Background
DOWLING, Vincent was born on September 7, 1929 in Dublin. Son of Mai Kelly Dowling and William Dowling.
Actor director producer and playwright
DOWLING, Vincent was born on September 7, 1929 in Dublin. Son of Mai Kelly Dowling and William Dowling.
Saint Mary's College, Rathmines, Dublin, Brendan Smith Academy, of Acting.
He is the father of actress Bairbre Dowling, and the former father-in-law of Irish actor, Colm Meaney. 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 Public Broadcasting Service 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 1985-1986 academic year. Dowling"s first autobiographical book is Astride the Moon: A Theatrical Life, (Wolfhound Press, 2000).
Dowling"s papers, from 1976 onward, are housed at the Kent State University and John Carroll University libraries.
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.
Married Olwen Patricia O’Herlihy in 1975.