Arthur O'Connell | |
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From Bus Stop (1956)
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Born |
New York City, New York, U.S. |
March 29, 1908
Died | May 18, 1981 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 73)
Cause of death | Alzheimer's disease |
Resting place | Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York City |
Occupation | Stage, film, and television actor |
Years active | 1938–1981 |
Spouse(s) | Ann Hall Dunlop (1917–2000) (married 1962) (divorced 1972) |
Arthur Joseph O'Connell (29 March 1908 Manhattan, New York – 18 May 1981 Woodland Hills, California) was an American stage and film actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both Picnic (1955) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). His made his final film appearance in The Hiding Place (1975), portraying a watch-maker who hides Jews during World War II.
O'Connell was born on March 29, 1908 in Manhattan, New York. He made his legitimate stage debut in the middle 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 (1938) 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.