Joseph O'Conor

Joseph O'Conor was an Irish actor and playwright born in Dublin in 1916. He began on stage in 1939 in Julius Caesar at the Embassy Theatre, and after returning to the theater in 1946 he worked across London, often in Shakespeare. Under Donald Wolfit he alternated Iago and Othello in Othello (1949) and took the title part in Hamlet (1949). He appeared at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1954), then spent three seasons at the Bristol Old Vic, playing Higgins in Pygmalion and the role of Undershaft in Major Barbara. On television he was Old Jolyon Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga (1967), while his film roles included Mr Brownlow in Oliver! (1968), the narrator and voice of the urSkeks in The Dark Crystal (1982), the Bishop of Oxford in Tom & Viv (1994) and Mr. Nancarrow in the film The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998). He also directed and wrote six plays.