Glen Hansard, Irish singer-songwriter known for 'Once' Oscar win, dies at 56

Glen Hansard, the Irish singer and songwriter best known for starring in the hit 2007 film “Once” — and for winning an Academy Award for original song with the movie’s “Falling Slowly” — died Wednesday in a motorcycle crash in Dublin. He was 56. In a statement, Hansard’s representatives at ATC Management said he died “in the early hours” of Wednesday. The Irish police reported that emergency services had been alerted shortly before 4:30 a.m. to a collision involving a motorcycle in the suburban village of Lucan; the motorcyclist, the police said, “was treated at the scene but was pronounced deceased a short time later.”In a social media post, Ireland Prime Minister Micheál Martin called Hansard a “talented musician and actor who made a significant contribution to Ireland’s cultural landscape over many years” and sent his sympathies to Hansard’s family, friends and fans. Hansard, who was born in Dublin in 1970, grew up busking on the street before forming a rock band, the Frames, in 1990. In 1991, he portrayed a guitar player in “The Commitments,” Alan Parker’s movie about a rough-and-tumble soul band that spawned a hit soundtrack album.