Paul O'Grady

Paul James Michael O'Grady, MBE (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio disc-jockey. He achieved fame using his comedic drag queen character, Lily Savage, and later became well known for presenting TV shows as himself, such as The Paul O'Grady Show.

Born to a working-class Irish migrant family in Birkenhead, Cheshire (now Merseyside), O'Grady moved to London in the late 1970s, there working as a peripatetic care officer for Camden Council. It was here in 1978 that he developed his drag act, basing the character of Lily Savage upon traits found among female relatives. Touring Northern England as part of drag mime duo, the Playgirls, he eventually went solo as a stand-up comedian. Performing as Savage for eight years at a South London gay pub, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT), he gained a popular following among the city's gay community and used his character to speak out for LGBT rights. After being nominated for a 1992 Perrier Award, he attracted mainstream attention and made various television, radio, and theatrical appearances. As Savage, he presented morning chat show The Big Breakfast (1995–96), game show Blankety Blank (1997–02) and comedy series Lily Live! (2000–01), earning various awards and becoming a well known public figure.

Paul O'Grady (politician)

Paul Thomas Francis O'Grady (14 July 1960 – 18 January 2015) was an Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1988 to 1996 and was the first openly gay member of the New South Wales Parliament.

Early life and career

O'Grady was born in Ryde in Northern Sydney, and worked as a shop assistant and a union organiser for the shop assistants section within the Australian Workers' Union. He joined the Australian Labor Party in at the age of 15 in 1975, becoming involved within Young Labor. Having known he was gay from an early age, O'Grady came out to his parents at age 16:

O'Grady soon joined the moderate 'Soft' Left faction of the party and won a ballot for the Assistant Secretary of Australian Young Labor 1984, but failed to gain enough support to run as President of NSW Young Labor. O'Grady also worked as a party research officer for the NSW Treasurer, Ken Booth, from 1981 until 1988.

Political career

He was elected as a Labor member of the Legislative Council in 1988. Making his maiden speech to the council during a debate on the Summary Offences Bill on 2 June 1988, O'Grady spoke out against excess of NSW Police Force powers and for the decriminalisation of prostitution while also thanking his primary supporters and inspirations in the Labor movement: "I owe a great deal to the faith and trust that people such as former Deputy Premier Jack Ferguson, Delcia Kite and John Faulkner placed in me during the years that I have been active in the Labor Party. I thank also the person for whom I worked for seven years–Ken Booth. He really is one of the most genuine, decent and humane human beings I have ever met."

Paul O'Grady (footballer)

Paul O'Grady (born 6 November 1978, in Sydney, New South Wales), is an Australian footballer who plays for APIA Leichhardt Tigers in the NSW Premier League.

Honours

With Central Coast Mariners:

With Wollongong Wolves:

External links

O'Grady

O'Grady is an animated television show created by Tom Snyder and Carl Adams and developed for TV by co-star Holly Schlesinger. It used to air on The N in the US, on MTV in Latin America, Nickelodeon in the United Kingdom (first season only), Family Channel in Canada and on 2x2 in Russia. It stars Melissa Bardin Galsky and H. Jon Benjamin, among other Soup2nuts Productions alumni, as high school students Abby, Beth, Harold, and Kevin, and chronicles their lives along with those of other residents of O'Grady, a fictional town which is periodically plagued by "The Weirdness." The Weirdness affects its residents in strange ways such as projecting their private thoughts in bubbles over their heads, or producing clones of themselves every time they get angry.

Although The N no longer airs reruns of the series, episodes can still be viewed on the network's website. Although O'Grady has been never been released on DVD, all episodes are also available for purchase through iTunes, as well as Amazon Video. On July 14, 2013, TeenNick aired reruns of the show.

O'Grady family

The O'Grady family, also styled O'Grady of Kilballyowen, is one of Ireland's noble families and surviving Chiefs of the Name. Their title is The O'Grady in English and Ó Grádaigh in Irish. The current Chief of the Name is Henry Thomas Standish O'Grady, The O'Grady, who resides in France.

History

They belong to the Dál gCais kindred and are distant cousins to the O'Brien dynasty, but have since the Middle Ages been based not in County Clare, from where they originated, but in County Limerick. The (former) seat of the family, Kilballyowen, is near the town of Bruff.

The name Standish was often used by the family; it derives from the marriage in 1633 of Darby O'Grady, The O'Grady, to Faith Standish.

Some of the O'Grady family converted to the Church of Ireland (Anglican Communion) and produced a Bishop of Meath, Hugh Brady. The family also produced some prominent historians such as Standish Hayes O'Grady and Standish James O'Grady.

The now extinct title in the peerage of Ireland, the Viscount Guillamore, was held by the family.