Oscar Profile #202: Edmond O’Brien

Born September 10, 1915 in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Edmond O’Brien got his love of performing from friend and neighbor Harry Houdini who taught him the art of magic. A Shakespearean actor in his twenties, he had roles on Broadway in John Gielgud’s Hamlet in 1936; Orson Welles’ Julius Caesar in 1937 and Laurence Olivier’s Romeo and Juliet.in 1940.

Producer Panrdo S. Berman brought him to Hollywood to play Gringoire in 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara which began a long and profitable career for the actor in supporting and occasional lead roles.

Briefly married to Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed) from 1941-42, his career was interrupted by service in World War II, although he did manage to make a couple of films including 1943’s The Amazing Mrs. Halliday opposite Deanna Durbin. After the war he stood out in 1946’s The Killers with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, 1947’s A Double Life with Ronald Colman and 1948’s Another Part of the Forest with Fredric March and For the Love of Mary again opposite Durbin in what would be her final film.

O’Brien married second wife Olga San Juan (Broadway’s Paint Your Wagon) with whom he would have three children during their three decade marriage in 1948. He then had one of his best known roles as an undercover cop in 1949’s White Heat with James Cagney.

1950’s D.O.A. gave O’Brien a rare starring role in a major film as a dying man out to find his killer. Numerous films followed including two 1953 film noir classics directed by Ida Lupino, The Hitch-Hiker and The Bigamist in which he was simultaneously married to Joan Fontaine in San Francisco and Lupino in Los Angeles.

An Oscar winner for 1954’s The Barefoot Contessa in support of Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner, he was everyman Winston Smith in the first film version of 1984 in 1956.

Much on TV throughout the 1950s and 1960s, O’Brien also continued to be noticed in prominent roles on the big screen, most notably 1959’s Up Periscope, 1962’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Birdman of Alcatraz and The Longest Day, 1964’s Seven Days in May (for which he received a second Oscar nomination), 1966’s Fanasttic Voyage and 1969’s The Wild Bunch. His last role of note was in 1972’s They Only Kill Their Masters.

Divorced from Olga San Juan in 1976, Edmond O’Brien died of Alzheimer’s disease on May 9, 1985.
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ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939), directed by William Dieterle

Producer Pandro S. Berman discovered O’Brien on stage and brought him to Hollywood to play the romantic hero Gringoire opposite Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda in support of Charles Laughton in one of his greatest roles as Quasimodo, the title hunchback of Notre Dame.

With fine performances as well from Cedric Hardwicke as Frollo; Thomas Mitchell as Clopin and Alan Marshall as Phoebus, this was the best cast film version of Victor Hugo’s oft-filmed classic.

D.O.A. (1950), directed by Rudolph Maté

Officially remade twice and copied many times, this harrowing film noir is still the best version of the tale about a man who is told he only has a few days to live after being poisoned and spends those days trying to find who killed him and why.

A TV staple in the years following O’Brien’s Oscar win for The Barefoot Contessa, it was advertised so frequently as “starring Academy Award winner Edmond O’Brien” that many thought this was the film he actually won for. It’s easily his finest performance.

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Mankiewicz’s talk-fest about the rise and fall of a movie star was not the All About Eve director’s finest hour, but with a cast headed by Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and O’Brien, the acting can’t be faulted.

O’Brien won his Oscar for playing a sleazy, sweaty publicist.

SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964), directed by John Frankenheimer

O’Brien received the second Oscar nomination of his long career for his portrayal of an alcoholic U.S. senator on a mission form his President (Fredric March) in this cold war classic.

One of the best political thrillers ever made, O’Brien certainly holds his own in the high powered cast headed by Burt Lancaster; Kirk Douglas; Ava Gardner and March in one of his finest performances as the President in peril.