Sam McCready (actor)

Sam McCready (22 November 1936[1] – 10 February 2019)[2] was an actor, theatre director and playwright who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

[3] One of 13 children of David and Sarah McCready, he lived in Northern Ireland and in the United States with his wife Joan Carslake whom he met in 1958 at Stranmillis College, Belfast, and married in 1962.

After completing his Senior Certificate, he accepted a post as Permanent Clerk, Northern Ireland Civil Service, Family Allowances Branch (1954–1956).

An invitation to direct in New York brought him to the US, where he was appointed Professor of Theatre, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a position he held with distinction until his retirement from full-time teaching in 2001.

The plays he directed include A Time to Speak, a dramatisation of the Holocaust memoir by Helen Lewis, which was performed at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.