Arthur Shields

Arthur Shields (15 February, 1896 - 27 April, 1970) was an Irish stage and film actor.

Born into an Irish Protestant family in Portobello, Dublin, he started acting in the Abbey Theatre when still a young man. He was also an Irish Nationalist and fought in the Easter Uprising of 1916. He was captured and was incarcerated in an internment camp in North Wales.^[1]

Birthplace of Arthur Shields on Walworth Road, Portobello

He afterwards returned to the Abbey theatre. In 1936 John Ford brought him to the United States to act in a film version of The Plough and the Stars. He later returned to the US and for the good of his health decided to reside in California. He died at his home in Santa Barbara, California.^[1]

Some of his memorable roles were as the Reverend Playfair in Ford's The Quiet Man opposite John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and his brother, Barry Fitzgerald, as Dr. Laughlin in Ford's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with Wayne, and again with his brother and John Wayne in John Ford's Long Voyage Home. He appeared as Fogarty in Little Nellie Kelly opposite Judy Garland and George Murphy. Other films in which he had a supporting role include The Keys of the Kingdom, The Fabulous Dorseys, Fighting Father Dunne, Gallant Journey, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Drums Along the Mohawk with Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, Lady Godiva with Maureen O'Hara and National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney. He also played a memorable supporting role, as a widower living in India, in Jean Renoir's The River.

Shields was the younger brother of Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald.

External links

• Arthur Shields at the Internet Movie Database

References