Glen Hansard, who has died aged 56 in a motorcycle accident, was one of Dublin’s musical heroes – a one-time busker who became an Oscar-winning international star, successful both as a singer-songwriter and as an actor.
He had already built up a local reputation busking regularly on Grafton Street, Dublin, when he decided to form a band, the Frames, along with other musicians he had befriended on the streets.
In the early days of the band he had a call from the film director Alan Parker, asking him to play the guitarist Outspan Foster in the 1991 film version of Roddy Doyle’s book The Commitments, the story of a young unemployed Dublin music fan who starts a soul band. With his shock of curly red hair, Hansard was the ideal choice to play the laid-back guitarist – after all, he had lived the role himself. But the filming process was not easy for someone who put his real band first – there was conflict with Parker when Hansard insisted on rescheduling filming so he could perform at a Frames gig.
The film was nevertheless a big hit and Hansard seemed assured of stardom – especially as the band had been signed to Island Records. But it did not immediately work out. Their debut album, Another Love Song (1991), reached only No 77 in the Irish charts, and the label dropped them. But the Frames kept going, playing regularly at the Dublin venue Whelan’s, and began to build a strong following. Their second album, Fitzcarraldo (1995), released on ZTT, reached No 26, helped by the anguished lead single Revelate.
From then on, the Frames became an Irish success story. Their fourth album, For The Birds (2001), reached No 6 in the Irish charts, while Burn The Maps (2004) went to No 1. The band kept going – their seventh and final album, Longitude, was released in 2015 – but Hansard now had other interests.
He had begun working with the Czech-Icelandic pianist and singer Markéta Irglová in a duo, The Swell Season, whose self-titled debut album was released in 2006. They were approached by the director John Carney, who had played bass for the Frames until 1993 and directed some of their videos, to star in his feature film Once, playing struggling musicians who fall in love. They agreed, and also provided the soundtrack for what became a widely successful film, though it had been shot on a shoestring budget. The poignant Falling Slowly won the Oscar for best original song in 2008, and their music would later feature in a Broadway adaptation of the film.
Hansard and Irglová became romantic partners on and off the screen, continuing to work together once the relationship had ended. They toured together and released two more albums, Strict Joy (2009) and Forward (2025).
In his later years, Hansard concentrated mostly on his solo career, which began with the album Rhythm and Repose (2012). His second solo set, the gently reflective folk-rock album Didn’t He Ramble (2015), was nominated for a Grammy, as best folk album, the following year. He followed up with Between Two Shores (2018), This Wild Willing (2019) and All That Was East Is West of Me Now (2023). His last release, Don+t Settle, was a two-volume live set in which he revisited songs from throughout his career, backed by his band.
Despite his success, Hansard never forgot his early roots. From 2010 on, he returned to busking in Dublin every Christmas Eve, for what became the Big Busk event outside the Gaiety theatre, near where he once used to sing on Grafton Street. But he was now busking in aid of the Simon Community, a charity that helps the homeless, and the event became an annual fixture that attracted other leading Irish musicians, including Bono, Damien Dempsey and Imelda May. As an activist concerned with homelessness, Hansard joined protesters occupying Apollo House, a vacant building in the centre of Dublin in 2016, to draw attention to the problem in the city.
In December 2023 he was one of the celebrities who performed at the funeral of the Pogues’ singer Shane MacGowan, and was joined by Lisa O’Neill to sing MacGowan’s best-known song, Fairytale of New York.
He made his final London appearance at the Roundhouse in May, on the last night of a UK and European tour. An often intense, bearded figure, he began with the Frames’ Revelate, and moved on to songs from his solo albums, including Didn’t He Ramble, Grace Beneath the Pines, and – of course – the Swell Season’s Oscar-winning Falling Slowly.
Born in Ballymun, a suburb on the north side of Dublin, Glen was one of six children of Catherine (nee Cahill) and James Hansard, a carpenter and talented fiddle player who toured Ireland with showbands in the 1930s and 40s, but was also a heavy drinker, prone to occasional violence. Hansard attended Our Lady of Victories national school in Ballymun, but became more interested in music than schoolwork. He acquired a guitar from an uncle who had been sent to prison, and taught himself songs by Dylan and Van Morrison.
When he was in his early teens he quit school on the advice of a teacher, who suggested he should become a busker – an unusual career path that the young Hansard followed with relish. He said that busking was a “great leveller”, and that “the busking education sits at the core of everything I’ve done since”.
He played at a trad session at the Wren’s Nest pub, in west Dublin, just hours before he died in a single-vehicle crash.
He is survived by his wife, Maire Saaritsa, a Finnish poet whom he married in 2022, their son, Christy, and by three brothers.
• Glen James Hansard, singer-songwriter, musician and actor, born 21 April 1970; died 29 July 2026
