Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter and Frames frontman who co-wrote the Oscar-winning song Falling Slowly from the 2007 film Once, died early Wednesday morning in a motorcycle crash near his native Dublin. He was 56.
Tributes from musicians, filmmakers, and fans began arriving within hours.
Bono wrote a lengthy essay remembering Hansard, opening with the line, "Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed…" He described Hansard's character and his longtime commitment to people without housing, writing in part: "He really was who you thought he was. He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK… and more than that, he worked very hard so that less people had to live on the streets in the first place." Bono closed by calling Hansard an "angelic presence" and writing, "And I'm telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case."
Bruce Springsteen recalled meeting Hansard in Ireland "many years ago." "He was always nothing but a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man," Springsteen wrote on social media. "Always positive, smiling and ready to sing."
Finneas O'Connell shared that Falling Slowly was the first song he ever performed onstage, at age 11. "His songs made me want to write songs and they also made me cry," O'Connell wrote. "When our family met him in Dublin in 2019, he greeted us like old friends even though we were just his fans. Today I am a heartbroken fan. Hope he knew how much he meant to so many, this is how much he meant to me."
O'Connell's mother, Maggie Baird, also posted a tribute. She wrote that Hansard "was a force in [their] lives" and said she was "devastated for his family and for all of us who were so changed by him." Baird described how deeply Hansard's music shaped both Finneas and his sister Billie Eilish. "I know Finneas and Billie would not be who they are without his music," she wrote. "Finneas first performed publicly singing Falling Slowly, Billie sang all the songs from the movie, we went to see him talk and perform at The Grammy Museum in 2013 and were blown away."
Baird added that Hansard had three-year-old child and many shows still planned at the time of his death. "He was a thrilling human to be in the presence of," she wrote. "He was such a gift I'm so so sad. I'm so grateful for what he brought to the world."
Searchlight Pictures, which released Once, said on social media that it was "devastated by the loss," calling Hansard "a singer and actor of singular talent" whose "melodies gave voice to first love, first heartbreak and many milestones in between for a generation."
Once was directed by John Carney. Falling Slowly won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
