Arthur O'Connell

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Arthur O'Connell (born March 29, 1908 in New York City , † May 18, 1981 in California ) was an American actor .

Life

Arthur O'Connell had worked as a stage actor since the 1930s. In 1938 he made his film debut in the B-movie comedy Freshman Year alongside William Lundigan . In the next few years, however, only played tiny roles in Hollywood, for example as one of the numerous reporters in Citizen Kane by Orson Welles . He then turned back to the stage, made his Broadway debut in 1943, starring in classic Shakespearean plays such as Macbeth and Hamlet . At the end of the 1940s he was again in front of the camera for a number of films, but still only in small roles.

His big breakthrough came O'Connell with his portrayal of friendly bachelors and shopkeeper Howard Bevens in the Pulitzer Prize winning play Picnic by William Inge . He played this character first from 1953 in the original production on Broadway and then later in the film adaptation of the same name , for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor . He then played other important supporting roles, often as a friendly, but often unhappy middle-aged gentleman. He received a second Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an alcoholic lawyer friend of James Stewart's character in the court film Anatomy of a Murder (1960).

On US television, the actor took on guest roles in series classics such as Bonanza , Crazy Wild West , Big Valley , Auf der Flucht , Der Boss and Emergency Call California from the 1950s . O'Connell played a leading role between 1967 and 1968 in the sitcom The Second Hundred Years : In this he played an elderly man whose father (played by Monte Markham ) was dug up alive from the ice in Alaska after decades and is therefore physically half as young as he is.

In the mid-1970s, he gradually withdrew from acting after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease . He died of complications from the disease in 1981 at the age of 73.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Arthur O'Connell; Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved February 10, 2020 (American English).
  2. Arthur O'Connell at the Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  3. Arthur O'Connell (biography). Retrieved February 10, 2020 .
  4. Arthur O'Connell; Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved February 10, 2020 (American English).
  5. Upi: Arthur O'connell, 73, Nominated for Oscars for Supporting Roles . In: The New York Times . May 19, 1981, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed February 10, 2020]).