Celebrating first lead roles in two feature films

To those in his native Athlone, the successful familiar looking actor pictured on this page, is known as Peter Corry, but to the stage and screen people he works with he is known by his acting name, Sam Corry. Peter (Sam) has this winter, reached a certain pinnacle in his acting career, by appearing in lead roles in two upcoming feature films. Because there was another, albeit much older Irish actor named Peter Corry, the Athlone lad decided early on to call himself Sam Corry - and as Sam Corry, he has acted on two continents. Athlone"s Peter, who is a native of Garnafailagh, fell into acting by accident, while studying psychology at NUI, Galway, when he decided to go for an audition with the college"s DramSoc production of the musical, "Blood Brothers". 'I played Sammy, the third brother, and many thought I was so good at playing that part, that they continued calling me Sam long after the production ended,' said Peter laughing. 'That probably helped me decide later to choose the name Sam as my career name because I was so used to being called Sam anyway.' Peter followed up "Blood Brothers" with other DramSoc productions, including playing the central character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo"s Nest". During his summer breaks from college, he worked in the USA in a summer camp for special needs children and spent lots of his spare time going to bookshops in Los Angeles reading up on books on acting. Because he is a natural performer for crowds, Peter comfortably sang traditional US summercamp songs such as "Bingo" and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to the audiences of children at the camp. Peter is the son of Tony and Triona Corry, Garnafailagh, Athlone, and he has two sisters, Rachel and Fiona and one brother, Brian. 'When I came back to Ireland, I told my family I wanted to be a professional actor,' said Peter. 'I enrolled in the Gaiety School of Acting and stayed there for two years, and that was a great training ground. It was after that I got an audition for "The Clinic".' Peter was one of the original cast of the hit RTÉ drama series, "The Clinic" and stayed with the programme, playing the part of a gay Australian nurse for three seasons. His work with special needs children in the USA helped with his research for playing a nurse. After he wrapped up the second season of "The Clinic", Peter, who is a past pupil of Marist College, Athlone, shot a television commercial for a "Fruice" drink in Portugal, and the commercial, which ran for two years, was shown on television screens all over Europe. Peter surprised many when he left "The Clinic" after completing three successful seasons. He left behind a regular job and pay cheque in a series that has continued to run successfully three years after he left. 'I decided at the end of the second season that I would do one more year on "The Clinic", because I wanted to move on to other stuff, and I"m delighted I did that, because I"ve done so much theatre and short films, and now some feature films since I left,' said Peter. 'But I loved "The Clinic", and I worked with excellent actors and directors there.' One of those directors was Lisa Mulcahy, who cast Peter in the programme, and has now cast him as male lead in her new film, "Next". 'She takes risks, and casts actors who nobody has heard of, based on their own merit and I"ll always be indebted to her, and if I ever get to make that Oscar speech, I"ll thank her,' he said laughing. After Peter left "The Clinic" he appeared on South Africa"s biggest soap opera, "Isidingo" when the programme filmed episodes in Ireland, and he flew to Johannesburg, to do some further episodes of the programme. He played an Irishman called Liam Maloney, who was a brief love interest to the series star, Kim Engelbrecht. Peter will also appear in the new year as a courtier in an episode of the Henry VIII television drama series, "The Tudors". Peter has also played some of the best roles in theatre in Ireland and the UK since his career began almost a decade ago. Among the many parts he has played are, Sebastian in "Twelfth Night", Andrea in "The Life of Galileo" at the Project Theatre, Dublin and Pig in "Disco Pigs" at RADA at the John Gielgud theatre. He also played the lead role, Alec, in Alan Stanford"s adaptation of Jennifer Johnson"s novel, "How Many Miles To Babylon?", in the Helix Theatre, and the extremely successful award-winning production toured nationwide. 'I"m currently back living in Athlone for a few months, while I commute to the Gaiety School where I"m teaching a couple of days a week,' said Peter. 'I like going to the Regional Sports Centre in my spare time, and it"s great to meet up and socialise with friends from the town, while I"m back here. The whole town is great these days, and it competes well with the rest of the country with places like the Sheraton Hotel, the Radisson, and the Towncentre.' Peter is hoping to set up some acting workshops in Athlone over the winter, and he says he"ll bring much of his experience to those who are interested in learning about the craft, both for stage and screen. He is currently proud of his two movie roles in "Next" and "Ghost Machine", which are due for release in spring 2009. 'The part I played in "Next" was really great, and a very challenging one,' he said. 'We filmed it all around Dublin, but "Ghost Machine" was a much bigger feature and that was shot in Belfast.' The two movie roles are very important for Peter"s acting career because "Next" is his first lead role in a feature film, and "Ghost Machine" is also a great break for him, because he is acting alongside a cast of up and coming Los Angeles based actors. 'They were very driven business people, who were big into image, and that was good for me to see, because I realised it is important for actors to market themselves,' he said. 'It was a great learning experience for me, and I had to do behind the scenes press interviews, which is something I"ve never had to do for any of the television or theatre stuff I"ve done.' Peter is ambitious about "Next" and "Ghost Machine" opening doors for him in the UK, where he has an agent, and has done numerous London based theatre productions. As part of his future plans, Peter is intent on breaking himself into the US acting market, off the back of the premiering of his two new feature films. With a hit television series to his credit, and lots of theatre performances also, not to mention two new feature films, the name Sam Corry is sure to become more and more recognisable to audiences.