Glen Hansard Dies in Dublin at 56

Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard died this morning in Dublin after a single-vehicle motorcycle accident. He was 56.

Hansard co-founded the Frames in 1990 and built a career on the immediacy of busking—an ethos crystallized worldwide by the 2007 film Once. His song “Falling Slowly” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song; the stage adaptation earned eight Tony Awards. He also fronted the Swell Season, the duo formed with co-star Markéta Irglová.

Remembrances emphasized his presence and lack of artifice. U2’s Bono, recalling Hansard’s insistence on staging the annual Christmas Eve busk on Grafton Street even as crowds grew, said: “A performer at eye level in any situation… the street was his most favored place to perform.” For Bono, Hansard will remain “everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.” Bruce Springsteen described him as a “generous and gracious man,” while longtime Frames collaborator Colm Mac Con Iomaire called him “a troubadour from a different time.” FINNEAS noted that “Falling Slowly” was the first song he ever performed on stage, at 11.

Hansard is survived by his partner Maire Saaritsa and their three-year-old son, Christy.