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Irish musician and actor Glen Hansard has died at the age of 56, following a motorcycle crash in Dublin in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Hansard’s management company ATC said in a statement: “With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard who passed away, in the early hours of this morning, following a road traffic accident in Dublin.”

For theatre audiences, Hansard will be remembered above all as the creative spirit behind Once. His and Markéta Irglová’s music for John Carney’s 2007 film, about two struggling Dublin musicians who fall in love, won them the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly. That score went on to form the heart of Once the Musical, which opened on Broadway in 2011 and transferred to the West End’s Phoenix Theatre in 2013, winning eight Tony Awards and an Olivier Award for Best New Musical along the way.

Hansard’s only other significant acting role came two decades earlier, as guitarist Outspan Foster in Alan Parker’s 1991 film The Commitments — the role that first brought him to public attention before he devoted himself to music with his band The Frames.

Tributes have poured in from across Ireland and beyond. Taoiseach Micheál Martin called him “a talented musician and actor who made a significant contribution to Ireland’s cultural landscape over many years,” while former president Michael D. Higgins described him as “a troubadour whose gift for storytelling brought so much joy to audiences across the world.”

Glen Hansard is survived by his wife, the poet Maire Saaritsa, and their young son.

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