Pauline McLynn

Acting

Pauline McLynn

Born 1962-07-11 · Sligo, Republic of Ireland

Pauline McLynn (born 11 July 1962) is an Irish character actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Mrs. Doyle in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted, Libby Croker in the Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless, Tip Haddem in the BBC One comedy Jam & Jerusalem, and Yvonne Cotton in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Acting credits

Transformers: The Last Knight poster
6.1

Humans and Transformers are at war. Optimus Prime is gone. The key to saving our future lies buried in the secrets of the past, in the hidden history of Transformers on Earth. Saving our world falls upon the shoulders of an unlikely alliance: Cade Yeager; Bumblebee; an English Lord; and an Oxford Professor.

Transformers: The Last Knight

2017

Last Night in Soho poster
7.3

A young girl, passionate about fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to be falling apart with shady consequences.

Last Night in Soho

2021

Johnny English Strikes Again poster
6.3

Disaster strikes when a criminal mastermind reveals the identities of all active undercover agents in Britain. The secret service can now rely on only one man - Johnny English. Currently teaching at a minor prep school, Johnny springs back into action to find the mysterious hacker. For this mission to succeed, he’ll need all of his skills - what few he has - as the man with yesterday’s analogue methods faces off against tomorrow’s digital technology.

Johnny English Strikes Again

2018

Far and Away poster
6.8

A young free-spirited Irish woman from an affluent Protestant family spontaneously befriends a street-smart commoner cheated by her family’s hostile land takeovers. They escape to America, ready to take advantage of the 19th century Oklahoma land rush.

Far and Away

1992

Quills poster
7.2

In early 19th-century France, the Marquis de Sade is confined to an asylum where his forbidden writings continue to circulate beyond its walls. As the authorities tighten control, a clash unfolds between the Marquis’ unyielding imagination, the reformist ideals of the Abbé in charge, and the repressive measures of a doctor sent to silence him. Desire, power, and censorship collide in a battle over freedom of expression.

Quills

2000

Angela's Ashes poster
7.3

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

Angela's Ashes

1999

Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps poster
6.5

Three Mysterious Curses, two lost souls... and one incredibly difficult dance. A lowly goatherd seeks out a reclusive witch to break the evil enchantment that has long kept him from taking a wife. When he completes the three impossible trials the witch prescribes, the man earns the hand of the legendary Princess, only heir of the Old King of the Cursed Kingdom. But when he arrives at the altar with a perfect fairytale ending hanging in the balance, both the goatherd and mysterious witch who helped transform him into the perfect eligible bachelor find that there is one enchantment they can't figure out how to break... true love.

Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps

2024

The Secret Scripture poster
7.2

The hidden memoir of an elderly woman confined to a mental hospital reveals the history of her passionate yet tortured life, and of the religious and political upheavals in Ireland during the 1920s and 30s.

The Secret Scripture

2017

Iris poster
6.4

True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Iris

2001

Riverdance: The Animated Adventure poster
6.0

A young Irish boy named Keegan and Spanish girl named Moya journey into a magical world of the Megaloceros Giganteus who teach them to appreciate Riverdance as a celebration of life. Based on the stage show phenomenon of the same name and featuring Bill Whelan’s multi-platinum Grammy Award-winning music.

Riverdance: The Animated Adventure

2021

Heidi poster
7.7

Swiss girl Adelheid 'Heidi' is orphaned young. Aunt Detie brings her to grandpa Alp and his wife, who live isolated in the Alps since his murder charge. Heidi soon takes to the wild country, especially accompanying young goatherd Peter. Grandpa refuses to send her to school in the city, but aunt Detie returns and forces him to give in. She's sent to a posh lady in Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for crippled daughter Clara after school hours.

Heidi

2005

Sweet Delusion poster
NR

A criminal on the run hides out in the rural farmhouse of an elderly woman, who believes her to be her missing daughter.

