
Arthur O'Connell
Born March 29, 1908 · New York City, New York, USA
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.
Notable Appearances
Movies

Citizen Kane

Anatomy of a Murder

The Poseidon Adventure

Fantastic Voyage

The Great Race

Man of the West

Cimarron

The Silencers

There Was a Crooked Man...

Operation Petticoat

The Naked City

Bus Stop

The Last Valley

Picnic

Pocketful of Miracles

Ben

Gidget

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

7 Faces of Dr. Lao

The Proud Ones

State of the Union

Wicked, Wicked

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker

A Thunder of Drums

Follow That Dream

Way of Tomorrow: The Evolution of Science Fiction Movies

Kissin' Cousins

One Touch of Venus

The Power

The Monkey's Uncle

Hello, Annapolis

Operation Mad Ball

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
TV Shows

Matinee Theater

The Name of the Game

Cannon

Emergency!

Petticoat Junction

Studio One

The F.B.I.

My Three Sons

The Big Valley

Burke's Law

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

The Oscars

The Wild Wild West

Route 66

The Philco Television Playhouse

Night Gallery

Omnibus

McCloud

Alias Smith and Jones

Room 222

Startime

Arrest and Trial

Alcoa Theatre

The New Breed

Sam Benedict

Ghost Story

DuPont Show of the Month

Nanny and the Professor

Medical Story

The Paul Lynde Show

The Second Hundred Years

Adam's Rib

Special for Women
More Movies

The Monte Carlo Story

Huckleberry Finn

Nightmare in the Sun

The Solid Gold Cadillac

Fingers at the Window

If He Hollers, Let Him Go!

The Hiding Place

They Only Kill Their Masters

Canal Zone

Force of Evil

A Taste of Evil

A Covenant with Death

Two Girls on Broadway

Marilyn

The Great Impostor

I Take This Oath

The Reluctant Astronaut

Blondie's Blessed Event

Ride Beyond Vengeance

Hound-Dog Man

Shootout in a One-Dog Town

Homecoming

Dr. Kildare Goes Home

And One Was Beautiful

Law of the Jungle

Voice in the Mirror

The Countess of Monte Cristo

April Love

The Whistle at Eaton Falls

Seven in Darkness

The Taming of the Shrew

Hullabaloo

Open Secret

The Third Day

The Golden Fleecing

Birds Do It

Your Cheatin' Heart

Murder in Soho

Misty

The Violators

Bested by a Beard

Man From Headquarters




