The mother of Kenneth Best, the brain-damaged Cork victim of the three-in-one vaccine whose case for compensation made international history in 1992 when he was awarded £2.75 million, was shocked and saddened last night to hear of the tragic death of actor Robbi Doolin.
Robbi Doolin, she recalled, went to great lengths to study Kenneth - then 23 - and his ways at their home in Douglas, Cork, in preparation for the ground-breaking BBC documentary, Against the Odds, directed by James Hawes.
"He was really very good in the part," said the woman whose 22year battle with the Department of Health, the Southern Health Board, and ultimately the Wellcome Foundation, finally ended in victory when the Supreme Court overturned an earlier High Court judgment in favour of the pharmaceutical company and ruled in favour of Kenneth Best.
Robbi Doolin took to the part with gusto for the BBC drama documentary to portray the man who the Supreme Court ruled had been brain-damaged by the Wellcome-manufactured "three-in-one" vaccine against diptheria, whooping cough and tetanus.
Mr Doolin was perhaps better known to television audiences in Ireland as Willie, brother of the lottery winner in three series of the RTE comedy, Upwardly Mobile - for which he had originally been cast for a bit-part before his true talent as a comic actor came to be appreciated. He also appeared in Fair City and the BBC's Ballykissangel - and in a number of Sky TV commercials. He was well known, too, as a stage actor in Dublin, having worked in the Gate, the Abbey, the Focus, Tivoli, Andrew's Lane and Academy theatres.
As a film actor he distinguished himself in Thirty-five a Side, directed by Damien O'Donnell, the award-winning director of a British comedy, East is East. Damien O'Donnell last night described him as "a great laugh". Robbi Doolin never let him forget that other actors in the film were paid the princely sum of £50 - when he was not. "Where's my £50?" he would say each time they ran into each other.
He also appeared in The Commitments, the film of Roddy Doyle's book, and in a BBC production of The Snapper.
Mr Doolin's friend, Joe Savino, who played Liam Coghlan in Ballykissangel, said he was devastated by the news. "We were out together last night playing darts, having a laugh and chilling out. He left me at half-twelve to go into town. The next thing I knew was when I got a phone call this morning from his sister to tell me he was dead. It hasn't really sunk in yet.
"He was an amazing actor when he got going, a real flyer. He worked very hard and was wonderfully gifted at it," he added.
Robbi Doolin tended to undervalue what he did, said Mr Savino. "I don't think he fully appreciated how good he was. He was proud to be an actor but he never bragged about it."