Glen Hansard, the Oscar-winning Irish singer-songwriter and actor who rose to fame fronting the Frames and starring in The Commitments, then gained greater notoriety through the movie Once and the related musical project the Swell Season, has died. Hansard died in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in the west of Dublin, which was reported to emergency services shortly before 4:30 a.m. local time, the BBC reports. He was 56.
ATC Management, which represented Hansard, shared the following statement with media:
With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard who passed away, in the early hours of this morning, following a road traffic accident in Dublin.
Glen's family is deeply shocked and heartbroken by this tragic loss and respectfully requests privacy at this extremely difficult time.
The family is grateful for the support they have received and wishes to thank the emergency services who attended the scene.
Hansard was born in the Dublin suburb of Ballymun in 1970. He dropped out of school at age 13 to begin busking on the city streets. At 17, his demo made its way to Island Records, who signed him to a record deal. By age 20 he had formed the Frames, performing a fiery, folky form of alternative rock that combined the emotional bombast of U2 with the influence of singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. Hansard worked in a bicycle shop at the time and had a habit of fixing his friends' bikes; the band took its name from all the bicycle frames in his garden.
Around the time he got the Frames started, Hansard appeared in The Commitments, director Alan Parker's 1991 musical-comedy adaptation of Roddy Doyle's novel about a group of working-class Irish youths who form a soul band. Parker mostly cast real-life musicians with minimal acting experience, including Hansard, who played the band's guitarist, Outspan Foster. The Commitments won four BAFTA Awards including Best Film, and though it was not a box office success in the US, its soundtrack hit the top 10. The movie has since become a cult favorite.
The Frames released their debut album Another Love Song on Island in 1992 with production split between Al Clay and Gil Norton, known for his work with Pixies (and later Foo Fighters). Lineup and label turmoil ensued, and the band ended up on ZTT for 1995's more assured Fitzcarraldo, which came out on Elektra in the US the following year. Dance The Devil followed in 1999, then the band switched to Chicago-based Overcoat Records for 2001's For The Birds, recorded in part with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio.
As the Frames continued to release albums in the 2000s — Breadcrumb Trail, Burn The Maps, The Cost — Hansard also began collaborating with Czech teenager Markéta Irglová in a new project called the Swell Season. The group released a self-titled album in 2006, and former Frames bassist John Carney cast Hansard and Irglová in Once, an indie drama about two struggling musicians in Dublin, which became a worldwide sensation. "Falling Slowly," the movie's signature song, went on to win Best Original Song at the 2008 Academy Awards. Once was later adapted into a Broadway musical, and the soundtrack album won a Grammy in 2013.
Hansard and Irglová dated from 2006-2009, and the band ended not long after their breakup, but not before the release of a second album, 2009's Strict Joy. After the Swell Season, Hansard built up a robust solo catalog recording for ANTI-, the label where the Frames and Swell Season had ended up. His most recent solo release was 2023's All That Was East Is West of Me Now. Both the Frames and the Swell Season convened for reunion albums: The Frames with 2015's Longitude, the Swell Season with 2025's Forward.
Hansard married the poet Maire Saaritsa in 2020. The couple had a son in 2022. In the wake of Hansard's passing, many have remembered him not only for his extensive body of work but his kindness and palpable passion for music. Among other charitable efforts, he led the annual Christmas Eve charity busk outside the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin and was a fixture at various protests and marches in support of social justice. Below, revisit some of Hansard's many beloved songs.
