Tom Hickey
Acting
Biography
Tom Hickey (1944 – May 1, 2021) was an Irish actor who appeared on stage and screen in a career that began in the early 1960s. He was best known for playing Benjy Riordan in the long-running television series, The Riordans.
Born: January 1, 1944
Place of Birth: Kildare, County Kildare, Ireland
Known For
Family
This four-part made-for-TV drama focuses up close on a Dublin couple with four children. Charlo is a hustler, a head-first footballer, a thief, abusive. Paula drinks, objects to Charlie's thievery and adultery without the will to chuck him out. John Paul worships his father who's initiating him into the world of beer and football but recoils at Charlo's treatment of mum; asthma and misbehavior at school follow. Daughter Nicola is a young woman, starting work in a garment factory. When Charlo begins to stare at her, she's frightened and Paula's furious.
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
Inside I'm Dancing
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Breakfast on Pluto
In the 1970s, a young transgender woman called “Kitten” leaves her small Irish town for London in search of love, acceptance, and her long-lost mother.
Before I Sleep
"Before I Sleep" is one man's odyssey through Dublin city. It is a crowded hectic film, unmistakably Dublin, yet with one constant character - John Harte, a recently unemployed middle class man in a state of quiet anxiety.
Raining Stones
Proud, though poor, Bob wants his little girl to have a beautiful (and costly) brand-new dress for her First Communion. His stubbornness and determination get him into trouble as he turns to more and more questionable measures, in his desperation to raise the needed money. This tragic flaw leads him to risk all that he loves and values, his beloved family, indeed even his immortal soul and salvation, in blind pursuit of that goal.
The Butcher Boy
Francie and Joe live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When Francie's world turns to madness, he tries to counter it with further insanity, with dire consequences.
Garage
Due to a learning disability, Josie's life in a tiny town revolves around a menial job taking care of a garage that could close at any day. Things start to change, however, when David, the son of his boss' girlfriend, comes to work with him. Josie hangs out with David and his teenage friends, bringing them beer, and despite being a grown man himself, finds that the new company lifts his spirits. But his simple-mindedness blinds him to some potential legal dangers.
An Awfully Big Adventure
Liverpool. 1947. Right after World War II, a star struck naive teenage girl joins a shabby theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of Peter Pan, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue and learns about the grown-up world of the theater.
Stella Days
A priest stationed in Tipperary, Ireland, is eager to return to Rome. Told he cannot do so until he has raised enough money for the building of a new church, he decides to open a cinema in the local town.
Filmography
as Priest
as Bishop Hegarty
as Frank
as Mr Skerrit
as Bishop
as Con O'Shea
as Blackadder
as Mr. Hayes
as O'Brien
as Gardener
as Mr Costello
as Freddie Reynalde
as Professor Maclure
as Dean
as Father Barry
as Blossom
as Blossom
as Eamonn Duggan
as Tommy
as Father Kilgarrif
as Father Seamus
as Sampson
as Tour Guide
as Preacher
as Peter O'Reilly
as Pub manager
as (uncredited)
as Pat Flynn