Arthur O'Connell

Arthur Joseph O'Connell (March 29, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American actor who worked across stage, film, and television, building a career distinguished by character roles. Born in Manhattan, New York, he was the youngest of four children of Julia (née Byrne) and Michael O'Connell. His father died when O'Connell was two years old, and his mother when he was twelve. Following his father's death, he was sent to live in Flushing, New York, with his mother's sister, Mrs. Charles Koetzner, while his siblings were distributed among other relatives. His eldest brother, William, later became a justice of the New York State Supreme Court and died in 1972. O'Connell attended St. John's College for two years and held a series of early jobs, including a position in the engineering department of New York Edison, sales work at Macy's, and door-to-door magazine sales.

He entered acting in 1929 with a role in summer stock at the Frankin Stock Company in Dorchester, Massachusetts, appearing in The Patsy. His early career was interrupted in 1934 by a bout of encephalitis that required a seven-month stay at the Flower Hospital in New York City, followed by recovery in a sanitarium for the indigent. He made his legitimate stage debut in the mid-1930s, performing in theater and vaudeville in the United States and in London. His film debut came as a student in Freshman Year (1938), and he appeared as a reporter in Citizen Kane (1941). He also co-starred in two Leon Errol short subjects, playing Errol's conniving brother-in-law. In 1945, O'Connell entered the U.S. Army and served in the Signal Corps during World War II. After his discharge, he was spotted in little theatre by Charles Laughton and joined a travelling Shakespearean company. He continued in minor film roles, playing a detective in The Naked City (1948) and a reporter in State of the Union (1948).

O'Connell's Broadway career spanned 1943 to 1958 and included productions such as How Long Till Summer, Golden Boy, Anna Christie, Lunatics and Lovers, and Comes a Day, among others. His most significant stage credit was originating the role of Howard Bevans, the middle-aged suitor of a spinsterish schoolteacher, in Picnic. He recreated that role in the 1955 film version opposite Rosalind Russell, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The success of Picnic transformed his career; O'Connell earned more in the single year following the film than in the previous twenty-five years of work, and the performance led directly to six substantial roles in rapid succession.

Among the films that followed, he appeared in Joshua Logan's Bus Stop (1956) as the down-to-earth friend of Don Murray's lead character, and in Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) as a kindly office manager in love with Judy Holliday's character. His portrayal of James Stewart's alcoholic mentor in Anatomy of a Murder (1959) brought him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he played Chief Petty Officer Sam Tostin in Operation Petticoat, opposite Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. In 1961, he portrayed Grandpa Clarence Beebe in Misty, the screen adaptation of Marguerite Henry's Misty of Chincoteague. He appeared as the father of Elvis Presley's character in Follow That Dream (1962) and again in Kissin' Cousins (1964), part of a pattern of playing paternal figures in films featuring teen idols including Pat Boone and Fabian. In 1964, he also portrayed Clint Stark in The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, a film that became a cult classic and in which his character was the only one besides star Tony Randall's to appear among the titular seven faces.

O'Connell was active in television throughout the 1960s while deliberately avoiding a regular series until he could be guaranteed top billing. On Christmas Day 1962, he appeared as Clayton Dodd in the Empire episode "Green, Green Hills." In 1966, he guest-starred in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "The Mechanical Man," playing a scientist who comes to regret creating an all-powerful android played by James Darren. In February 1967, he appeared in the Lassie episode "Never Look Back" as Luther Jennings, an elderly ranger facing the loss of his position. Also in 1967, he co-starred with Monte Markham in The Second Hundred Years, playing the aging son of a gold miner who had been frozen for a century in Alaska; the series ran for one season. He also worked in commercials as a spokesperson for Crest, appearing as a friendly pharmacist. His final film role was in The Hiding Place (1975), in which he portrayed a Dutch watchmaker who conceals Jews during World War II.

In his personal life, O'Connell married Ann Hall Dunlop in 1962; the two had met at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. They divorced in December 1972 in Los Angeles. In the late 1950s, he jointly owned a racehorse named April Love with singer Pat Boone. Alzheimer's disease forced O'Connell's retirement in the mid-1970s. He died on May 18, 1981, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles and was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.