Anna Manahan was born in Waterford on 18 October 1924. After early success with her native Waterford Dramatic Society, Anna Manahan enrolled in the Gaiety School of Acting, run by Ria Mooney in 1944. Her first professional job was with Shelagh Ward’s fit up company, and throughout the late 1940’s and 1950’s, she worked as a freelance actor in many of Dublin’s theatres. In 1955, she married stage director and actor Colm O’Kelly. He died less than a year later whilst they were both on tour in Egypt with the Gate Theatre Company. Anna went on stage that same night dedicating her performance to her husband.
She never remarried. In 1957, she came to national prominence for her critically acclaimed role of Serafina in the first Irish production of Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo in 1957. The production achieved unexpected notoriety when the cast were falsely accused of using a condom, then illegal in Ireland, on stage. Rarely at rest, during her 60- year career Anna play at theatres throughout Ireland, Europe, the USA and Australia. She received a Tony Award nomination in 1969 for her role in the Broadway production of Brian's Friel's Lovers. Returning to Broadway 30 years later, she won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for her portrayal of doomed mother "Mag" in Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
Playwright John B. Keane wrote the play Big Maggie specifically for her and in her last stage role in 2005, she starred in Sisters, written for her by Declan Hassett. Her roles in television included The Riordans, as Mrs. Kenefick in Me Mammy, the lead in Leave it to Mrs O'Brien and as Mrs. Cadogan in The Irish R.M., and Ursula on Fair City. She also appeared in such films as Ulysses, The Viking Queen and Clash of the Titans.
Among the honors Anna Manahan received during her lifetime was the Gold Medal of the Éire Society of Boston in 1984, the Freedom of Waterford City in 2002, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Limerick in 2003. She became the first Patron of Active Retirement Ireland, in 2008, after she spoke out strongly against government proposals to remove universal entitlement to medical cards for the over-70s.
She died on 8 March 2009.
Award winning actress Anna Manahan who passed away in 2009, had just four weeks prior to her death given an extensive interview for a nostalgic documentary on the Fit Ups, Ireland 's theatrica! touring shows between 1944 and 1960 being made by Nemeton students in Ring Co. Waterford.
The Fit Ups was the name given to the travelling road shows which toured the length and breadth of the country bringing entertainment and enjoyment into the lives of the people in those towns and villages where they performed in the years before and after World War 11. They performed in large tents or parish halls and their entertainment was of the highest standard with many of the actors gaining parts in television after the demise of the roadshows.
Life in the Fit Ups, she said, was tough but never dull as each member had to be actor, stagehand, scene painter etc. As Anna explains an actor would need to know about ten plays by heart at any one time as the shows changed every night for the duration of their stay in any village or town. She goes on to say that her time in the Fit Ups formed the basis for her acting career. The documentary includes interviews with many people who spent much of their lives on the road during these years.
