Glen Hansard, Musician Who Sang His Way From Busking to an Oscar, Dies

The Irish singer-songwriter, known for 'Once' and The Frames, died in a motorbike crash this week

By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr

Glen Hansard spent decades doing things the hard way — busking on Grafton Street in Dublin before he ever stood on a Hollywood stage. That journey ended this week. The BBC reports Hansard died in a motorbike crash on Wednesday.

Hansard first found an audience fronting the Irish rock band The Frames, but it was 2007's Once — a low-budget film about two musicians falling in love over songs — that made him a household name far beyond Ireland. He wrote and starred in it alongside Markéta Irglová, and the pair's song "Falling Slowly" won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 2008, an unlikely triumph for a movie shot on a shoestring budget with handheld cameras.

The BBC's remembrance describes an "unusual journey to stardom" — a musician who built a career from the street up rather than the industry down, and who kept that busker's instinct even after the awards and the arena tours.

Our sourcing here is limited to the single BBC report available at press time; further details on the circumstances of the crash, funeral arrangements, and tributes from collaborators had not yet been confirmed by additional outlets as of this writing. We'll update as more is verified.

Hansard's death closes the book on one of Irish music's more improbable success stories — proof, as one line from Once itself might put it, that a song can still change things, even one sung on a corner for spare change.

If I can't source it, you won't read it here.

— Compiled from reporting by the BBC.

The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."