Jamie Dornan’s father, a renowned obstetrician and gynecologist in Northern Ireland, has died following COVID-19 complications. Belfast’s local paper News Letter reports Jim Dornan, 73, had died while in the Middle East. The Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar actor has not spoken publicly over his father’s passing, but the news broke Monday morning via NIPANC, the Northern Ireland pancreatic cancer charity where the retired doctor served as president of the foundation.
“It is with great sadness that NIPANC has heard of the death of Professor Jim Dornan, who died in the UAE on 15 March,” the foundation wrote on its Instagram. “Jim, who was the President of NIPANC, the Northern Ireland pancreatic cancer charity, lived a life of public service. He was internationally renowned as a world-class obstetrician and gynecologist. His relationship with NIPANC was founded on his own family’s experience of this terrible cancer, with the tragic death of his first wife, Lorna, more than twenty years ago.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
View this post on Instagram
Jim’s colleagues concluded the post by expressing their condolences to Jim’s family, including his three children and wife Samina. “Our thoughts and prayer go out to His family, Samina, Liesa, Jess and Jamie, at this difficult time,” they wrote.
Belfast Live reported that Dornan’s father was described as “one of a kind.” Jim, a professor who chaired Fetal Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and Health & Life Sciences at the Ulster University, is understood to have been fighting COVID-19 at the time of his death after the foundation announced his battle on March 13. Per Johns Hopkins data as of this writing, there are more than 119 million cases cited globally with 2,655,161 deaths.
The Fifty Shades Of Grey star, who lost his mother Lorna to pancreatic cancer in 1998 when he was just 16, had immense love and respect for both his parents. During numerous conversations with the American press, Dornan would sing his father’s praises, including telling Jimmy Kimmel in 2018 how his dad delivered more than 6,000 babies in his life during a distinguished medical career.
“He’s about to turn 70 and he’s worked hard his whole life. He enjoys himself a lot,” Dornan said at the time. “He still does a little bit of work on the side, in private practice. We had the whole family at Christmas, they came and stayed with us for Christmas, he just picks the comfiest chair in our home and about five minutes past 11 in the morning, he’ll ask for his first gin and tonic and that’s his Christmas vibe. He will very quietly say, ‘Can I help?’”
Jim had a chance to share the screen in 2016 with his son, Jamie, as the Belfast Telegraph reports the retired doctor had a role in the final season of the BBC’s The Fall. “It was the writer and producer Allan Cubitt’s idea,” Jim said. “I met him socially and he asked me to take part in The Fall. He really wanted me to do it for Jamie. Jamie had finished filming and he had no idea I was going to be in it. It came as a real surprise to him when he found out.”
As tributes continue to pour in for the good doctor, Methody Collegians, the school Dornan attended as a child, sent a message for their former student’s family, posting to Twitter, “Sending our love and condolences to the family and friends of Professor Jim Dornan. Thoughts are with his 3 children Jamie, Jessica and Liesa and his wife Samina at this sad time. He had a passion for family and his medical and charitable work. RIP Jim.”
