Joseph O'Conor

Joseph O'Conor (14 February 1916 – 21 January 2001) was an Irish actor and playwright born in Dublin, the son of Frances (née Call) and Daniel O'Conor. His family relocated to London, where he was educated at the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, the University of London, and RADA. In 1939 he married Naita Moore, with whom he had two children. That same year he made his professional stage debut, taking the roles of Flavius, Trebonius, and Titinius in a modern-dress production of Julius Caesar, performed first at the Embassy Theatre and subsequently at His Majesty's Theatre.

After returning to the stage in 1946 following the war, O'Conor pursued a wide range of roles in London with a particular emphasis on Shakespeare. A notable engagement came in 1949 at the Bedford, Camden Town, during a season under Donald Wolfit, where he alternated the roles of Iago and Othello with Wolfit in Othello and took the title role in Hamlet, with Wolfit appearing as the Gravedigger. His work extended into religious drama as well, most notably when he portrayed Christ in the York Mystery Plays in 1951 and again in 1954. Because English law at the time prohibited the public-stage representation of God or Christ, his name was withheld from the 1951 production.

Seeking a change from London, O'Conor played two seasons at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, where his roles included Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing in 1954. He then spent three seasons, from 1956 to 1958, at the Bristol Old Vic, where he appeared in several Bernard Shaw productions, playing Higgins in Pygmalion and Undershaft in Major Barbara. Bristol also staged a production of his own early play, The Iron Harp, set in Ireland. It was during this period that O'Conor made his Broadway debut in 1958, appearing in both King Henry V and Hamlet.

O'Conor continued to take on major roles at the Old Vic while simultaneously developing a substantial career in film and television. In 1967 he played Old Jolyon Forsyte in the television serial The Forsyte Saga, and in 1968 he appeared as Mr. Brownlow in the film Oliver!, a role for which he remained widely recognized. A season with the National Theatre under Peter Hall in 1974 brought him the role of Alonso in The Tempest, alongside John Gielgud's Prospero, as well as the role of Herr Gabor in Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. The following year, in a Greenwich season under Jonathan Miller, he played the King of France in All's Well That Ends Well and the Duke in Measure for Measure. In 1982 he appeared as Bunce in the BBC serial The Barchester Chronicles and provided the narrator's voice as well as the voice of the urSkeks in the puppet film The Dark Crystal.

Following the death of his first wife in 1977, O'Conor married the actress Lizann Rodger, and they had two children together. His film work continued into the 1990s, with credits including J. C. Sullivan in The Forbidden Quest (1993), directed by Peter Delpeut, the Bishop of Oxford in Tom & Viv (1994), and Mr. Nancarrow in The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998). In addition to his acting career, O'Conor directed for the stage and wrote six plays, among them The Iron Harp, Inca, The Tumble Stone, A Lion Trap, The Third Picture, and The Heiress. He died in London on 21 January 2001.