The Fair City favourite said he is “not going to be doing anything else after this” ahead of taking a step back from working when he turns 65 during the summer
Rory Cowan is set to appear on Dancing with the Stars.
The Fair City and Mrs. Brown’s Boys star was set to take the dancefloor last year, but his back surgery ruled him out of competing.
The Irish actor and entertainer turns 65 next July and he plans to take a step back from work, so this will be his last major TV challenge.
Rory said: “Last year I couldn’t do it because I had back surgery. But this year it’s going to be fantastic because I’m 64, I’m turning 65 in July and I just want to go out with a bang.
“I’m not going to be doing anything else after this.
“I’ll continue with Fair City for as long as they like, that’s wonderful show to have. But when I’m 65 I want to do as little as possible!
“I just think that dancing lifts your heart.
“I don’t have any expectations of winning this. I’ve plantar fasciitis. I’ve had back surgery. I’m a bit decrepit for my age! I’m in good form but I just know if I don’t do it this year, I’ll never do it.”
Rory has some childhood dance experience, but that won’t prepare him for Dancing with the Stars because it didn’t exactly go well.
He said: “When I was three or four years of age my mother took me to Irish dancing. At the time there was a champion Irish dancer called Rory O’Connor and he had a dance school out in Rathfarnham.
“I was a really lanky kid. All the other kids were half my size in height and I was (accidentally) kicking the girls on either side of me. Rory O’Connor said to my mother, ‘Missus, you may take that child out of here, he’s more suited to demolishing houses, so that’s what I’m going to be doing on Dancing with the Stars!'”
Rory already loves the glizt and glam of dressing up for the show.
He said: “Of all the jackets in all my life, this jacket is the one that suits me the most I have ever had.
“It gives me a waist and it gives me shoulders and I have never had! It gives me a lovely shape. I was amazed by it and I’m raving about it.
“There’s everything is going to be good about this show for me even if I only last two or three weeks – everything is going to be fabulous!”
Rory is best known for playing Rory Brown in Mrs. Brown’s Boys from 2011 to 2017, and for starring in Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie in 2014. Rory’s character quickly became a firm favourite with fans.
Outside of Mrs. Brown’s Boys, Rory was one of the narrators of Gogglebox Ireland and since 2019 he has had a recurring role on the RTÉ’s Fair City as character John Bosco Walsh. That same year, Rory released his autobiography, ‘Mrs. Cowan’s Boy’.
