Glen Hansard death: Oscar-winning Irish musician and star of Once dies aged 56 in motorbike crash

Roisin O'Connor Wed, July 29, 2026 at 12:07 PM UTC

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Irish musician and actor Glen Hansard, who won the Best Original Song Oscar in 2008 for the hit indie film Once, has died in a motorcycle crash aged 56.

Irish police said that a man in his fifties died in the early hours of Wednesday morning (29 July) after a single-vehicle motorcycle collision in the west of Dublin. Emergency services were alerted shortly before 4.30am and the man was pronounced dead a short time after being treated at the scene. Police are appealing for witnesses.

Hansard’s management company ATC told The Independent in a short statement: “With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning. We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen’s family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time.”

Born in Dublin in 1970, Hansard won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly”, which he wrote and performed in the independent film Once alongside his co-star and former partner Markéta Irglová.

Hansard with Marketa Irglova in ‘Once', a tale of two buskers in Dublin falling in love (Fox Searchlight)

The film followed a struggling musician who has a chance encounter with a young woman; the pair then fall in love through music.

Irish actor Cillian Murphy was originally signed on to act alongside the 19-year-old Irglová – when he backed out of the project, Hansard, who had already written the music, was enlisted by the director and screenwriter, his friend and former Frames bassist John Carney.

“Cillian doesn't like me saying this, but he had reservations about some of my songs,” Hansard, who had some acting experience due to his role of Outspan Foster in the Bafta-winning 1991 film The Commitments,told The Independent in a 2015 interview. “They were quite hard to sing, quite raging. But, then, the character was pretty dark.”

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Hansard, who quit school at the age of 13 to pursue a music career, was famously incredulous in his acceptance speech at the Oscars: “You’d imagine I’d have been full of light after winning,” he said, “but in fact I went quite dark, drinking far too much. I don’t know why.”

Rock star Bruce Springsteen, Hansard’s friend and occasional collaborator, explained things to him: “He said that everything I had ever been in my life, that guy struggling against the world, had died the night we won the Oscar. I was in a different part of my life, a different suit. He said I should learnt to embrace it, enjoy it.”

A police car stationed near the scene where Hansard was killed in a motorbike crash (PA)

Once was adapted as a successful stage musical in the UK and around the world; in 2012, it won eight Tony awards on Broadway. Yet its success cast something of a shadow over Hansard and he stopped performing “Falling Slowly” at his live concerts, until Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder invited him on tour and insisted they sing it together.

He and Vedder became acquainted after a tragic incident in 2010 in which a fan died after falling from the roof of a building near the lighting rig while Hansard was playing with Irglová – reports at the time said he had taken his own life. The man landed a few feet away from Hansard.

“[Vedder] just wanted to know if I was OK, which was incredibly kind of him. We spoke for an hour each night for a week.,” Hansard recalled. “He's a beautiful soul, Eddie, really deep. He's helped me.”

Hansard and Marketa Irglova with their Oscars (PA)

Hansard, who also toured with Bob Dylan, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2016, for his solo project Didn’t He Ramble. With Irglová he formed one half of rock duo The Swell Season, who released their latest album Forward in July 2025. Hansard’s latest solo album, All That Was East is West of Me Now, was released in 2023.

In 2022, he took part in a charity busking session on Christmas Eve with two Ukrainian singers, and dedicated “Falling Slowly” to the people of Ukraine. He also performed at the funeral of Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, singing “Fairytale of New York” with Lisa O’Neill and backed by the surviving members of The Pogues.

He was the father of a three-year-old boy.

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Source: “AOL Breaking”