1908-03-29 ( 117 years old ) in New York City, New York, USA
Arthur O'Connell (March 29, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared in films (starting with a small role in Citizen Kane) in 1941 and television programs (mostly guest appearances). Among his screen appearances were Picnic, Anatomy of a Murder, and as the watch-maker who hides Jews during WWII in The Hiding Place.
A veteran vaudevillian, O'Connell, from New York City, made his legitimate stage debut in the mid 1930s, at which time he fell within the orbit of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. Welles cast O'Connell in the tiny role of a reporter in the closing scenes of Citizen Kane (1941), a film often referred to as O'Connell's film debut, though in fact he had already appeared in Freshman Year (1939) and had costarred in two Leon Errol short subjects as Leon's conniving brother-in-law.
After numerous small movie parts, O'Connell returned to Broadway, where he appeared as the erstwhile middle-aged swain of a spinsterish schoolteacher in Picnic - a role he'd recreate in the 1956 film version, earning an Oscar nomination in the process. Later the jaded looking O'Connell was frequently cast as fortyish losers and alcoholics; in the latter capacity he appeared as James Stewart's boozy attorney mentor in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and the result was another Oscar nomination. In 1962 O'Connell portrayed the father of Elvis Presley's character in the motion picture Follow That Dream, and in 1964 in the Presley-picture Kissin' Cousins.
O'Connell continued appearing in choice character parts on both TV and films during the 1960s, but avoided a regular television series, holding out until he could be assured top billing. He appeared as Joseph Baylor in the 1964 episode "A Little Anger Is a Good Thing" on the ABC medical drama about psychiatry, Breaking Point. The actor accepted the part of a man who discovers that his 99-year-old father has been frozen in an iceberg on the 1967 sitcom The Second Hundred Years, assuming he'd be billed first per the producers' agreement. Instead, top billing went to newcomer Monte Markham in the dual role of O'Connell's father and his son. O'Connell accepted the demotion to second billing as well as could be expected, but he never again trusted the word of any Hollywood executive.
Ill health forced O'Connell to significantly reduce his acting appearances in the mid '70s, but the actor stayed busy as a commercial spokesman, a friendly pharmacist who was a spokesperson for Crest toothpaste. At the time of his death from Alzheimer's disease in California in May 1981, O'Connell was appearing solely in these commercials, by his own choice.
O'Connell was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.
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Movies
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991-10-28
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
1986-04-19
The Hiding Place
1975-05-04
Huckleberry Finn
1974-05-24
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
1974-01-09
Wicked, Wicked
1973-06-13
The Poseidon Adventure
1972-12-01
They Only Kill Their Masters
1972-11-22
Ben
1972-06-23
A Taste of Evil
1971-10-11
The Last Valley
1971-01-28
There Was a Crooked Man...
1970-09-18
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
1970-09-11
Seven in Darkness
1969-09-23
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
1968-10-08
The Power
1968-02-21
The Reluctant Astronaut
1967-09-05
A Covenant with Death
1967-02-15
Fantastic Voyage
1966-08-24
Birds Do It
1966-08-13
The Silencers
1966-02-18
Ride Beyond Vengeance
1966-01-01
The Monkey's Uncle
1965-08-18
The Third Day
1965-08-04
The Great Race
1965-07-01
Nightmare in the Sun
1965-03-06
Your Cheatin' Heart
1964-11-04
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
1964-03-18
Kissin' Cousins
1964-03-06
Marilyn
1963-04-18
Follow That Dream
1962-04-11
Pocketful of Miracles
1961-12-18
A Thunder of Drums
1961-09-26
Misty
1961-06-04
The Great Impostor
1960-12-23
Cimarron
1960-12-01
Operation Petticoat
1959-12-05
Hound-Dog Man
1959-11-11
Anatomy of a Murder
1959-07-01
Gidget
1959-04-09
Voice in the Mirror
1958-08-13
Man of the West
1958-06-20
The Violators
1957-11-30
April Love
1957-11-27
Operation Mad Ball
1957-08-17
The Monte Carlo Story
1956-12-19
Bus Stop
1956-08-31
The Solid Gold Cadillac
1956-08-22
The Proud Ones
1956-05-15
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
1956-04-12
Picnic
1955-11-18
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
1951-08-02
Force of Evil
1950-08-24
The Countess of Monte Cristo
1948-10-31
One Touch of Venus
1948-08-01
State of the Union
1948-04-30
Homecoming
1948-04-29
The Naked City
1948-03-04
Open Secret
1948-02-14
Hello, Annapolis
1942-04-23
Fingers at the Window
1942-04-22
Blondie's Blessed Event
1942-04-09
Canal Zone
1942-03-19
Law of the Jungle
1942-02-06
Man From Headquarters
1942-01-23
Citizen Kane
1941-04-17
Hullabaloo
1940-10-25
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
1940-09-06
The Golden Fleecing
1940-08-16
Bested by a Beard
1940-07-16
'Taint Legal
1940-05-25
I Take This Oath
1940-05-20
Two Girls on Broadway
1940-04-19
And One Was Beautiful
1940-04-05
Murder in Soho
1939-02-01
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