Playwright John Byrne who wrote BBC hit Tutti Frutti and fathered twins with Tilda Swinton dies aged 83

The artist and playwright John Byrne has died at the age of 83.

The Fine Art Society announced that the Paisley-born polymath, known for works including his play The Slab Boys and the 1987 TV show Tutti Frutti, died ‘peacefully’ on Thursday with his wife Jeanine by his side.

As well as being a ‘masterful’ painter, Byrne – who fathered twins with Hollywood star Tilda Swinton – designed record covers for the likes of Donovan, The Beatles, Gerry Rafferty and Sir Billy Connolly.

His work is held in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.

Byrne caused a storm in 2017 when he admitted in 2017 that he was the child of an incestuous relationship. His mother Alice had been abused by her own father, Patrick McShane. 

The artist and playwright John Byrne has died at the age of 83. Above: Byrne with his former partner Tilda Swinton. The couple had twins together

The Fine Art Society announced that the Paisley-born polymath, known for works including his play The Slab Boys and the 1987 TV show Tutti Frutti, died ‘peacefully’ on Thursday with his wife Jeanine by his side 

In a statement on Friday, The Fine Art Society said: ‘It is with huge sadness that we announce the death of John Byrne. He died peacefully yesterday with his wife Jeanine by his side. We will miss him tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family.

‘John was one of the most inventive and versatile of all Scotland’s modern artists. As well as being a technically masterful painter, he was a designer of theatre sets and album covers and one of the most notable playwrights of his generation.

‘The Slab Boys (1978) and Tutti Frutti (1987) were landmarks of theatre and TV.’

The artist grew up in Paisley and worked as a slab boy, mixing paint for the designers at AF Stoddard & Co carpet factory after leaving school.

In 1958 he was accepted to study at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) and later returned to AF Stoddard & Co as a carpet designer, teaching evening classes at GSA.

The Fine Art society said: ‘Born in Paisley and trained at the Glasgow School of Art, his own image was a signature of Scotland.

‘He recreated it over and over in the self-portraits which made his finely cultivated appearance instantly recognisable, wreathed in cigarette smoke, his hooded, often sleep-deprived eyes twinkling with self-aware amusement.

‘Paisley Buddies are, to a man and a woman, total oddballs. I should know, I’m one of them,’ John said once.

‘But it was an oddity seen through a prism of the fantastic and John made magic out of himself.’

The artist grew up in Paisley and worked as a slab boy, mixing paint for the designers at AF Stoddard & Co carpet factory after leaving school 

Last year, Byrne’s career was charted in an exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

One highlight of the show, titled A Big Adventure, was a room displaying more than 40 self-portraits, described as the most ever displayed at one time, spanning 1963 to 2020.

Paintings of famous figures, including Swinton and Sir Billy Connolly, also featured in the exhibition, along with more intimate studies of close family and friends.

At the time, he said: ‘I suppose you could say it tells much of my life story. I hope visitors enjoy it, seeing art should be fun. For me it’s certainly been a fun, Big Adventure all these years.’

The exhibition also explored Byrne’s passion for music as well as writing and his influence on Scottish culture through his collaborations with other artistic figures such as his friends, the late Gerry Rafferty, and Sir Billy Connolly.

As a writer, Byrne is perhaps best known for the 1987 six-part drama Tutti Frutti, starring the late Robbie Coltrane and Dame Emma Thompson. The story of a Scottish rock n’ roll band won six Baftas, including the best actress award for Dame Emma. It was also made into a stage play in 2006.

Byrne’s other drama credits include The Slab Boys in 1978, and 1990’s Your Cheatin’ Heart.

The playwright’s relationship with Swinton began in 1989 and lasted until 2003. Swinton gave birth to their son and daughter Honor and Xavier in 1997. 

Byrne, who was known to family members as Iain, discovered his true ancestry in 2002, when his cousin rang him to tell him that her mother, Helen, had died. 

He said: ‘[Helen] told Aileen what my mother had told her, when she was much younger. 

Tilda Swinton is seen with her daughter Honor Swinton Byrne at the 19th Marrakech International Film Festival in 2022

Swinton with her son Xavier at a screening of the film Memory in Morocco last week

‘Aileen asked Tilda, ‘Do you think I should tell Iain [a family name for Mr Byrne]?’ Tilda said, ‘You’ve got to tell him.’ She called me in and handed me the phone.’ 

He said that he met with his cousin and then ‘everything fell into place’.

‘My mother was constantly voyaging out to Cardonald [where his grandparents lived],’ he added. 

‘I once thought she wanted him to go down on his bended knee and beg forgiveness. No. She was in love with her own father, utterly and totally.

‘I think he gave me that wonderful mixture of genes with his own daughter, the eldest of the family. 

‘That’s what they do in Ireland. I presume it’s what they do in unlettered places and lettered places. It’s traditional, and nobody speaks about it.’

His had tragically died while in hospital in the 1980s. She suffered from a mental illness which Byrne believed was a result of the abuse inflicted by her father.

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