Glen Hansard Dies at 56 in Motorcycle Crash — SkimNews
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- Glen Hansard died in a motorcycle crash in Lucan, on the outskirts of Dublin, early Wednesday morning; Irish police said he was treated at the scene but died a short time later, with an active Garda investigation under way.
- Hansard won the Academy Award for best original song for "Falling Slowly" from the 2007 film Once, co-written with and shared with Markéta Irglová, who also starred opposite him as two Dublin musicians in a tentative romance.
- The Frames, the band Hansard fronted from his late teens and named after the bicycle frames he collected, released six studio albums including 2004 Irish No. 1 Burn the Maps and 2006's The Cost, which featured the Falling Slowly duet.
- Once grossed more than $20m worldwide on a low budget, and its 2012 Broadway stage adaptation won eight of 11 Tony nominations before running in Dublin, London's West End and globe-spanning revivals.
- Tributes poured in from Bono ("angelic presence"), Bruce Springsteen ("great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man"), Warren Ellis, the Mountain Goats, and Ireland's culture minister Patrick O'Donovan.
- Hansard is survived by his wife, Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, and their three-year-old son Christy; each year he returned to busking on Dublin's Grafton Street to raise money for the city's homeless.
Why it matters: Hansard's death at 56 cuts short the career of an artist whose work bridged Irish folk-rock, indie cinema and Broadway — Once's eight-Tony-winning stage run ensured his songs will outlive him, while the Frames' two-decade catalogue and his annual Grafton Street busking for the homeless cemented his reputation as a working musician, not just an awards figure.
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