fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Arthur Joseph O'Connell (March 29, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American stage, film and television actor, who achieved prominence in character roles in the 1950s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both Picnic (1955) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).[1]

Arthur O'Connell
From Bus Stop (1956)
Born	(1908-03-29)March 29, 1908 New York City, NY, U.S.
Died	May 18, 1981(1981-05-18) (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York
Occupation	Stage, film, and television actor
Years active	1929–1981
Spouse	Ann Hall Dunlop ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1972)​

Early life

Arthur O'Connell was born to Julia (née Byrne) & Michael O'Connell on March 29, 1908, in Manhattan, New York. His father died when O'Connell was two; he lost his mother when he was 12. He was the youngest of four children. His siblings were William, Kathleen, and Juliette. William, the eldest, became a justice of the New York State Supreme Court and died in 1972.[2]

After his father's death, Arthur was sent to live in Flushing, New York with his mother's sister, Mrs. Charles Koetzner, while his sisters moved in with other relatives and William remained with his mother. Arthur attended St John's College for two years. His early jobs included working in the engineering department of New York Edison, as a salesman at R.H. Macy and as a door-to-door salesman of magazines.[2]

Career

Early roles

O'Connell went into acting in 1929, landing a role in summer stock at the Frankin Stock Company in Dorchester, Massachusetts, playing a role in The Patsy.[2] In 1934 his career was interrupted by a bout of encephalitis, which required a seven-month stay at the Flower Hospital in New York City. He recovered in a sanitarium for the indigent, and for a time was on home relief living in a cheap room, subsisting on "milk, raw eggs and bananas."[3]

He made his legitimate stage debut in the middle 1930s, appearing in various roles in theater and vaudeville in the U.S, and in London.[4]

O'Connell's had small film roles early in his career. His film debut was as a student in Freshman Year (1938) and he appeared in a small role as a reporter in Citizen Kane (1941).[4] He costarred in two Leon Errol short subjects as Errol's conniving brother-in-law.

He entered the army in 1945 and served in the Signal Corps. After his discharge he was spotted in little theatre by Charles Laughton and joined a travelling Shakesperean company. His film roles remained insubstantial, playing a detective in The Naked City (1948) and a reporter the 1948 film State of the Union.[4]

Picnic and success

His career breakthrough came on Broadway, where he originated the role of Howard Bevan, the middle-aged swain of a spinsterish schoolteacher in Picnic. He recreated the Bevan role in the 1955 film version, opposite Rosalind Russell as the schoolteacher, earning an Oscar nomination.[3] As a result of his critically praised performance in the stage and film roles, he was heavily in demand,[4] resulting in "six good roles in rapid succession." O'Connell made more money in one year after Picnic than in the preceding 25 years.[5]

After Picnic, he appeared in another Joshua Logan film, Bus Stop, in 1956, as the commonsensical friend of the lead, played by Don Murray. In that same year he appeared in Solid Gold Cadillac, playing a kindly office manager in love with Judy Holliday. His performance as James Stewart's alcoholic mentor in Anatomy of a Murder (1959) resulted in a second Oscar nomination.[4]

He also frequently appeared as a paterfamilias in movies starring teen idols such as Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and Fabian. He frequently played alcoholics, and consulted members of Alcoholics Anonymous in preparation for one of his roles.[5]

In 1959, O'Connell played the part of Chief Petty Officer Sam Tostin, engine room chief of the fictional World War II submarine USS Sea Tiger, opposite Cary Grant and Tony Curtis in Operation Petticoat. In 1961, O'Connell played the role of Grandpa Clarence Beebe in the children's film Misty, the screen adaptation of Marguerite Henry's story Misty of Chincoteague.[6] In 1962, he portrayed the father of Elvis Presley's character in the motion picture Follow That Dream, and in 1964 in the Presley-picture Kissin' Cousins. In the same year, O'Connell portrayed the idealist-turned-antagonist Clint Stark in The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, which has become a cult classic, and in which O'Connell's is the only character other than star Tony Randall to appear as one of the "7 faces." O'Connell continued appearing in choice character parts on both television and films during the 1960s, but avoided a regular television series, holding out until he could be assured top billing.

On Christmas Day, 1962, O'Connell was cast as Clayton Dodd in the episode "Green, Green Hills" of the western series Empire, starring Richard Egan as the rancher Jim Redigo. This episode features Dayton Lummis as Jason Simms and Joanna Moore as Althea Dodd. In 1966, he guest-starred as a scientist who regretfully realized that he has created an all-powerful android in an episode of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, titled "The Mechanical Man." In the February 1967 episode "Never Look Back" of the TV series Lassie, he played Luther Jennings, an elderly ranger who monitors the survey tower at Strawberry Peak and who takes it hard when he finds he'll lose his job when the tower is slated for destruction.

In 1967, O'Connell co-starred with Monte Markham in The Second Hundred Years, playing the aging son of a gold miner who was frozen for a hundred years in Alaska. The series lasted for one season.

He worked in commercials, playing a friendly pharmacist as a spokesperson for Crest.[1] He made his final film appearance in The Hiding Place (1975), portraying a Dutch watch-maker who hides Jews during World War II. Alzheimer's Disease forced his retirement in the mid-1970s.[4]

Personal life

In the late 1950s, O'Connell jointly owned a race horse, April Love, with the singer Pat Boone.[5]

In 1962, O'Connell married Ann Hall Dunlop (née Ann Byrd Hall; 1917–2000) of Washington, D.C., widow of William Laird Dunlop III (1909–1960). They met at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy,[7] and divorced in December 1972 in Los Angeles.

