New details have emerged about Glen Hansard's life following confirmation of his death at 56 in a motorcycle crash near his Dublin home in the early hours of Wednesday 29 July. His management agency, ATC, said in a statement that the family was still "dealing with the shock of it all" and asked for privacy, with no further information yet available on the circumstances of the crash. The additional biographical detail underlines the scale of the tribute to a musician whose songwriting career spanned more than four decades.

The newly reported details confirm Hansard was born Glen James Angus Hansard in the Dublin suburb of Ballymun on 21 April 1970, and that he left school at 13 to busk before being signed by Island Records, where he formed The Frames and released albums including 1992's Another Love Song, 1999's Dance with the Devil and 2002's Breadcrumb Trail. He also appeared in 1991's The Commitments before pausing The Frames in 2006 to form Swell Season with Markéta Irglová, with whom he wrote and performed the songs for 2007's Once, winning the Oscar for "Falling Slowly." Though he did not appear in the Broadway adaptation, which won eight Tony Awards, he joined the cast for a surprise curtain call at its 1,000th performance and later reunited with Irglová in 2023 for Swell Season's first album in 16 years, Forward.