Daragh O'Malley

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Daragh O'Malley
Born May 25, 1954 (1954-05-25) (age 55)
Dublin, Ireland
Occupation actor

Daragh O'Malley (b. 25 May 1954 in Dublin, Ireland) is a film, theatre and television actor.

Having appeared in everthing from Crossroads to The Magnificent Seven and Cleopatra O'Malley is probably best known as the actor who plays the ever faithful but fearsome Patrick Harper in the hugely popular and now legendary Sharpe TV series with Sean Bean which has been running on ITV and in 120 countries worldwide since 1992.

Raised in Limerick, a city in south-west Ireland,the 6'3" O'Malley was educated by The Jesuits and Carmelite monks and went on to study drama at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art where one of his fellow students was Amy Irving and records show that she once played Antigone to O'Malley's Creon in a production of Antigone.

In the 90's O'Malley was cast as Debra Winger's husband in the ill fated Irish feature Divine Rapture which starred Marlon Brando, Winger, O'Malley, John Hurt and Johnny Depp but the project collapsed after four weeks filming when the Los Angeles production company Orion suddenly went bust. O'Malley, who lived in Los Angeles for many years, remained a very close friend of Brando's following the Divine Rapture debacle and the two were working on a film production of The Merchant of Venice - with Brando due to play Shylock - when the screen legend died.

O'Malley's production company produced the Irish version of The Rocky Horror Show in Dublin in the early 90's and the show won a slew of awards. Author Richard O'Brien described the Irish production as "the sexiest version ever produced" The show had a lot of the cast of The Commitments and was bought out one night by Tom Cruise as the wrap party venue for the cast and crew of the movie Far and Awaywhich was filming in Ireland at the time.


O'Malley's father, Donogh O'Malley, was a very significant Irish politician who served as his country's Minister for Education, introducing a Free Secondary and Third Level education system in Ireland which is credited with the subsequent massive upsurge in the Irish economy. Donough O'Malley was once engaged to actor Richard Harris's sister, Audrey, but she died during the engagement at 21. Donough O'Malley died of a heart attack aged 47. Harris and Daragh were often spotted at Dingle Races together and drinking in various hostelries around Co.Kerry and Kilkee,Co. Clare in Ireland, and in The Coach and Horses and The Coal Hole in London's West End.

O'Malley's mother, Hilda, a doctor from Dingle Co. Kerry, was the subject of Patrick Kavanagh's extraordinary love poem "On Raglan Road"

In Los Angeles O'Malley won a Drama Logue Best Actor Award for his 1998 performance as "Sweeney" in Patrick Marber's Dealers Choice Mark Taper Forum

O'Malley's Auntie Meave - his father's sister - was singer Dido's grandmother.

O'Malley is Chief Executive of The Sharpe's Children Foundation (www.sharpeschildren.com),a charity set up and designed to petition for universal primary education and take children out of the gutters of the developing world and educate them, and a Director of Flood Street Films. (www.floodstreetfilms.com), which develops an array of film and television projects.

Daragh is married to Gabrielle since 1992

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External links

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