Movies List
TV Show List
Huckleberry Finn

as Col. Grangerford

1974
Wicked, Wicked

as Mr. Fenley, Hotel Engineer

1973
Ben

as Bill Hatfield

1972
A Taste of Evil

as John

1971
There Was a Crooked Man...

as Mr. Lomax

1970
Seven in Darkness

as Larry Wise

1969
The Power

as Prof. Henry Hallson

1968
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!

as Prosecutor

1968
The Reluctant Astronaut

as Arbuckle "Buck" Fleming

1967
Fantastic Voyage

as Col. Donald Reid

1966
The Silencers

as Joe Wigman

1966
Ride Beyond Vengeance

as The Narrator

1966
The Great Race

as Henry Goodbody

1965
The Monkey's Uncle

as Darius Green III

1965
The Third Day

as Dr. Wheeler

1965
Nightmare in the Sun

as Sam Wilson

1965
7 Faces of Dr. Lao

as Clint Stark

1964
Kissin' Cousins

as Pappy Tatum

1964
Your Cheatin' Heart

as Fred Rose

1964
Follow That Dream

as Pop Kwimper

1962
Pocketful of Miracles

as Count Alfonso Romero

1961
Misty

as Grandpa Clarence Beebe

1961
A Thunder of Drums

as Sgt. Karl Rodermill

1961
Cimarron

as Tom Wyatt

1960
Anatomy of a Murder

as Parnell Emmett McCarthy

1959
Gidget

as Russell Lawrence

1959
Man of the West

as Sam Beasley

1958
Operation Mad Ball

as Col. Rousch

1957
Arthur O'Connell Arthur O'Connell

Birthday

1908-03-29

Place of Birth

New York City, New York, U.S.

Biography

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.
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