Edmond O'Brien is known to many for his role in the film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and his participation in the series "Mission Impossible".
Edmond O'Brien is a famous American actor who has appeared in more than one hundred films over the course of 30 years of his career.
Biography
Edmond O'Brien was born into an Irish family with many children on September 10, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. His birth name is Eamon Joseph O'Brien. He was the youngest, seventh child in the family. Mother - Agnes O'Brien (Baldwin), father - James O'Brien, died when Edmond was four years old.
Edmond's aunt, who taught English in high school, took him to the theater from an early age, which led him to become interested in acting and began acting in school plays. After school, he entered Fordham University, but studied there for only six months, and then entered a professional acting school - Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater.
Personal life
Edmond O'Brien has been married twice. With his first wife, actress Nancy Kelly, the marriage lasted a year (from 1941 to 1942), with his second wife, film actress Olga San Juan, Edmond lived for almost 30 years - from 1948 to 1976. In this marriage, the actor had three children - Bridget, Maria and Brendan.
Career
At 21, Edmond O'Brien made his Broadway debut in the theatrical production of The Daughters of Atreus. After that, he took part in several other performances, including the role of the gravedigger in Hamlet.
Edmond's work in theater attracted the attention of producer Pandro Berman, who offered him the role of Pierre Gringoire in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). After that, RKO Pictures offered the actor a long-term contract. In 1941, Edmond starred in A Girl, a Guy and a Gob and Parachute Battalion, which also starred his first wife, Nancy Kelly. In 1943 he took part in the filming of the film "The Amazing Mrs. Halliday", and after that he entered the military.
During World War II, O'Brien served in the United States Air Force and took part in the Air Force Broadway production of Moss Hart's Winged Victory. In 1944, Edmond took part in this performance again.
In 1948, Edmond O'Brien was offered a long-term contract by the film company Warner Bros., which the actor willingly signed, and then he took part in the film adaptation of the play by Lillian Hellman "Beyond the Woods". In 1949, the actor starred in the film White Heat. After Emond starred as Steve Connolly in Return Fire in 1950, his contract with Warner Bros. ended.
O'Brien also worked extensively in television. The actor has appeared on shows such as Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, Lux Video Theater and Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. On one of the TV shows, he announced that he wants to make his own films.
From 1950 to 1952, Edmond starred in the radio show Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. In 1958, he starred in the television drama The Town That Slept With the Lights On, written by his brother. This play was about two murders in Lancaster, which frightened the inhabitants of the city so much that they stopped turning off the lights for the night.
In 1959-1960, Edmond starred in the leading role in the crime drama series Johnny Midnight. The drama was about an actor from New York who became a private detective. O'Brien had to lose at least 50 pounds to get a role in this series, so he followed a strict vegetarian diet and stopped drinking alcohol.
O'Brien has also starred in other television series, such as Target: The Corruptors!, The Eleventh Hour, as well as Breaking Point and Mission: Impossible.
In 1960, Edmond left the set where The Last Voyage was filmed to protest the safety issues during filming. When the actor returned, he learned that he had already been expelled from the film. In 1961 he directed the film Man-Trap.
In 1962, O'Brien was scheduled to star in Lawrence of Arabia, but was cast by Arthur Kennedy because Edmond had a heart attack on set. In the same year, he co-starred with the Henry Foundation in The Longest Day. Then there were roles in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "Bird Lover of Alcatraz."
In the 60s, Edmond O'Brien also co-starred with Roger Mobley and Harvey Corman in episodes of the television series Walt Disney's Anthology. From 1963-1965 he starred in the NBC legal drama Sam Benedict. In 1964, the actor played the role of Senator Raymond Clark in the film Seven Days in May. For this role, he was nominated for an Oscar.
Until 1970, the actor got both major and minor good roles and he did an excellent job with his work. However, he soon began to have memory problems, and another heart attack deprived him of the opportunity to star in the romantic comedy "The Glass Bottom Boat".
The last years of life and death
In the late 1970s, the actor was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. In 1983, an interview was published in which his daughter Maria says that she saw her father in a straitjacket at the Veterans Hospital, he screamed and showed aggression. It was then that she noticed that he had lost weight, but none of his relatives knew about this, since Edmond slept in clothes for many years.
On May 9, 1985, O'Brien died of serious complications of Alzheimer's at St. Erne's Sanatorium in Inglewood, California. At the time of his death, he was 69 years old. For his contributions to the film and television industries, Edmond O'Brien has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
