Michael MacLiammoir Gay Icon and actor

Michael Macliammoir with his partner and live in companion, Hilton Edwards, were highly important figures in the history of Irish Theatre in the earlier 20^th Century.

The 2 men lived together as a gay couple, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in both Britain and Ireland.  Like many men of that era, they were open about their sexuality but in such a way that did not impinge on more conservative people, so most tolerated them as a couple.  They were popular figures and their talent and charm helped to make their sexuality less of an issue than it might have been.

They were playwrights, actors and directors and Michael was a fluent Irish speaker who wrote several volumes of diaries in the Irish Language which were translated into English and published.  They founded the Gate theatre in Dublin which attempted to bring foreign and avante garde theatre to the Irish people, while the Abbey Theatre promoted Irish works.

MacLiammoir claimed that he had been born in Ireland but that his family had then moved to England.  However, he was born Alfred Wilmore in the London suburb of Kensal Green, in 1899.  His family were English, middle class and he had no Irish connexions at all.  As a boy he became a theatre actor and worked with Noel Coward.

 He was interested in the arts and in writing, as well as acting, and as he grew older, he became aware of his sexuality.  As a young man, he became interested in the Celtic Literary Revival, which had been popularised by Yeats and other Irish writers.  He learned to speak and write Irish, and studied Irish literature.   He changed his name to “Michael” and translated his surname “Willmore” to MacLiammoir, a roughly Irish equivalent.  Many believed that he had been born to an Irish family living in London…

He moved to Ireland during the war years, partly to avoid conscription, and had formed a close loving relationship with a young woman which was platonic.  She later died of consumption.

He and Hilton formed a partnership in the 1920’s and lived together, working for the theatre.   He worked with Orson Welles, who also started his theatrical career in the Gate, and later Michael played Iago in Welles’ film “Othello”.

His acting style was very theatrical and might be considered “hammy” by today’s standards, and he continued to play “young man” parts even when he was well into middle age.  He was however talented and greatly beloved in the world of theatre and in Dublin.   He became almost blind in later years.  He died in 1978 and Hilton died a few years later.