Vincent Gerard Dowling (7 September 1929 - 9 May 2013) was an Irish actor and director.

He was married to the late Irish actress, Brenda Doyle (who died in a car crash in 1981). He was the father of actress Bairbre Dowling, and for a time was the father-in-law of Irish actor, Colm Meaney. In May 2013, the politician and TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, revealed that Dowling was his biological father, as a result of a relationship with actress Sinéad Cusack in 1967.

Dowling first came to prominence in Ireland in the 1950s for his role as Christy Kennedy in the long-running radio soap opera, The Kennedys of Castleross and as a member of the Abbey Theatre company. He served as Artistic and Producing Director of The Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival (now the Great Lakes Theater Festival) in Cleveland, Ohio from 1976 to 1984. During his tenure at GLSF, he directed, produced and acted in many classical works, by Shakespeare and others. He is credited with discovering award-winning actor Tom Hanks.

Dowling founded the Miniature Theatre of Chester (now the Chester Theatre Company), in Chester, Massachusetts, in 1990.

Dowling received an Emmy for producing and directing the PBS film The Playboy of the Western World, based on John Millington Synge's 1907 play of the same name.

Dowling was the J. Garber Drushal Distinguished Visiting Professor at The College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio, during the 1985-86 academic year.

Dowling's first autobiographical book is Astride the Moon: A Theatrical Life, ISBN 0-86327-828-0 (Wolfhound Press, 2000).

He resided in Massachusetts with his second wife, Olwen O'Herlihy, until his death.

Dowling's papers, from 1976 onward, are housed at the Kent State University and John Carroll University libraries.

Selected filmography

• My Wife's Lodger (1952)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]