voraciously, ranging from the great playwrights to the Stanislavski method of acting. His first job in theatre was as an assistant stage manager in the Eblana, located below Busáras in Store Street.

That role involved providing prompts from the wings, and he told his daughter, poet Tara Bergin, that observing the cast was as good as “acting school — he enjoyed the craft and the collaborative aspect of theatre”. Possessing an excellent memory, he invariably knew everyone else’s lines as well as his own.

He toured with the Irish Theatre Company, and then signed up to the Abbey School of Acting, where he became firm friends with contemporaries like Geraldine Plunkett and her husband, the late Peadar Lamb.

He was cast in the first production of Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! in the Gaiety Theatre as part of the 1964 Dublin Theatre Festival.

His many stage roles in the following years included parts in Sam Shepard’s True West, Sean O’Casey’s

The Silver Tassie, and Henrik Ibsen’s

Hedda Gabler.

He had an early taste of film with a small part in David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter, shot in Kerry in 1969. That same year he married Sarah — their 55th wedding anniversary would have been on March 25.

By then his younger brother Patrick was also pursuing acting, having moved to London where he studied English and drama. Now a celebrated film actor, Patrick noted in the Irish Independent in April last year that his choice of career wasn’t surprising, as their mother worked in the Gaiety green room, and their father had started a theatre in Carlow.

Emmet played Sir Ulfius in John Boorman’s Excalibur in 1981. Two years later he became a household name, and flame, as philandering solicitor Dick Moran in the Wesley Burrowes-scripted RTÉ soap Glenroe.

“He wasn’t remotely like Dick Moran,” Geraldine Plunkett, who played opposite him as Mary McDermott, recalls.

Their on-camera relationship, initially an affair, then a fractious marriage, provided much of the drama for the 18-year-long series. Based in a fictional Wicklow village, the “rurban” drama, as Burrowes described it, was a bellwether for a society then grappling with issues such as divorce.

“People used to say to me ‘oh, I love your husband’, and ‘he’s gorgeous’, which of course he was,” Plunkett said. “In fact, Emmet was kind, serious, well read, and very well liked among the cast.” He was a keen photographer and enthusiastic angler, spending much time on the water with Peadar Lamb.

He was cast as Sunday Independent editor Aengus Fanning in Joel Schumacher’s 2003 film Veronica Guerin, but never expressed an interest in moving to Hollywood, as he and Sarah loved Ireland so much.

He continued on theatre and radio, and his work for RTÉ Drama on One included John Boorman’s The Hit List, along with Information for the User and Saint Artaud by poet, writer and producer Aidan Mathews. He also performed in Maeve Binchy’s comedy about ageing, Golden Oldie My Arse.

Mathews described him as “a wonderful actor, with presence and aplomb on microphone and camera… he was exquisite to watch”.

Emmet Bergin is survived by his wife Sarah, son Gavan, daughter Tara, grandson Jack and extended family.