- Jimmy O'Dea
James Augustine (Jimmy) O'Dea (1899 –
January 7 ,1965 ) was an Irish actor and comedian.Jimmy O'Dea was born in
Dublin and was educated atBlackrock College andBelvedere College "The Irish Times", "Jimmy O'Dea dies after 40 years on the Irish stage", January 8, 1965] , where one of his classmates was the futureTaoiseach of theRepublic of Ireland ,Seán Lemass . O'Dea went toEdinburgh ,Scotland , where he qualified as an optician.Following that he returned to
Dublin where, in his spare time, he took part in amateur dramatics. In 1927 he took to the stage full time.He formed a partnership with Harry O'Donovan. Together they created O'Dea's most famous character - 'Biddy Mulligan'. The character Biddy Mulligan is referenced in many Dublin music hall songs such as '
Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe ', 'Daffy the Belle of the Coombe', and 'The Charladies' Ball '.O'Dea had a successful career in pantomime and he toured
Ireland andEngland many times. He made a small number of film appearances such as "Darby O'Gill and the Little People " (1959) in which he played King Brian of the little people and "Johnny Nobody " (1961). His songs are still well known to this day, some of them having been sung and recorded by singerFrank Harte .Jimmy O'Dea died at
Dr Steevens' Hospital at the age of 65.References
External links
*imdb name|id=0640618|name=Jimmy O'Dea
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