He has received attention for his stagework, but is best known to Irish television audiences as the Reverend George Black in the long-running series Glenroe for RTÉ, and as Barreller Casey in the sitcom Upwardly Mobile.
[1] Referred to as one of "Ireland’s foremost acting talents" by the Roscommon Herald, Oates' career has spanned over twenty years onstage, in radio, television and film.
[1] In 1990, he had a minor role in the Pat O'Connor-directed film Fools of Fortune,[3] about a Protestant family caught up in a conflict between Irish republicans and the British Army during the Troubles.
In 1994, Oates played the role of "The Garda" opposite Albert Finney and Michael Gambon in A Man of No Importance,[4] a film which dealt with themes of homosexuality.
Directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan, the film is loosely based on the story of Martin Cahill, a famous Irish crime boss and featured Oates; the cast included Kevin Spacey, Helen Baxendale and Colin Farrell.
He shrugs aside servility to present a strong character in revolt against a lifetime..."[13] As reported in Roscommon Herald, "An Irish Times theatre critic described his performance as riveting and one which was maintained to the end.
"[1] Of his work in Zinnie Harris's Further than the Furthest Thing (2008), Sophie Gorman of The Irish Independent wrote, "Enda Oates as the laconic island patriarch radiates suppressed force of character".
[14] Donegal News reported Alan Stanford producing Macbeth again in 2008, with "a large cast of sixteen, some of whom are returning to their original parts, most notably Enda Oates, as MacDuff..."[15] The Irish Independent, while noting the violence of gore inherent in the Shakespeare play, found "the production is nonetheless strangely bloodless and passionless" due to a "very odd interpretation of the central role by [thespian] David Shannon".