Erin O'Brien-Moore

Erin O'Brien-Moore
Erin O'Brien-Moore in The Life of Emile Zola as Nana
Born	Annette O'Brien-Moore ca. (1902-05-02)May 2, 1902 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	May 3, 1979(1979-05-03) (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	cancer
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1934-1970
Spouse(s)	Mark Barron (1936-1946) (divorced)

Erin O'Brien-Moore (May 2, 1902 in Los Angeles, California – May 3, 1979 in Los Angeles, California) was an American actress. She created the role of Rose in the original Broadway production of Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Street Scene (1929), and was put under contract in Hollywood and made a number of films in the 1930s. Her promising career on the stage and screen was interrupted by severe injuries she sustained in a 1939 fire. Following her recovery and extensive plastic surgery she returned to the stage and character roles in films and television, notably in four seasons of the primetime serial drama Peyton Place (1965–68).

Erin O'Brien-Moore was born Annette O'Brien-Moore in Los Angeles, to Agnes and J. B. L. O'Brien-Moore. Her father was publisher of the Tucson Citizen; her older brother was classical scholar Ainsworth O'Brien-Moore. She was educated at a convent in Arizona, and planned to become a painter until she saw Alla Nazimova on the stage, when she turned her attention to the theatre. She first appeared on Broadway in 1926, in a small role in The Makropoulos Secret. She was the star of Elmer Rice's Street Scene (1929), a naturalistic drama about life a New York City tenement that ran 601 performances on Broadway, toured throughout the U.S., and received the Pulitzer Prize. During the play's six-month run in London, Aldous Huxley became an ardent fan of O'Brien-Moore and saw her performance at least three times.

O'Brien-Moore's stage success led to a Hollywood contract and second-lead roles in films including Black Legion (1937), opposite Humphrey Bogart. In The Life of Emile Zola (1937), with Paul Muni, she played the character who inspired the fictional character Nana. Her other films include Dangerous Corner (1934), Little Men (1934), His Greatest Gamble (1934), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935), Streamline Express (1935), Our Little Girl (1935), Two in the Dark (1936), The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936), Ring Around the Moon (1936), The Leavenworth Case (1936), Green Light (1937) and The Plough and the Stars (1937).