Personal Info
Known For:
Acting
Birthday:
March 29, 1908
Place of Birth:
New York City, New York, USA
Social Media
Arthur O'Connell
Biography
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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Known For
Filmography
| Year | Movie | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker | actor 'Anatomy of a Murder' (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| 1986 | Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend | Self (from Bus Stop [1956]) (archive footage) |
| 1975 | The Hiding Place | Casper ten Boom, 'Papa' |
| 1974 | Huckleberry Finn | Col. Grangerford |
| 1974 | Shootout in a One-Dog Town | Henry Gills |
| 1973 | Wicked, Wicked | Mr. Fenley, Hotel Engineer |
| 1972 | Ben | Bill Hatfield |
| 1972 | They Only Kill Their Masters | Ernie |
| 1972 | The Poseidon Adventure | John, the Chaplain |
| 1971 | The Last Valley | Hoffman |
| 1971 | A Taste of Evil | John |
| 1970 | There Was a Crooked Man... | Mr. Lomax |
| 1970 | Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? | Mr. Kruft |
| 1969 | Seven in Darkness | Larry Wise |
| 1968 | The Power | Prof. Henry Hallson |
| 1968 | If He Hollers, Let Him Go! | Prosecutor |
| 1967 | The Reluctant Astronaut | Arbuckle "Buck" Fleming |
| 1967 | A Covenant with Death | Judge Hockstadter |
| 1966 | Fantastic Voyage | Col. Donald Reid |
| 1966 | The Silencers | Joe Wigman |
| 1966 | Ride Beyond Vengeance | The Narrator |
| 1966 | Birds Do It | Professor Wald |
| 1965 | The Great Race | Henry Goodbody |
| 1965 | Nightmare in the Sun | Sam Wilson |
| 1965 | The Third Day | Dr. Wheeler |
| 1965 | The Monkey's Uncle | Darius Green III |
| 1964 | 7 Faces of Dr. Lao | Clint Stark |
| 1964 | Kissin' Cousins | Pappy Tatum |
| 1964 | Your Cheatin' Heart | Fred Rose |
| 1963 | Marilyn | Self ("Bus Stop") (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| 1962 | Follow That Dream | Pop Kwimper |
| 1961 | Pocketful of Miracles | Count Alfonso Romero |
| 1961 | Misty | Grandpa Clarence Beebe |
| 1961 | A Thunder of Drums | Sgt. Karl Rodermill |
| 1960 | The Great Impostor | Warden J.B. Chandler |
| 1960 | Cimarron | Tom Wyatt |
| 1959 | Anatomy of a Murder | Parnell Emmett McCarthy |
| 1959 | Gidget | Russell Lawrence |
| 1959 | Operation Petticoat | Chief Motor Machinist's Mate Sam Tostin |
| 1959 | Hound-Dog Man | Aaron McKinney |
| 1958 | Man of the West | Sam Beasley |
| 1958 | Voice in the Mirror | Bill Tobin |
| 1957 | April Love | Jed Bruce |
| 1957 | The Violators | Solomon Baumgarten |
| 1957 | Operation Mad Ball | Col. Rousch |
| 1956 | Bus Stop | Virgil Blessing |
| 1956 | The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit | Gordon Walker |
| 1956 | The Solid Gold Cadillac | Mark Jenkins |
| 1956 | The Proud Ones | Jim Dexter |
| 1956 | The Monte Carlo Story | Mr. Homer Hinkley |
| 1955 | Picnic | Howard Bevans |
| 1951 | The Whistle at Eaton Falls | Jim Brewster |
| 1950 | Force of Evil | Link Hall (uncredited) |
| 1948 | Open Secret | Carter |
| 1948 | The Countess of Monte Cristo | Assistant Director Jensen |
| 1948 | The Naked City | Sgt. Shaeffer (uncredited) |
| 1948 | Homecoming | Ambulance Attendant (uncredited) |
| 1948 | One Touch of Venus | Reporter |
| 1948 | State of the Union | First Reporter |
| 1942 | Blondie's Blessed Event | Interne (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Man From Headquarters | Goldie Shores |
| 1942 | Law of the Jungle | Simmons |
| 1942 | Canal Zone | New Recruit (uncredited) |
| 1942 | Hello, Annapolis | Pharmacist Mate |
| 1942 | Fingers at the Window | Photographer (uncredited) |
| 1941 | Citizen Kane | Reporter (uncredited) |
| 1940 | Dr. Kildare Goes Home | Intern (uncredited) |
| 1940 | Two Girls on Broadway | Reporter at Wedding (uncredited) |
| 1940 | I Take This Oath | Court Clerk |
| 1940 | Hullabaloo | Fourth Page |
| 1940 | The Golden Fleecing | Cameraman (uncredited) |
| 1940 | And One Was Beautiful | Moroni's Parking Attendant |
| 1940 | 'Taint Legal | Book Salesman |
| 1940 | Bested by a Beard | Phil |
| 1940 | He Asked for It | |
| 1939 | Murder in Soho | Lefty |