Sweet Delusion

Captain Morten and the Spider Queen poster
4.4

Morten, a ten-year-old boy, is shrunk to the size of an insect due to a magical fog gun. Soon, he finds himself on his makeshift model ship sailing through a flooded cafe.

Captain Morten and the Spider Queen

2018

Her Own Rules poster
6.3

Melissa Gilbert stars as Meredith. A sad and lonely writer returning to her home town in England for the first time since she was about 6 or 7 years old, after being adopted and raised in America. While there she decides to look for her mother's grave, and finds out her memories are not exactly what she thought they were, her mother is alive. She then sets out to find her mother and some answers and finds both. She also falls in love, of course, but has a problem with long term commitments...

Her Own Rules

1998

Out! poster
1.0

A heartfelt comedy drama about the parent/child relationship, the generation gap, the fear of rejection and the need for acceptance.

Out!

2020

The Return poster
6.8

A former alcoholic returns home after ten years in prison for the murder of her husband. As her recollection of the murder returns, things take a different turn.

The Return

2003

Noble poster
6.4

Christina Noble overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon. A true story.

Noble

2014

When Brendan Met Trudy poster
4.4

Brendan is an earnest, introverted schoolteacher who, aside from his participation in the local choir, has only one passion in his life -- the movies. That is until he meets Trudy, a woman who is gregarious and adventurous beyond his imagination. His entire persona changes as he becomes enveloped in her carefree and sometimes dangerous world.

When Brendan Met Trudy

2000

Nora poster
5.3

In 1904, in Dublin, James Joyce chats up Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid recently come from Galway. She enchants him with her frank, direct and uninhibited manner, and before long, he's convinced her to come with him to Trieste, where he has a job with Berlitz. Over time, Nora pulls him through phobias, tolerates his drinking, takes in his brother Stan, and bests Joyce at 'the writin' game' to bring him back to Italy from Dublin where he's gone to open a cinema. But his sexual jealousy threatens the relationship and sends her back to Galway with the children. Is there any way to tame Jim's green-eyed monster? And, will the lad ever get his stories published?

Nora

2000

Making Noise Quietly: Three Conversations poster
5.7

Three stories of strangers meeting on the edge of war. A conscientious objector and a roaming artist find tenderness as the carnage of the Second World War unfolds across the English Channel. A bereaved mother struggles with bitterness and love in recollecting her estranged son, lost in the Falklands. Deep in the Black Forest of Germany, an ageing holocaust survivor seeks to bring peace to disturbed young boy and his equally wild stepfather.

Making Noise Quietly: Three Conversations

2019

My Friend Joe poster
7.3

During the course of one summer, a young Irish lad named Chris befriends an American boy named Joe. The two couldn't be more different, yet they become inseparable. Things turn horribly wrong however, when Chris discovers his new best friend isn't a he, but a she. The sadness only begins as Chris learns why Joe's gender must be kept a secret.

My Friend Joe

1996

So You Think You're Irish poster
NR

In early 1997, Amnesty held a comedy gala at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. The performers were primarily Irish performers including: Barry Murphy, Brendan O'Carroll, Pauline McLynn, Dermot Morgan, Kevin McAleer, Owen O'Neill, and Kevin Gildea. The show was videotaped and televised on ITV in March 1997.

So You Think You're Irish

1997

Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks poster
1.0

New Year’s Eve. Sarah is working - again. Nick is her only customer - again. Same old same old. Except this year, their countdown to midnight will be the strangest and deadliest they have ever known. Why is an executioner Dalek targeting these two people, in this place, on this night? Why are they having to live through the same moments again? Can the Doctor, Yaz and Dan save them and survive into the New Year?

Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks

2022

Deadly Cuts poster
4.5

A black comedy set in a working-class Dublin hair salon where the stylists become accidental vigilantes and community heroes as they take on the gang members and gentrifiers threatening their community.

Deadly Cuts

2021