Arthur O'Connell
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.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur O'Connell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur O'Connell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
The Hiding Place
Huckleberry Finn
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
Adam's Rib
Wicked, Wicked
The Poseidon Adventure
They Only Kill Their Masters
Ghost Story
The Paul Lynde Show
Ben
Emergency!
A Taste of Evil
Cannon
The Last Valley
Alias Smith and Jones
Night Gallery
There Was a Crooked Man...
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
McCloud
Nanny and the Professor
Seven in Darkness
Room 222
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
The Name of the Game
The Power
The Second Hundred Years
The Reluctant Astronaut
Ironside
A Covenant with Death
Fantastic Voyage
Birds Do It
The Silencers
Ride Beyond Vengeance
The F.B.I.
The Wild Wild West
The Big Valley
The Monkey's Uncle
The Third Day
The Great Race
Nightmare in the Sun
Your Cheatin' Heart
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Kissin' Cousins
Petticoat Junction
Burke's Law
The Fugitive
Arrest and Trial
Marilyn
Sam Benedict
Pericles on 31st Street
Follow That Dream
Pocketful of Miracles
The New Breed
A Thunder of Drums
Misty
The Great Impostor
Cimarron
Route 66
My Three Sons
Operation Petticoat
Hound-Dog Man
Gidget
Anatomy of a Murder
Voice in the Mirror
Man of the West
The Violators
April Love
Alcoa Theatre
Operation Mad Ball
The Monte Carlo Story
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Bus Stop
The Solid Gold Cadillac
The Proud Ones
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Picnic
Matinee Theater
The Oscars
Omnibus
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
Force of Evil
Studio One
The Countess of Monte Cristo
The Philco Television Playhouse
One Touch of Venus
State of the Union
Homecoming
The Naked City
Open Secret
Hello, Annapolis
Fingers at the Window
Blondie's Blessed Event
Law of the Jungle
Man From Headquarters
Citizen Kane
Hullabaloo
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
The Golden Fleecing
Bested by a Beard
'Taint Legal
I Take This Oath
Two Girls on Broadway
And One Was Beautiful
Murder in Soho