Una O'Connor

Una O'Connor, born Agnes Teresa McGlade on 23 October 1880 in Belfast, Ireland, was an Irish-born American actress whose career spanned theatre, film, and television across more than four decades. She died on 4 February 1959. In 2020, The Irish Times ranked her nineteenth on its list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

McGlade was born into a Catholic nationalist family at 14 Alexander Street West in Belfast, the daughter of James McGlade, a publican and landowner, and Maria Murphy. Her mother died when she was two years old. Her father subsequently left for Australia, and she was raised by an aunt. She received her education at St Dominic's School in Belfast, at convent schools, and in Paris. Initially intending to pursue a career in teaching, she enrolled at the South Kensington School of Art, but before taking up any teaching duties she joined the Abbey School of Acting, affiliated with Dublin's Abbey Theatre. It was at this point that she adopted the stage name Una O'Connor. Her tenure with the Abbey lasted from 1912 until 1934, and her productions during that period are documented in the Abbey Theatre Archives.

Among her earliest stage appearances was George Bernard Shaw's The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet, in which she played a swaggering American ranch girl. The production traveled from Dublin to New York, opening on 20 November 1911 at the Maxine Elliott Theatre and marking O'Connor's American debut. By 1913 she had relocated to London, where she appeared in productions including The Magic Jug, The Starlight Express at the Kingsway Theatre in 1915–16, and Paddy the Next Best Thing. In the early 1920s she took the role of a cockney maid in Plus Fours, and in 1924 she portrayed a cockney waitress in Frederick Lonsdale's The Fake. That production also played in New York, opening on 6 October 1924 at the Hudson Theatre. Critics singled out her performance in the third act, in which her character attempts a crude flirtation with a man played by Godfrey Tearle, noting the pathos she brought to the role and calling it an example of careful character portrayal.

Following The Fake, O'Connor returned to London and appeared in a succession of productions: The Ring o' Bells in November 1925, Autumn Fire in March 1926, Distinguished Villa in May 1926, and Quicksands of Youth in July 1926. When Autumn Fire toured the United States, a critic praised her portrayal of Ellen Keegan, describing it as fine work likely to win her an American following. Despite these notices, she had attracted limited wider attention by 1931, when British critic Eric Johns recalled her confessing that her savings were nearly exhausted and she feared she could not pay her rent.

Her fortunes changed when Noël Coward selected her to appear in Cavalcade at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1933. Coward told her he had watched her work for years and had written the part with her in mind. She played an Edwardian servant who transforms herself into a self-made woman. Hollywood executives who attended a performance sought her out immediately afterward, and her success in the stage production led to her reprising the role in the 1933 film version of Cavalcade. Following that film's success, O'Connor chose to remain in the United States.

Her film career gained considerable momentum through the 1930s. She appeared as the publican's wife in James Whale's The Invisible Man in 1933 and as the Baron's housekeeper in Whale's Bride of Frankenstein in 1935, both performances becoming among her most recognized work. She also appeared in two films directed by John Ford: The Informer in 1935 and The Plough and the Stars in 1936. Her other film credits from the period include Michael Curtiz's The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1938 and The Sea Hawk in 1940, as well as Leo McCarey's The Bells of St. Mary's in 1944. Her screen debut had come earlier, in Dark Red Roses in 1929, followed by Alfred Hitchcock's Murder! in 1930 and an uncredited role in To Oblige a Lady in 1931.

In 1937, feeling homesick, O'Connor returned to London for twelve months in search of a suitable stage role but found nothing that interested her. During that stay she appeared in three live BBC Television productions, among them the Irish playwright Teresa Deevy's In Search of Valour in 1939, in which she played Stasia Claremorris. A Blitz strike destroyed the storage facility holding her furniture and car, which she took as a reason to remain permanently in America.

A congenital heart condition had been detected as early as 1932, when she was briefly detained at Ellis Island upon arriving in the United States. By the time she appeared in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre, where the production ran from 1954 to 1956, her health required her to remain in bed throughout the day, leaving only to travel to the theatre and departing before the curtain call in order to return to bed. She played Janet McKenzie, a nearly deaf housemaid whose role was designed to provide comic relief within an otherwise serious drama, and the performance was considered an outstanding success. O'Connor reprised the role in the 1957 film version directed by Billy Wilder, which she intended as her final screen appearance.

Her Broadway career, which extended from 1911 to 1954, included additional credits such as The Enchanted April, The Shop at Sly Corner, The Linden Tree, and The Starcross Story. Throughout her stage work she was frequently cast as servants, housekeepers, and working-class women, a pattern she acknowledged with equanimity. She remarked that there was no design in an acting career and that one successful part could set an actor in a rut from which only a miracle could free them.

O'Connor also worked extensively in television, particularly from 1950 onward. By 1952 she reported having appeared in 38 television productions in that year alone. In a rare piece of writing she described television work as the most exacting and nerve-racking experience of her career, requiring intense concentration and the ability to absorb last-minute directorial changes. She nonetheless embraced the medium because it allowed her to play a wide variety of parts, and she concluded that television represented an expanding field of employment that had come to stay.