Dies in motorcycle accident Glen Hansard, the singer-songwriter who triumphed with the film 'Once'

BarcelonaThe Irish singer Glen Hansard, who in 2007 won the Oscar for the song "Falling slowly, which he had written for the film's soundtrack Once, has died at the age of 56 in a motorcycle accident in Lucan, west of Dublin, the BBC reports. Hansard was one of the members of the fictional band from the film The Commitments (1991) and led his own rock band, The Frames, before achieving success with Once, who were starring Hansard and Markéta Irglová, also authors of the soundtrack as members of The Swell Season, a folk band that recorded three albums.

Born in Dublin in 1970, Hansard left school at 13 to start playing guitar on the streets of Dublin. This was, more or less, his character in Alan Parker's acclaimed film The Commitments (1991), about a fictional Irish soul band on Hansard played the guitarist. After the film's great success, Hansard focused his energies on his musical career with the rock group he led, The Frames, one of the reference bands of Irish rock in the 90s. The Frames recorded six albums and toured with Bob Dylan.

In 2006, The Frames' bassist John Carney used some of the stories Hansard had told him about his years as a busker to write the screenplay for "Once, a low-budget romantic drama that was initially set to star Cillian Murphy. In the end, Hansard himself ended up starring with the young Markéta Irglová, also a musician and with no acting experience, in this beautiful story of love, loneliness, and creativity. Premiered at the Sundance Festival, Once was one of the surprises indie of 2006. When Hansard and Irglova collected the Oscar for Best Original Song (Falling slowly), the singer highlighted the independent spirit of the film, "shot with two handycam for $100,000 in three weeks", not expecting anything, and called for "making art".