
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.

Hello, Annapolis

The Violators

市民ケーン

Emergency!

或る殺人

Night Gallery

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker

Arrest and Trial

The Wild Wild West

ボナンザ

ポケット一杯の幸福

Blondie's Blessed Event

ペティコート作戦

The Naked City

The Fugitive

ポセイドン・アドベンチャー

Ghost Story

McCloud

グレートレース

Homecoming

The New Breed

アカデミー賞

Alias Smith and Jones

The Great Impostor

7 Faces of Dr. Lao

The Hiding Place

大脱獄

Dr. Kildare Goes Home

Seven in Darkness

鬼警部アイアンサイド

The Name of the Game

DuPont Show of the Month

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

One Touch of Venus

State of the Union

ミクロの決死圏

Force of Evil

Two Girls on Broadway

Operation Mad Ball

Cannon

西部の人

The Last Valley

Open Secret

My Three Sons

Alcoa Theatre

誇り高き男

April Love

Picnic

Your Cheatin' Heart

Route 66

The Second Hundred Years

The Philco Television Playhouse

The Power

The Solid Gold Cadillac

And One Was Beautiful

The Whistle at Eaton Falls

The Big Valley

Follow That Dream

バス停留所

Cimarron

Man From Headquarters

Burke's Law

Omnibus

Room 222

Sam Benedict

Nanny and the Professor

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

The Silencers

ベン

ミスティー

The Reluctant Astronaut

ギジェット

Ride Beyond Vengeance

A Taste of Evil

Huckleberry Finn

Voice in the Mirror

The Monkey's Uncle

ペチコート作戦

Montecarlo

A Thunder of Drums

Canal Zone

Fingers at the Window

FBIアメリカ連邦警察

The Third Day

The Golden Fleecing

If He Hollers, Let Him Go!

Law of the Jungle

The Countess of Monte Cristo

Murder in Soho

Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?

Birds Do It

Studio One

Matinee Theater

The Paul Lynde Show

Adam's Rib

They Only Kill Their Masters

Wicked, Wicked

A Covenant with Death

Kissin' Cousins

Hound-Dog Man

I Take This Oath

Hullabaloo

Nightmare in the Sun

'Taint Legal

Shootout in a One-Dog Town

Bested by a Beard

Way of Tomorrow: The Evolution of Science Fiction Movies

The Taming of the Shrew