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.    

Filmografie 42

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The Poseidon Adventure 1972Film als John, the Chaplain

Picnic 1955Film als Howard Bevans

Anatomy of a Murder 1959Film als Parnell Emmett McCarthy

Kissin' Cousins 1964Film als Pappy Tatum

Bus Stop 1956Film als Virgil Blessing

The Great Race 1965Film als Henry Goodbody

The Power 1968Film als Henry Hallson

Fantastic Voyage 1966Film als Col. Donald Reid

The Silencers 1966Film als Joe Wigman

Teenagers love 1959Film als Russell Lawrence

The Solid Gold Cadillac 1956Film als Mark Jenkins

Man of the West 1958Film +3 als Sam Beasley

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit 1956Film als Gordon Walker

Ben 1972Film als Bill Hatfield

There Was a Crooked Man... 1970Film als Mr. Lomax

Pocketful of Miracles 1961Film als Count Alfonso Romero

A Thunder of Drums 1961Film als Sgt. Karl Rodermill

Cimarron 1960Film als Tom Wyatt

7 Faces of Dr. Lao 1964Film als Clint Stark

State of the Union 1948Film als First Reporter

The Proud Ones 1956Film als Jim Dexter

Follow That Dream 1962Film als Pop Kwimper

One Touch of Venus 1948Film als Reporter

The Hiding Place 1975Film als Casper ten Boom, 'Papa'

The Last Valley 1971Film als Hoffman

A Taste of Evil 1971Film als John

The Monkey's Uncle 1965Film als Darius Green III

Force of Evil 1950Film als Link Hall (uncredited)

They Only Kill Their Masters 1972Film als Ernie

The Great Impostor 1960Film als Warden J.B. Chandler

Ride Beyond Vengeance 1966Film als The Narrator

Operation Mad Ball 1957Film als Col. Rousch

A Covenant with Death 1967Film als Judge Hockstadter

Blondie's Blessed Event 1942Film als Interne (uncredited)

Law of the Jungle 1942Film als Simmons

Huckleberry Finn 1974Film als Col. Grangerford

Birds Do It 1966Film als Professor Wald

The Reluctant Astronaut 1967Film als Arbuckle "Buck" Fleming

I Take This Oath 1940Film als Court Clerk

Misty 1961Film als Grandpa Clarence Beebe

Homecoming 1948Film als Ambulance Attendant (uncredited)

Your Cheatin' Heart 1964Film als Fred Rose