ONCE Star and Songwriter Behind Tony-Winning Musical Glen Hansard Dies at 56

Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who starred in and wrote the music for the film Once before co-writing the songs for its Tony Award-winning Broadway adaptation, has died at 56 following a motorcycle crash in Dublin on 29 July 2026.

Hansard’s management confirmed his death in a statement thanking emergency services and asking for privacy for his family, colleagues and friends. Irish police said a man in his 50s died after a single-vehicle motorcycle collision in the west of Dublin in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Hansard began performing as a teenage busker on the streets of Dublin before forming the rock band The Frames in 1990, which he fronted for more than three decades. In 1991 he appeared as guitarist Outspan Foster in Alan Parker’s film The Commitments.

His best-known work came via Once, the 2007 low-budget Irish film he wrote and starred in opposite Markéta Irglová. The film’s song “Falling Slowly,” co-written with Irglová, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Once was adapted into a stage musical with a book by Enda Walsh, premiering at New York Theatre Workshop in 2011 before transferring to Broadway in 2012. The production received eleven Tony Award nominations and won eight, including Best Musical, with the cast performing all instruments live on stage. It later ran in the West End and in productions worldwide.

Hansard continued touring internationally as a solo artist after 2012, and was known for returning each Christmas Eve to busk outside Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre in support of the Simon Community.

Irish President Catherine Connolly said Hansard was “one of the vital driving influences of the Irish music world, bringing people together in the sharing of live music.” Tributes also came from Bruce Springsteen and Bono, among others.

Hansard is survived by his wife and their son.