Edmond O'Brien

Eamon Joseph O'Brien (Éamonn Ó Briain; September 10, 1915 – May 9, 1985) was an American actor of stage, screen, and television, and film director.

His career spanned almost 40 years, and he won one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His other notable films include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Killers (1946), A Double Life (1947), White Heat (1949), D.O.A. (1950), The Hitch-Hiker (1953), Julius Caesar (1953), 1984 (1956), The Girl Can't Help It (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Fantastic Voyage (1966), The Wild Bunch (1969), and The Other Side of the Wind (2018).

O'Brien was born in Brooklyn, New York, the seventh and youngest child of Agnes (née Baldwin) and James O'Brien.

His parents were natives of Tallow, County Waterford, Ireland.

His father died when he was four years old.

O'Brien performed magic shows for children in his neighborhood, spelling his last name backwards and billing himself as "Neirbo the Great".

An aunt who taught high school English and speech took him to the theatre from an early age and he developed an interest in acting.

He began acting in plays at school.

After attending Fordham University for six months, O'Brien went to Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre on a scholarship.

O'Brien studied for two years under such teachers as Sanford Meisner; his classmates included Betty Garrett.

"It was simply the best training in the world for a young actor, singer or dancer," O'Brien said, adding that "(w)hat these teachers encouraged above all was getting your tools ready – your body, your voice, your speech."

O'Brien took classes with the Columbia Laboratory Players group, which emphasized training in Shakespeare.

O'Brien began working in summer stock in Yonkers.

He made his first Broadway appearance at age 21 in Daughters of Atreus.

He played a grave digger in Hamlet, toured in Parnell, and then appeared in Maxwell Anderson's The Star Wagon with stars Lillian Gish and Burgess Meredith.

Berman offered O'Brien the role of a romantic lead in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).

O'Brien returned to Broadway to play Mercutio opposite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in Romeo and Juliet.

RKO offered O'Brien a long-term contract.

In 1940, O'Brien performed with Ruth Chatterton in John Van Druten's Leave Her to Heaven on Broadway.

Twelve years later, O'Brien appeared in Van Druten's I've Got Sixpence.

O'Brien's theatre work attracted the attention of Pandro Berman at RKO.

His roles included a feature spot in A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob and the co-male lead in Parachute Battalion, both released in 1941.

The latter starred Nancy Kelly, whom O'Brien would later marry.

O'Brien played the lead in Obliging Young Lady, with Eve Arden, and was featured in Powder Town. In May 1942, Universal bought out O'Brien's contract with RKO so he could star opposite Deanna Durbin in The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943).

After that, O'Brien joined the armed services.

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and appeared in the Air Forces' Broadway play Winged Victory.

He was joined in the Moss Hart production by Red Buttons, Karl Malden, Kevin McCarthy, Gary Merrill, Barry Nelson and Martin Ritt.

The play was filmed in 1944 with O'Brien reprising his stage performance and Judy Holliday co-starring.

O'Brien toured for two years in the stage production, appearing alongside a young Mario Lanza.

O’Brien returned to the screen full time with Universal Studios, playing the lead in the iconic film noir The Killers in 1946.

He followed that with the lead in The Web, and the second lead in A Double Life, both 1947 noirs.

He had a second lead in the screen version of Lillian Hellman's drama Another Part of the Forest. He then starred in the romantic comedy For the Love of Mary, the World War II set Fighter Squadron, and the noir An Act of Murder, all in 1948.

In late 1948, O'Brien signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros., which cast him as the undercover police officer in White Heat (1949) opposite James Cagney.

"He [Cagney] said he had only one rule", O'Brien noted.

"He would tap his heart and he would say, 'Play it from here, kid.' He always did and I believe it's the best rule for any performer. He could play a scene 90 ways and never repeat himself. He did this to keep himself fresh. I try to do this whenever possible."

In 1949, 3,147 members of the Young Women's League of America, a national charitable organisation devoted to single living, voted that O'Brien had more "male magnetism" than any other man in America today.

"All women adore ruggedness," league president Shirley Connolly said.

"Edmund O'Brien's magnetic appearance and personality most fully stir women's imaginative impulses. We're all agreed that he has more male magnetism than any of the 60,000,000 men in the United States today. (Runners-up were Ezio Pinza, William O'Dwyer and Doak Walker.)

O'Brien was both leading man and a character actor of American cinema, with his co-starring performances in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and Seven Days in May (1964) each earning him the nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; he won for his role in The Barefoot Contessa.