Born March 9th, 1947
Died August 1st, 2025
Frank Grimes, who has died aged 78, was an accomplished Irish actor who starred alongside some of the most illustrious names in cinema, became a staple on ITV’s Coronation Street and was well known to several of London’s West End theatres, including the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court.
His early training was via the Abbey Theatre in Dublin but the lure of a larger setting for his talents soon proved irresistible. He was a Tony Award nominee for best actor for his 1970 role in Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy on Broadway in New York.
Later in his career, he appeared in Brendan O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys, numerous other British’s soaps and, long before that, in RTÉ’s celebrated adaptation of Strumpet City, James Plunkett’s novel set in Dublin’s 1913 lockout, for which he won a Jacob’s Award.
He also read novels for audio consumption. Commenting on his death, the novelist Carmel Harrington said: “I know many know him from stage and from Coronation Street, but to me he’ll always be Tom O’Grady, from my novel A Thousand Roads Home. His narration on the audio edition is wonderful. His powerful and emotive performance brought Tom’s character to life.”
He was a stalwart of London’s Irish Cultural Centre. “Frank was undoubtedly one of Ireland’s greatest actors,” the centre wrote in a statement at the announcement of his death. “He was a dearly loved friend of the ICC’s and over the past three decades, he trod the ICC’s stage on so many occasions.
“Anyone who saw Frank perform his riveting self-penned production, The He and The She of It, a portrait of James Joyce, will know what a thrilling, powerful, unforgettable performance it was.”
Apart from the Tony nomination, he was voted most promising actor by the New York critics
Frank (Francis Patrick) Grimes was born in Cabra, Dublin. He was the youngest of seven children born to Evelyn (nee Manscier) and Joseph Grimes, a train driver. He went to a Christian Brothers school, St Declan’s, where he was notably good at both basketball and mathematics.
Inspired by a teacher’s enthusiasm for Shakespeare, it was the stage that attracted him, and he joined the Abbey School of Acting. Two years after appearing as an Abbey Player, he announced his arrival with a notable performance in The Invincibles, Frank O’Connor’s play about the 1882 assassination of Britain’s chief secretary of Ireland and his deputy.
Grimes, then just 19, played the part of Timothy Kelly, a role hitherto the preserve of Cyril Cusack. The play ran for just three nights but it helped land him the Behan part, which launched him internationally.
Playing the young Brendan Behan in the Tomás Mac Anna-directed Borstal Boy (1967) and opposite Niall Toibin’s elder Behan, his performance won plaudits in Dublin, Paris and then, in 1970, in New York.
Apart from the Tony nomination, he was voted most promising actor by the New York critics, a 20-strong group not known for handing out plaudits lightly.
Grimes had a long collaboration with the film and theatre director Lindsay Anderson, who became his mentor when the actor moved to London in the 1970s. He was in two plays at the Royal Court, The Farm and Life Class, in 1973 and 1974 respectively. In 1973 he played a young Sean O’Casey in an RTÉ docudrama, by John Arden and Margaretta D’Arcy, and appeared in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Between 2008 and 2015, he appeared in 55 episodes of Coronation Street
He played Hamlet in Anderson’s 1981 production at the Theatre Royal and, while there were further theatrical collaborations with Anderson, Grimes had by now developed a profile, albeit somewhat limited, as a film actor.
Roles included Major Fuller in director Richard Attenborough’s screen version of Cornelius Ryan’s epic second World War novel, A Bridge Too Far, a supporting role alongside Dirk Bogarde, Ryan O’Neill, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Edward Fox and Anthony Hopkins.
Other film roles included in Anderson’s The Whales of August (1987), starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as two elderly sisters on the Maine coast; and in Britannia Hospital (1982), the third of Anderson’s Mick Travis trilogy; as well as in When the Sky Falls, and War of the Buttons.
Other film and TV credits include Tulips of Harlem, and The Outsider. He played Father O’Connor in Strumpet City. He played in other RTÉ productions, notable in The Rebel (1973), King Lear (1972), The Girl from Mayo (1968), and The Lambs (1967). He was in Kavanagh QC and Blind Justice, for which he was awarded the Silver Nymph for best actor.
In 1984 he played the Edinburgh Fringe, starring as Christy Mahon in Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, directed by Anderson. He wrote several plays himself, including The Fishing Trip, and Wake n See.
He appeared in Mrs Brown’s Boys and in recent years, was perhaps best known, as least in the UK, for his TV soap roles. These included the unpredictable Barry Connor on Coronation Street. Between 2008 and 2015, he appeared in 55 episodes, with his wife, Helen, played in the first season by Sorcha Cusack and in later episodes by Dearbhla Molloy.
He also appeared in episodes of Casualty, The Bill, and Doctors.
The Abbey said it was “saddened” to learn of his death, describing him as “a versatile actor, [who] performed in various productions on both the Abbey and Peacock stages from 1965 to 1972, including plays by Sean O’Casey, Lady Gregory, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Kilroy, JM Synge, William Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw and Tom MacIntyre”.
Frank Grimes married the actor Michele Lohan in 1968, and they had two sons, David and Andrew. After he and Michele divorced, he married the actor and art teacher Ginnette Clarke in 1984. They lived in New York from 1982 to 1987, after which they settled in Barnes, west London.
His son David died in 2011. Grimes is survived by Ginnette and their daughter, Tilly; Andrew; and by seven grandchildren, Emily, Hedy, Martha, Reuben, Toby, Monti and Oskar; and two siblings, Eva and Laura.