Florence O'Brien

Florence O'Brien, born Florence M. Lishey on November 20, 1912, in Los Angeles, California, was an American actress, dancer, and singer who worked in both stage and film. She was the younger of two children born to Lizzie Mae (née Jones) and Reginald Lowell Lishey. The neighborhood where she grew up, then called Furlong Tract, later became known as South Central Los Angeles. Her performing life began early: in August 1923, the California Eagle documented a YMCA benefit concert at which the young Florence contributed a vocal solo while her brother Reginald Jr. appeared in an original one-act play.

O'Brien's Broadway career spanned 1925 to 1927, during which she appeared in The Texas Nightingale and Princess Flavia. Years later, after at least one marriage and the birth of three children, she returned to the stage in Los Angeles, where actor-director Clarence Muse cast her as Sulamai in his 1938 Federal Theater Project revival of Hall Johnson's folk-opera Run Little Chillun. The role became the defining credit of her career. Director Arthur Dreifuss, speaking with the Kansas City Call in 1939, cited the quality of the acting in Run Little Chillun — and O'Brien's portrayal of Sulamai specifically — as the inspiration behind his decision to produce the all-Black film Double Deal, in which O'Brien played Sally, marking her screen debut.

In the summer of 1939, O'Brien joined several former Run Little Chillun cast members — including Jess Lee Brooks, Gertrude Saunders, Eugene Henderson, and Janet Collins — in a revival of Swing Mikado at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre. The production was based on the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera and newly adapted by composer Elliot Carpenter, with additional music and lyrics by William Kernell. O'Brien played Pitti-Sing, one of the Three Little Maids, while the nominal leads of Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum were portrayed by James Miller and Marguerite Chapman. California Eagle critic Almena Davis noted that O'Brien stole scenes in the role while also observing that a stronger singing voice might have made her a candidate for the female lead.

In November 1940, O'Brien performed in the musical revue Thank You Columbus, reportedly as the only prominent non-white cast member, a performance that led directly to her last-minute addition to the cast of Republic Pictures' Bowery Boy as the featured dancer with pianist Phil Moore's band. Her film work through the early 1940s included both credited and uncredited appearances across a range of productions. In 1943, she had a prominent uncredited role in Stormy Weather as the gold-digging date of Dooley Wilson during the film's extended "Welcome Home" ball sequence, a scene roughly twelve and a half minutes long that also introduced the characters played by Lena Horne and Emmett "Babe" Wallace. That same year, her son Thomas appeared among the actors portraying the Spasm Band in the film adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel Saratoga Trunk.

Her additional film credits include Tell No Tales (1939), The Women (1939), Mr. Smith Goes Ghost (1940), While Thousands Cheer (1940), Mr. Washington Goes to Town (1941), Up Jumped the Devil (1941), Lucky Ghost (1942), Professor Creeps (1942), The Panther's Claw (1942), Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), Cabin in the Sky (1943), Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Jam Session (1944), Blonde Ransom (1945), and I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947).

O'Brien was married at least three times. In 1928 she married James O'Brien, with whom she had three children: James Jr., Florence Jr., and Thomas. By 1940 and continuing at least through 1950, she was married to Robert Hollie. From at least May 1955 through 1959, her husband was Quincy "Buck" Cannon. O'Brien died on October 26, 2006, in Thousand Oaks, California, at the age of 93.