Glen Hansard’s acting roles were few and far between, but he was, nonetheless, at the centre of two key moments in the history of Irish film.The Dubliner, who has died in a motorbike crash at the age of 56, was drily amusing as Outspan Foster, the quirky guitarist in Alan Parker’s hit adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments from 1991. “There’s a band around called Free Beer,” he says, as the group seek a name.“They always pull a big crowd.” This was a time when domestic productions on that scale were rare. The nation went wild for a film that celebrated Hansard’s home city in the unwitting years before the Celtic Tiger transformations.Seventeen years later he and Markéta Irglová took the award for best song at the 80th Academy Awards. That joyous win, for writing Falling Slowly from John Carney’s Once, was memorable for many reasons. Carney’s micro-budgeted musical, a tale of a couple falling in love around leafy corners of Dublin, would have been on nobody’s radar at the start of awards season.The win alerted the world that an Irish film industry was on the march. The manner of the victory was also notable. Following Hansard’s speech, Irglová was played off the stage, but Jon Stewart, the evening’s host, brought her back on to finish her remarks.“Thanks for taking this film seriously, all of you,” Hansard said from the podium. “It means a lot to us. Thanks to the Academy and all the people who have helped us. They know who they are. We don’t need to say them. Make art! Make art!”Hansard had formed The Frames in 1990 – with John Carney as their first bass player – and was, thus, already something of a presence in Dublin, but the success of The Commitments plastered his face around the world. The titular band ended up touring as a live act.[ Oscar-winning musician and actor Glen Hansard dies in Dublin motorbike crashOpens in new window ]In later years, Hansard was philosophical about it all. He had attended the audition with his friend David Wilmot – still a busy actor – and was persuaded to deliver a few lines off the cuff. With no serious thoughts of acting in his mind, he was astonished to receive a callback.“I did it because I had just made my first album,” he told me in 2018. “I was excited about getting The Frames together. I think there was a push into turning The Commitments into a real band. That didn’t feel right to me. I was ready to go and follow my dream.”Outspan was not a huge role, but his contribution was crucial to the success of Once. The story behind the film is now the stuff of film legend. A young Cillian Murphy, once a fledgling rock star, was Carney’s first pick for the role, before Hansard ended up making his move back to the big screen. “I was terrified, for a few reasons,” Hansard said in 2007. “I didn’t want to suck for [John’s] sake, and I didn’t want to suck for my own. I’m a reasonably confident person behind a guitar, but in front of a camera is a whole other ball game.”Glen Hansard as Outspan Foster, with a guitar hanging from his shoulders, alongside other cast members from The Commitments.