On May 18, 1981, O'Connell died of Alzheimer's disease at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.[8][1] He was interred at Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1938	Freshman Year	Student	Uncredited
1939	Murder in Soho	Lefty
1940	And One Was Beautiful	Moroni's Parking Attendant	Uncredited
	Two Girls on Broadway	Reporter at Wedding	Uncredited
	I Take This Oath	Court Clerk	Uncredited
	The Golden Fleecing	Cameraman	Uncredited
	Dr. Kildare Goes Home	New Interne	Uncredited
	The Leather Pushers	Reporter	Uncredited
	Hullabaloo	Fourth Page	Uncredited
1941	Lucky Devils	Pilot	Uncredited
	Citizen Kane	Reporter	Uncredited
1942	Man from Headquarters	Goldie Shores
	Law of the Jungle	Simmons
	Yokel Boy	Second Assistant Director	Uncredited
	Canal Zone	New Recruit	Uncredited
	Shepherd of the Ozarks	Bruce	Uncredited
	Blondie's Blessed Event	Interne	Uncredited
	Fingers at the Window	Photographer	Uncredited
	Hello, Annapolis	Pharmacist Mate	Uncredited
1948	Open Secret	Carter
	The Naked City	Sgt. Shaeffer	Uncredited
	State of the Union	First Reporter	Uncredited
	Homecoming	Ambulance Attendant	Uncredited
	One Touch of Venus	Reporter	Uncredited
	The Countess of Monte Cristo	Assistant Director Jensen
	Force of Evil	Link Hall	Uncredited
1950	Love That Brute	Newspaperman at Funeral	Uncredited
1951	The Whistle at Eaton Falls	Jim Brewster
1955	Picnic	Howard Bevans
1956	The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit	Gordon Walker
	The Proud Ones	Jim Dexter
	The Solid Gold Cadillac	Mark Jenkins
	Bus Stop	Virgil Blessing
	The Monte Carlo Story	M. Homer Hinkley
1957	Operation Mad Ball	Col. Rousch
	The Violators	Solomon Baumgarden
	April Love	Uncle Jed Bruce
1958	Voice in the Mirror	William R. 'Bill' Tobin
	Man of the West	Sam Beasley
1959	Gidget	Russell Lawrence
	Anatomy of a Murder	Parnell Emmett McCarthy
	Hound-Dog Man	Aaron McKinney
	Operation Petticoat	Chief Machinist's Mate Sam Tostin
1960	Cimarron	Tom Wyatt
1961	The Great Impostor	Warden J.B. Chandler
	Misty	Clarence Beebe
	A Thunder of Drums	Sgt. Karl Rodermill
	Pocketful of Miracles	Count Alfonso Romero
1962	Follow That Dream	Pop Kwimper
1964	Kissin' Cousins	Pappy Tatum
	7 Faces of Dr. Lao	Clint Stark
	Your Cheatin' Heart	Fred Rose
1965	Nightmare in the Sun	Sam Wilson
	The Monkey's Uncle	Darius Green III
	The Great Race	Henry Goodbody
	The Third Day	Dr. Wheeler
1966	Ride Beyond Vengeance	The Narrator
	The Silencers	Joe Wigman
	Fantastic Voyage	Colonel Donald Reid
	Birds Do It	Prof. Wald
1967	A Covenant with Death	Judge Hockstadter
	The Reluctant Astronaut	Arbuckle Fleming
1967-1968	The Second Hundred Years	Edwin Carpenter	TV Series
1968	The Power	Professor Henry Hallson
	If He Hollers, Let Him Go!	Prosecutor
1970	Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came	Mr. Kruft
	There Was a Crooked Man...	Mr. Lomax
	Do Not Throw Cushions Into the Ring	Business Agent
1971	The Last Valley	Hoffman
1972	Ben	Billy Hatfield
	They Only Kill Their Masters	Ernie
	The Poseidon Adventure	Chaplain John
1972	The Jimmy Stewart Show	Claude Peebles	Episode "Old School Ties"
1973	Wicked, Wicked	Mr. Fenley
1974	Huckleberry Finn	Col. Grangerford
1975	Emergency!	Mr. Metfort	Season 5, Episode 9
1975	The Hiding Place	Caspar ten Boom

References

External links

• Arthur O'Connell Papers, Loyola Marymount University
• Arthur O'Connell at IMDb
• Arthur O'Connell at the TCM Movie Database
• Arthur O'Connell at the Internet Broadway Database
• Arthur O'Connell at Find a Grave

На других языках

---

[de] Arthur O’Connell

Arthur O’Connell (* 29. März 1908 in New York City; † 18. Mai 1981 in Kalifornien) war ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler.

---

- [en] Arthur O'Connell

---

[ru] О’Коннелл, Артур

Артур О’Коннелл (англ. Arthur O'Connell; 29 марта 1908, Нью-Йорк — 18 мая 1981, Лос-Анджелес) — американский актёр, специализировавшийся на исполнении ролей второго плана. Дважды номинировался на премию «Оскар» за лучшую роль второго плана за роли в фильмах «Пикник» (1955) и «Анатомия убийства» (1958).

---

---