49 Facts About Edmond O'Brien

Eamon Joseph O'Brien was an American actor of stage, screen, and television, and film director.

Edmond O'Brien's career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Edmond O'Brien was born in Brooklyn, New York, the seventh and youngest child of Agnes and James Edmond O'Brien.

Edmond O'Brien's parents were natives of Tallow, County Waterford, Ireland.

Edmond O'Brien's father died when he was four years old.

Edmond O'Brien performed magic shows for children in his neighborhood, spelling his last name backwards and billing himself as "Neirbo the Great".

Edmond O'Brien studied for two years under such teachers as Sanford Meisner; his classmates included Betty Garrett.

Edmond O'Brien took classes with the Columbia Laboratory Players group, which emphasized training in Shakespeare.

Edmond O'Brien made his first Broadway appearance at age 21 in Daughters of Atreus.

Edmond O'Brien played a grave digger in Hamlet, toured in Parnell, and then appeared in Maxwell Anderson's The Star Wagon with stars Lillian Gish and Burgess Meredith.

In 1940, Edmond O'Brien performed with Ruth Chatterton in John Van Druten's Leave Her to Heaven on Broadway.

Twelve years later, Edmond O'Brien appeared in Van Druten's I've Got Sixpence.

Edmond O'Brien returned to Broadway to play Mercutio opposite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in Romeo and Juliet.

Edmond O'Brien's roles included a feature spot in A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob and the co-male lead in Parachute Battalion, both released in 1941.

Edmond O'Brien played the lead in Obliging Young Lady, with Eve Arden, and was featured in Powder Town.

Edmond O'Brien was joined in the Moss Hart production by Red Buttons, Karl Malden, Kevin McCarthy, Gary Merrill, Barry Nelson and Martin Ritt.

The play was filmed in 1944 with Edmond O'Brien reprising his stage performance and Judy Holliday co-starring.

Edmond O'Brien toured for two years in the stage production, appearing alongside a young Mario Lanza.

Edmond O'Brien returned to the screen full time with Universal Studios, playing the insurance investigator in film noir The Killers in 1946.

Edmond O'Brien followed that with the lead in The Web, and the second lead in A Double Life, both 1947 noirs.

Edmond O'Brien had a second lead in the screen version of Lillian Hellman's drama Another Part of the Forest.

Edmond O'Brien then starred in the romantic comedy For the Love of Mary, the World War II set Fighter Squadron, and the noir An Act of Murder, all in 1948.

In late 1948, Edmond O'Brien signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros.

In 1949,3,147 members of the Young Women's League of America, a national charitable organisation devoted to single living, voted that Edmond O'Brien had more "male magnetism" than any other man in America.

Edmond O'Brien followed this with the lead in the noir 711 Ocean Drive.

However, even though Edmond O'Brien still managed to command leading man roles, the prestige of his pictures and casts had begun to diminish and his career hit a slump.

Edmond O'Brien still made some notable movies, including the lead in two for Ida Lupino, The Hitch-Hiker and The Bigamist, and as a featured player as Casca in Joseph L Mankiewicz's ensemble film of Julius Caesar.

Edmond O'Brien worked heavily in television at this time, on such shows as Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Lux Video Theatre and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.

From 1950 to 1952, Edmond O'Brien starred in the radio drama Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, playing the title role.

In spite of the ups and downs of his Hollywood career, Edmond O'Brien was still capable of greatness, both on the stage and on film.

Edmond O'Brien followed this with a number of important roles, including the second lead in the musical crime film Pete Kelly's Blues, the lead in the dystopian political movie 1984 and the noir A Cry in the Night, co-lead in the World War II drama D-Day the Sixth of June and the lead in the comedy The Girl Can't Help It, all in 1956.

In 1957 Edmond O'Brien earned the second lead in the Western The Big Land, film noir Stopover Tokyo, and the second lead in the musical drama Sing, Boy, Sing and lead in the drama The World Was His Jury in 1958.

Edmond O'Brien appeared extensively in television, including the 1957 live 90-minute broadcast on Playhouse 90 of The Comedian, a drama written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer in which Mickey Rooney portrayed dictatorial television comedian Sammy Hogarth.

Edmond O'Brien played Al Preston, the show's headwriter driven to the brink of insanity.

From 1959 to 1960, Edmond O'Brien portrayed the title role in the syndicated crime drama Johnny Midnight, about a New York City actor-turned-private detective.

Edmond O'Brien made a French film, The Restless and the Damned for a fee more than $200,000.

Edmond O'Brien was cast on the strength of his performance in The Girl Can't Help It and his Oscar.

Edmond O'Brien walked off the set of The Last Voyage in protest at safety issues during the shoot.

Edmond O'Brien later came back and found out that his co-starring role had been trimmed.

Edmond O'Brien was cast as American reporter Jackson Bentley in Lawrence of Arabia, but had a heart attack during filming and was replaced in the co-starring role by Arthur Kennedy.

Edmond O'Brien recovered to direct his first feature Man-Trap, a neo-noir starring Jeffrey Hunter and Stella Stevens, co-starred in the Disney comedy Moon Pilot, and in the star-studded ensemble cast of the World War II epic The Longest Day.

Edmond O'Brien continued to receive good roles, co-starring in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and as the author of the Robert Stroud biography the Birdman of Alcatraz was based upon.

Edmond O'Brien worked steadily in both film and television throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, however his memory problems were beginning to take their toll.

Edmond O'Brien had a memorable role as the decrepit but boisterous Freddie Sykes in Sam Peckinpah's groundbreaking revisionist western The Wild Bunch.

Edmond O'Brien was a cast member of The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles' unfinished 1970s movie that finally was released in 2018.

In 1957 Edmond O'Brien recorded a spoken-word album of The Red Badge of Courage.

Edmond O'Brien was first married to actress Nancy Kelly from 1941 until 1942.

Edmond O'Brien married his second wife, actress Olga San Juan in 1948.

Edmond O'Brien died on May 9,1985, at St Erne's Sanitorium in Inglewood, California, of complications from Alzheimer's disease at age 69.