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
Ironside
The Fugitive
Dr. Josephus Harrison Adams
The Fugitive
Samuel Cole
The Philco Television Playhouse
The Philco Television Playhouse
Jim Elkins
The Philco Television Playhouse
Grant
Petticoat Junction
William Lawrence
My Three Sons
Emergency!
Burke's Law
Dr. Stuart Alexander
The Wild Wild West
Studio One
Curtis
Studio One
Manachi Conners
The F.B.I.
Smitty
Matinee Theater
Cannon
The Name of the Game
Charlie Sherwin
The Big Valley
Jubal
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Lyman
Route 66
Alias Smith and Jones
Night Gallery
McCloud
Room 222
The New Breed
Peter Capples
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Oscars
Self
Ghost Story
Chief Owen Huston
Sam Benedict
Nanny and the Professor
Alcoa Theatre
Arrest and Trial
Citizen Kane
Reporter (uncredited)
Adam's Rib
Judge
The Poseidon Adventure
John, the Chaplain
DuPont Show of the Month
Anatomy of a Murder
Parnell Emmett McCarthy
The Great Race
Henry Goodbody
Gidget
Russell Lawrence
Man of the West
Sam Beasley
Operation Petticoat
Chief Motor Machinist's Mate Sam Tostin
There Was a Crooked Man...
Mr. Lomax
The Naked City
Sgt. Shaeffer (uncredited)
Fantastic Voyage
Col. Donald Reid
The Second Hundred Years
The Paul Lynde Show
Ben
Bill Hatfield
Picnic
Howard Bevans
Pocketful of Miracles
Count Alfonso Romero
The Last Valley
Hoffman
Cimarron
Tom Wyatt
Bus Stop
Virgil Blessing
Ride Beyond Vengeance
The Narrator
State of the Union
First Reporter
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Gordon Walker
Huckleberry Finn
Col. Grangerford
One Touch of Venus
Reporter
A Thunder of Drums
Sgt. Karl Rodermill
The Silencers
Joe Wigman
The Monkey's Uncle
Darius Green III
Homecoming
Ambulance Attendant (uncredited)
The Reluctant Astronaut
Arbuckle "Buck" Fleming
Summer Playhouse
Force of Evil
Link Hall (uncredited)
They Only Kill Their Masters
Ernie
Wicked, Wicked
Mr. Fenley, Hotel Engineer
Follow That Dream
Pop Kwimper
The Monte Carlo Story
Mr. Homer Hinkley
The Proud Ones
Jim Dexter
Two Girls on Broadway
Reporter at Wedding (uncredited)
The Solid Gold Cadillac
Mark Jenkins
Operation Mad Ball
Col. Rousch
'Taint Legal
Book Salesman
The Power
Prof. Henry Hallson
April Love
Jed Bruce
Misty
Grandpa Clarence Beebe
Kissin' Cousins
Pappy Tatum
The Hiding Place
Casper ten Boom, 'Papa'
The Great Impostor
Warden J.B. Chandler
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
Mr. Kruft
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
Clint Stark
A Covenant with Death
Judge Hockstadter
Voice in the Mirror
Bill Tobin
Nightmare in the Sun
Sam Wilson
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
actor 'Anatomy of a Murder' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
Intern (uncredited)
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
Prosecutor
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
Henry Gills
Birds Do It
Professor Wald
A Taste of Evil
John
Marilyn
Self ("Bus Stop") (archive footage) (uncredited)
Open Secret
Carter
The Third Day
Dr. Wheeler
Your Cheatin' Heart
Fred Rose
Hound-Dog Man
Aaron McKinney
The Golden Fleecing
Cameraman (uncredited)
And One Was Beautiful
Moroni's Parking Attendant
I Take This Oath
Court Clerk
The Countess of Monte Cristo
Assistant Director Jensen
Seven in Darkness
Larry Wise
Blondie's Blessed Event
Interne (uncredited)
Hullabaloo
Fourth Page
Man From Headquarters
Goldie Shores
Murder in Soho
Lefty
The Violators
Solomon Baumgarten
Fingers at the Window
Photographer (uncredited)
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
Self (from Bus Stop [1956]) (archive footage)
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
Jim Brewster
Canal Zone
New Recruit (uncredited)
Bested by a Beard
Phil
Law of the Jungle
Simmons
Hello, Annapolis
Pharmacist Mate