Writer Frank Deasy Passes

Frank Deasy, an Irish writer who received a Primetime Emmy for the PBS miniseries Prime Suspect: The Final Act, died September 17, 2009, in a hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, following liver transplant surgery. He was 49.

Deasy, who had cancer of the liver, had been awaiting a transplant for seven months. Recently, he had spoken publicly about the problems faced by those on transplant waiting lists and stressed the need for more people to register as organ donors.

Deasy recently wrote a newspaper article about organ donation and spoke about the subject at length on Irish radio. This prompted thousands of people to register as organ donors with the Irish Kidney Association.

Deasy was diagnosed with a primary liver tumor in January. Four-and-half-years ago he had surgery to remove a tumor.

A native of Dublin, Deasy studied at Trinity College before working for the Eastern Health Board. He began making videos and, in 1988, he wrote and co-directed the film The Courier, which starred Gabriel Byrne in a story about a reformed drug user attempting to crack a drug-dealing operation.

In 1991, he wrote The Grass Arena, which starred Pete Postlethwaite. Tim Roth and Julia Ormond appeared in his next work, Captives.

His biggest success came in 2006, when he wrote the miniseries Prime Suspect: The Final Act, in which Helen Mirren resumed her role as Detective Superintendant Jane Tennison. The program was critically acclaimed and Deasy was nominated for the best writer BAFTA award in 2007. He later won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries.

He wrote the BBC miniseries The Passion, which aired last year, and his Dublin-based crime thriller Father Son aired on Ireland's RTÉ during the summer. He was working on a project about the Medicis before his death.

He is survived by his wife and their three children.