Emmy Award-winning actress Fionnula Flanagan was born on December 10, 1941 in Dublin, Ireland. Fluent in both Irish and English, she studied both in England and Switzerland, and eventually trained with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. She rose to prominence in her home country after her performance in the television play An Triail, for which she won a Jacob’s Award in 1965. She further gained recognition for her performance in the film Ulysses, which premiered in 1967.
Flanagan then moved to the United States, and further established her name on Broadway. After making her debut in a production of Lovers in 1968, she appeared in several adaptations of James Joyce’s works—Ulysses in Nighttown, where she earned a Tony nomination, and the one-woman show James Joyce’s Women, which eventually earned her Critic’s Circle Awards in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and was turned into a film in 1988. She also established her name in television, appearing in several television movies, and eventually winning an Emmy for her role in the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man.
Flanagan soon also appeared in several weekly programs, most notably How The West Was Won in 1977, which earned her another Emmy nomination. She appeared in three Star Trek programs as a guest: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. She had roles in acclaimed miniseries such as the Emmy-nominated Revelations. Most recently, she took a major role in the drama series Brotherhood, playing Rose Caffee, the highly manipulative mother of the Caffee brothers (Jason Isaacs and Jason Clarke).
Flanagan also has an established film career, although it’s only more recently when she was her work became well-known. Her films include A State of Emergency, Mad at the Moon, Waking Ned, With or Without You, The Others, Transamerica, Four Brothers and Slipstream.