Michael Legge

Lanky, dark-haired, freckle-faced Michael Legge came to moviegoers' attention as the older incarnation of narrator Frank McCourt in the "Angela's Ashes" (1999), the film adaptation of McCourt's Pulitzer-winning memoir. A native of Newry in Northern Ireland, Legge was already a veteran stage and TV performer when he won that role over some 15,000 aspirants. As a child, he came to the attention of drama teacher Sean Hollywood who encouraged the youngster. Work in local theater followed as did a featured role in the 1996 British television drama "The Precious Blood." 1999 proved to be a banner year for Legge as he landed pivotal roles in three features. In addition to his finely wrought portrayal of McCourt in "Angela's Ashes," he demonstrated his versatility as a teenager who discovers the hideaway of three feral youths during an unnamed conflict in the intense, Swedish-made "Straydogs" and displayed his comic gifts and natural charm as a disco-loving teen in 1977 Sheffield in "Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? ."