Background and career
Glen James Hansard (21 April 1970 – 29 July 2026) was an Irish musician. From Ballymun in northern Dublin, he busked from his teens. In 1990, he co-founded the Irish rock band the Frames, which he fronted. The band released six studio albums, four of which reached the top ten of the Irish Albums Chart. Hansard was also a member of the folk rock duo the Swell Season, founded in 2005, which released three albums. In 2012, he released his debut solo album, Rhythm and Repose. His second album, Didn't He Ramble (2015), was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. Primarily a musician, Hansard also acted and wrote music for film. He appeared in the BAFTA-winning comedy-drama The Commitments (1991) and the Golden Globe–nominated romantic drama Cyrano (2021). Hansard starred in the musical drama Once (2007), which earned awards including the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly", with Markéta Irglová. It was adapted into the stage musical Once. Hansard married Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa in 2022; they had a son the same year, and lived in Celbridge near Dublin and in Helsinki. He died in a motorcycle accident at the Strawberry Beds on the outskirts of Dublin in July 2026 at the age of 56. Tributes were paid from the arts and political worlds, and a public wake was followed by a funeral at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
Glen James Hansard was born on 21 April 1970 in Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland, the second of six children of James and Catherine Hansard (née Cahill). His father was a carpenter and a skilled fiddle player who performed with travelling showbands across Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s, but he also drank heavily and could be violent. Hansard chose the confirmation name Angus for himself, after Angus Young. He acquired a guitar from an uncle who was in prison, and taught himself to play. His family later moved to another Northside, Dublin suburb, Killester. He had his primary education at Our Lady of Victories national school in Ballymun, and began secondary education at Ballymun Comprehensive School. He left school at 13 to start busking on local Dublin streets after his headmaster told him that, while he might not become a rock star, if he stuck at it he would "likely make a living from it".
Hansard formed his own band, the Frames, in 1990 and the group played regularly in Ireland. He came to international attention as guitar player Outspan Foster in the 1991 Alan Parker film The Commitments, which was shot on location in Dublin and won four Bafta awards. He said that while he enjoyed the role, the fame "did a number" on him and some of his co-stars. In 2003, he presented the television programme Other Voices: Songs from a Room, which showcased Irish music talent on RTÉ. In 2006, he released his first album without the Frames, The Swell Season, on Overcoat Recordings, in collaboration with the Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Markéta Irglová, Marja Tuhkanen from Finland on violin and viola, and Bertrand Galen from France on cello. Hansard was one of the stars of the Irish music‑drama film Once (2007), alongside Irglová; the pair also wrote original music for the film. The film had its United States premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and received the festival's World Cinema Audience Award. Hansard and Irglová's song "Falling Slowly" won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the soundtrack received a Grammy Award nomination. Hansard said that far from being "full of light" after winning the award, he "went quite dark [and was] drinking too much". Bruce Springsteen told him he was no longer "the guy struggling against the world" and he should "embrace it and enjoy it."
Aside from his projects with the Frames and Irglová, Hansard took part as a member of the band on the 2006 Oxfam charity album The Cake Sale. He recorded several cover songs, both alone and with band member Colm Mac Con Iomaire, for the Today FM discs Even Better than the Real Thing. Songs that he recorded include Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" on Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 1 and Britney Spears's "Everytime" on Vol. 2.
Hansard recorded a version of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" for the film I'm Not There in 2007. In 2009, he said that he and Irglová were no longer romantically linked, and that they were now "good friends". He voiced a role in the episode ("In the Name of the Grandfather") of The Simpsons, as an Irish busker. A new album of original songs recorded as the Swell Season with Irglová, Strict Joy, was released on 27 October 2009 on the ANTI- record label. In the summer of 2011, he joined Eddie Vedder on his American solo tour in support of Vedder's solo album Ukulele Songs. He played a solo concert at the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Guitar Heroes exhibit in New York City in May 2011 and at the Cape Cinema on Cape Cod on 17 June. In September 2011, he played at Pearl Jam's 20th anniversary festival, "PJ20", at the Alpine Valley Theatre outside East Troy, Wisconsin. Hansard played several guitars including a recognisable battered Takamine NP15 acoustic guitar which he called "The Horse". In a November 2011 interview in The Huffington Post with Irglová, it was revealed that Hansard was preparing a solo album and that a third release from The Swell Season was possible. This solo album was later revealed to be titled Rhythm and Repose.American Songwriter included Hansard's "Love Don't Leave Me Waiting" on its The Muse July Sampler. Another song of his featured in a film soundtrack is "This Gift", which appears in The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Hansard sang "Take the Heartland" on the soundtrack for the 2012 film The Hunger Games. Another song he wrote, "Come Away to the Water", is featured on the soundtrack, but is covered by Maroon 5 and Rozzi Crane. Hansard can be found singing "Come Away to the Water" on the deluxe edition of Rhythm and Repose. He guest-starred in an episode of the TV series Parenthood, playing himself. In the episode "Trouble in Candyland", he performed "High Hope", a single from Rhythm and Repose. In 2015, Hansard and Lisa Hannigan recorded "On Love" for the soundtrack of the 2014 film Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Hansard sang Coyote at the Joni Mitchell 75th birthday concert Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration in Los Angeles in November 2018. In October 2022, Hansard recorded "Take Heart", featuring Irglová, and Ukrainian refugees, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In July 2013, he sang with Bruce Springsteen at Nowlan Park, Kilkenny, Ireland. In July 2015, Hansard performed several Irish classics with Ed Sheeran in Croke Park, Dublin. In 2022, Hansard toured with Eddie Vedder.
