Edmond O'Brien (September 10 1915 – May 9 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. (1950).
Born in New York, New York, O'Brien made his film debut in 1938, and gradually built a career as a highly regarded supporting actor. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and appeared in the Air Forces' Broadway play and film Winged Victory.
He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), and was also nominated for his role in Seven Days in May (1964).
His other notable films include White Heat (1949), The Girl Can't Help It (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Longest Day (1962), Fantastic Voyage (1966), and The Wild Bunch (1969). From 1950 to 1952 O'Brien starred in the radio classic " Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar", the man with the action packed expense account. He also appeared extensively in television, including the 1957 live 90-minute broadcast on Playhouse 90 of The Comedian, a drama written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer in which Mickey Rooney portrays a television comedian while O'Brien plays a writer driven to the brink of insanity by the mayhem.
He was married and divorced from actresses Nancy Kelly and Olga San Juan. San Juan was the mother of his three children, including television producer Bridget O'Brien and actors Maria O'Brien and Brendan O'Brien.
He died in Inglewood, California of Alzheimer's Disease and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Edmond O'Brien has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1725 Vine Street, and a second star at 6523 Hollywood Blvd. for his contribution to the television industry.
Oscar-winner Edmond O'Brien was one of the most respected character actors in American cinema from his heyday of the mid-1940s through the late 1960s. Born on September 10, 1915, in New York, New York, O'Brien learned his craft in the theater, appearing with Orson Welles's Mercury Players. He made his uncredited debut as an extra in Prison Break (1938), but his real debut was with the plum supporting part of Gringoire in Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1939). After returning from his wartime service with the Army Air Force, O'Brien built up a distinguished career as a supporting actor in A-list films, and as an occasional character lead such as in D.O.A. (1950). O'Brien won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Barefoot Contessa, The (1954) and also was received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for his role as a drunken senator ferreting out an attempted coup d'etat in Seven Days in May (1964). He also appeared as the crusty old timer Freddy who antagonizes Ben Johnson (I)'s character Tector Gorch in director Sam Peckinpah's classic Western Wild Bunch, The (1969). Increasingly, he appeared on television in the 1960s and '70s, but managed a turn in his old boss Welles' unfinished film Other Side of the Wind, The (1972). O'Brien married and divorced the actresses Nancy Kelly (I) and Olga San Juan, with the latter wife being the mother of his three children, including actors 'Maria OBrien and 'Brendan O'Brien (II)'. He died in May 1985 Inglewood, California, of Alzheimer's Disease and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
