Arthur O'Connell
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
Bonanza
Dr. Samuel Hubert
The Fugitive
Dr. Josephus Harrison Adams
The Fugitive
Samuel Cole
Cannon
Ironside
Emergency!
The Big Valley
Jubal
Petticoat Junction
William Lawrence
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Lyman
The Wild Wild West
Matinee Theater
The Philco Television Playhouse
The Philco Television Playhouse
Jim Elkins
The Philco Television Playhouse
Grant
My Three Sons
Route 66
McCloud
The Oscars
Self
Burke's Law
Dr. Stuart Alexander
The F.B.I.
Smitty
Studio One
Curtis
Studio One
Manachi Conners
Night Gallery
Man of the West
Sam Beasley
The Name of the Game
Charlie Sherwin
The Monkey's Uncle
Darius Green III
Citizen Kane
Reporter (uncredited)
Blondie's Blessed Event
Interne (uncredited)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
actor 'Anatomy of a Murder' (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Proud Ones
Jim Dexter
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
Intern (uncredited)
Voice in the Mirror
Bill Tobin
Room 222
Operation Mad Ball
Col. Rousch
The Reluctant Astronaut
Arbuckle "Buck" Fleming
The Great Impostor
Warden J.B. Chandler
Arrest and Trial
Alias Smith and Jones
The Power
Prof. Henry Hallson
Pocketful of Miracles
Count Alfonso Romero
State of the Union
First Reporter
Seven in Darkness
Larry Wise
Bus Stop
Virgil Blessing
April Love
Jed Bruce
The Countess of Monte Cristo
Assistant Director Jensen
The Great Race
Henry Goodbody
A Covenant with Death
Judge Hockstadter
Huckleberry Finn
Col. Grangerford
Open Secret
Carter
Ghost Story
Chief Owen Huston
Sam Benedict
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Poseidon Adventure
John, the Chaplain
The New Breed
Peter Capples
Hello, Annapolis
Pharmacist Mate
There Was a Crooked Man...
Mr. Lomax
Hound-Dog Man
Aaron McKinney
Nanny and the Professor
A Thunder of Drums
Sgt. Karl Rodermill
Picnic
Howard Bevans
Alcoa Theatre
And One Was Beautiful
Moroni's Parking Attendant
Force of Evil
Link Hall (uncredited)
One Touch of Venus
Reporter
Anatomy of a Murder
Parnell Emmett "Parn" McCarthy
Wicked, Wicked
Mr. Fenley, Hotel Engineer
He Asked for It
The Solid Gold Cadillac
Mark Jenkins
The Hiding Place
Casper ten Boom, 'Papa'
The Second Hundred Years
Edwin Carpenter
Bested by a Beard
Phil
Birds Do It
Professor Wald
Fantastic Voyage
Col. Donald Reid
Kissin' Cousins
Pappy Tatum
Gidget
Russell Lawrence
Ride Beyond Vengeance
The Narrator
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
Henry Gills
DuPont Show of the Month
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Gordon Walker
Operation Petticoat
Chief Motor Machinist's Mate Sam Tostin
Canal Zone
New Recruit (uncredited)
They Only Kill Their Masters
Ernie
Cimarron
Tom Wyatt
Ben
Bill Hatfield
The Paul Lynde Show
Follow That Dream
Pop Kwimper
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
Jim Brewster
A Taste of Evil
John
Nightmare in the Sun
Sam Wilson
Adam's Rib
Judge
The Naked City
Sgt. Shaeffer (uncredited)
The Last Valley
Hoffman
Summer Playhouse
Homecoming
Ambulance Attendant (uncredited)
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
Mr. Kruft
Hullabaloo
Fourth Page
The Silencers
Joe Wigman
The Monte Carlo Story
Mr. Homer Hinkley
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Clint Stark
The Third Day
Dr. Wheeler
Murder in Soho
Lefty
Marilyn
Self ("Bus Stop") (archive footage) (uncredited)
Fingers at the Window
Photographer (uncredited)
Law of the Jungle
Simmons
Misty
Grandpa Clarence Beebe
I Take This Oath
Court Clerk
The Violators
Solomon Baumgarten
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
Prosecutor
Your Cheatin' Heart
Fred Rose
Two Girls on Broadway
Reporter at Wedding (uncredited)
The Golden Fleecing
Cameraman (uncredited)
Man From Headquarters
Goldie Shores
Way of Tomorrow: The Evolution of Science Fiction Movies
Self - (archive footage)
'Taint Legal
Book Salesman