Rosaleen Linehan

Rosaleen Linehan (born Rosaleen Philomena McMenamin on 1 June 1937 in Dublin) is veteran stage and screen actress.

Linehan has appeared in many comedy revues written by her husband Fergus and also starring Des Keogh and in many plays including Blithe Spirit, The House of Bernarda Alba and Twelfth Night She was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Kate in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa at the 1992 Tony Awards. She starred as Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days on stage and on screen as part of the Beckett on Film project. In 1972, Linehan won a Jacob's Award for her RTÉ Radio comedy series Get an Earful of This. She was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Theatre Awards in 2008.

In film, she has appeared as Nurse Callan in Ulysses, May Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Mrs Canning in The Butcher Boy, Peggy Owens in About Adam, Mrs Matson in The Hi-Lo Country and Millie O'Dowd in The Match-maker. In television, she was a voice artist on the Irish-language children's TV series Inis Cúil in 2005, appeared in Hugh Leonard's BBC sitcom Me Mammy and most recently played Deirdre O Kane's mother in BitterSweet.

Linehan and Fergus live in Dublin and they have four children. Her father Daniel McMenamin was a Teachta Dála for Donegal from 1927 to 1961. [cite web
url=http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/members.aspx?article=41751c9b-f0a7-4e48-8a8f-d82565d723ad
title=Rosaleen Linehan
publisher=The Arts Council (Ireland)
accessdate=2008-08-20]

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