Hilton Edwards

[2] As an actor he played leading parts, including the title roles in Peer Gynt, Cyrano de Bergerac and Macbeth and Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner.The company played for two seasons at the Peacock Theatre and then on Christmas Eve 1929, in Groome’s Hotel, the lease was signed for the 18th Century Rotunda Annex –– the 'Upper Concert Hall', the Gate's present home, with Goethe's Faust opening on 17 February 1930.In 1961, he took a two-year break from theatre to become the first Head of Drama at Telefís Éireann, Ireland's national broadcaster and, a year later, he won a Jacob's Award for his television series, Self Portrait.[6] They were, however, prominent features on the Dublin social scene and as Walshe notes elsewhere "MacLiammóir and his partner Edwards survived, and even flourished, as Ireland's only visible gay couple".[7] Walshe goes on to say that "when MacLiammóir died in 1978, the president of Ireland attended his funeral, as did the taoiseach and several government ministers, while Hilton Edwards was openly deferred to and sympathised [with] as chief mourner".