Tony Guilfoyle


Tony Guilfoyle is an Irish actor. He was born in County Wicklow, Ireland. He was educated at the Drama Centre from 1970–73. He is best known for his recurring role as the accident-prone Father Larry Duff in the TV comedy Father Ted. In theatre, he is better known for his long collaboration with Quebecois theatre director Robert Lepage and the latter's production company Ex Machina. Included in this association are a staging of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder at the Lincoln Center and world tour; The Geometry Of Miracles performed at the Royal National Theatre and worldwide; The Dragons' Trilogy performed at the Barbican Theatre in London and internationally; and their latest collaboration Playing Cards: SPADES, the first in a planned tetralogy covering the four suits of deck of playing cards, which played at the Roundhouse in London and internationally. His other theatre credits are numerous and varied, from Shopping and F**king at the Royal Court Theatre in the West End to The Iceman Cometh at the Almeida Theatre in London with Kevin Spacey to Hanif Kureshi's play Outskirts with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Donmar Warehouse in London.
In cinema, he played the lead Rory in The Return for Film Four and the Magistrate in The Murder of Stephen Lawrence, written and directed by the celebrated Paul Greengrass. On TV—in addition to playing Father Larry Duff on Father Ted—he starred in the HBO/BBC historical drama Rome, playing the Egyptian eunuch and pharaoh's aide, Pothinus. His other TV credits include a role in a 1985 episode of Juliet Bravo as unhinged hostage taker Moll Kelly and brief roles in The Musketeers, Merlin, The Virgin Queen, Fanny Hill, and Bleak House. In 2016, he appeared in the Netflix series The Crown as the Bishop of Durham. In October 2019, he appeared in an episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors as Jack Dacre.