Dearbhla M. Molloy (born 1946 in Dublin) appeared on Coronation Street intermittently between July 2009 and May 2015 as Helen Connor, matriarch of the Connor family (the character was originally played by Sorcha Cusack).
She left school at sixteen and claims that, whilst she had no burning ambitions to act, she was too young for university entry and so her parents allowed her to appear in plays at the Abbey. It was lucky for her that they were being performed in the Irish language, which she had learned at school. Over the next few years, she consolidated her stage reputation at both the Abbey and the Gate theatres, coming to England to tour with an Abbey production. She was invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, played Gertrude to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet in the West End, and has lived in London ever since.
Her other television credits include roles in Within These Walls, Play for Today, Casualty, G.B.H., Between the Lines, The Bill, The Fragile Heart, Colour Blind, Swallow, Fergus's Wedding, Holby City, Waking the Dead, Doctors, Proof, 55 Degrees North, Case Histories, Acceptable Risk, Women on the Verge, Three Families and Hullraisers.
Film roles include Paddy, Educating Rita, Summer Lightning, Taffin, Bloody Weekend, Frankie Starlight, The Run of the Country, This Is the Sea, Bug, Bloom, Tara Road, No Reservations, 3096 Days, Uncle Vanya, Wild Mountain Thyme, Mr. K and Four Mothers.
On stage, she appeared in productions of The Life of the World to Come, The Hostage, Arcadia, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Experiment with an Airpump, Juno and the Paycock, Hinterland, The Seagull, Dancing at Lughnasa, A Touch of the Poet, All My Sons, In Celebration, The Plough and the Stars, Come on Over, Uncle Vanya, Phaedre, Aristocrats, Macbeth, Hamlet, Summerfolk, Poor Beast in the Rain, Loot, Death and the Maiden, On the Ledge, Give Me Your Hand, Ditch, Pieces of Vincent, Much Ado About Nothing, And No More Shall We Part, Trojan Women, The New Electic Ballroom, Outside Mullingar, Moment, Richard III, Afterplay, The Ferryman and The Book of Dust.
