Arthur O'Connell
Arthur O'Connell (March 29, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American stage and film actor. He appeared in films (starting with a small role in Citizen Kane) in 1941 and television programs (mostly guest appearances). Among his screen appearances were Picnic, Anatomy of a Murder, and as the watch-maker who hides Jews during WWII in The Hiding Place. A veteran vaudevillian, O'Connell, from New York City, made his legitimate stage debut in the mid 1930s, at which time he fell within the orbit of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. Welles cast O'Connell in the tiny role of a reporter in the closing scenes of Citizen Kane (1941), a film often referred to as O'Connell's film debut, though in fact he had already appeared in Freshman Year (1939) and had costarred in two Leon Errol short subjects as Leon's conniving brother-in-law. After numerous small movie parts, O'Connell returned to Broadway, where he appeared as the erstwhile middle-aged swain of a spinsterish schoolteacher in Picnic - a role he'd recreate in the 1956 film version, earning an Oscar nomination in the process. Later the jaded looking O'Connell was frequently cast as fortyish losers and alcoholics; in the latter capacity he appeared as James Stewart's boozy attorney mentor in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and the result was another Oscar nomination. In 1962 O'Connell portrayed the father of Elvis Presley's character in the motion picture Follow That Dream, and in 1964 in the Presley-picture Kissin' Cousins. O'Connell continued appearing in choice character parts on both TV and films during the 1960s, but avoided a regular television series, holding out until he could be assured top billing. He appeared as Joseph Baylor in the 1964 episode "A Little Anger Is a Good Thing" on the ABC medical drama about psychiatry, Breaking Point. The actor accepted the part of a man who discovers that his 99-year-old father has been frozen in an iceberg on the 1967 sitcom The Second Hundred Years, assuming he'd be billed first per the producers' agreement. Instead, top billing went to newcomer Monte Markham in the dual role of O'Connell's father and his son. O'Connell accepted the demotion to second billing as well as could be expected, but he never again trusted the word of any Hollywood executive. Ill health forced O'Connell to significantly reduce his acting appearances in the mid '70s, but the actor stayed busy as a commercial spokesman, a friendly pharmacist who was a spokesperson for Crest toothpaste. At the time of his death from Alzheimer's disease in California in May 1981, O'Connell was appearing solely in these commercials, by his own choice. O'Connell was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York. Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur O'Connell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography · 113
The Fugitive
1963 · Dr. Josephus Harrison...
Bonanza
1959 · Dr. Samuel Hubert
Wagon Train
1957
Ironside
1967
The Wild Wild West
1965
My Three Sons
1960
Emergency!
1972
Matinee Theater
1955
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956 · Lyman
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
Cannon
1971
Petticoat Junction
1963 · William Lawrence
Room 222
1969
Burke's Law
1963 · Dr. Stuart Alexander
Studio One
1948 · Curtis
Route 66
1960
The F.B.I.
1965 · Smitty
The Big Valley
1965 · Jubal
The Oscars
1953 · Self
Night Gallery
1970
The Name of the Game
1968 · Charlie Sherwin
McCloud
1970
Omnibus
1952
Alias Smith and Jones
1971
Citizen Kane
1941 · Reporter (uncredited)
Ghost Story
1972 · Chief Owen Huston
Sam Benedict
1962
Arrest and Trial
1963
Alcoa Theatre
1957
Startime
1959 · Self
Nanny and the Professor
1970
The New Breed
1961 · Peter Capples
DuPont Show of the Month
1957
The Second Hundred Years
1967 · Edwin Carpenter
The Poseidon Adventure
1972 · John, the Chaplain
Anatomy of a Murder
1959 · Parnell Emmett "Parn"...
Medical Story
1975 · Dr. Avery Loomis
The Paul Lynde Show
1972
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
1956 · Gordon Walker
Adam's Rib
1973 · Judge
The Great Race
1965 · Henry Goodbody
Bus Stop
1956 · Virgil Blessing
Special for Women
1960 · Joe Lawson
Fantastic Voyage
1966 · Col. Donald Reid
Operation Petticoat
1959 · Chief Motor Machinist'...
Pocketful of Miracles
1961 · Count Alfonso Romero
The Power
1968 · Prof. Henry Hallson
Gidget
1959 · Russell Lawrence
Hello, Annapolis
1942 · Pharmacist Mate
Wicked, Wicked
1973 · Mr. Fenley, Hotel Engi...
Force of Evil
1950 · Link Hall (uncredited)
The Naked City
1948 · Sgt. Shaeffer (uncredi...
Man of the West
1958 · Sam Beasley
Picnic
1955 · Howard Bevans
Cimarron
1960 · Tom Wyatt
The Silencers
1966 · Joe Wigman
Ben
1972 · Bill Hatfield
State of the Union
1948 · First Reporter
Canal Zone
1942 · New Recruit (uncredite...
A Thunder of Drums
1961 · Sgt. Karl Rodermill
There Was a Crooked Man...
1970 · Mr. Lomax
The Monte Carlo Story
1956 · Mr. Homer Hinkley
Nightmare in the Sun
1965 · Sam Wilson
Operation Mad Ball
1957 · Col. Rousch
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
1951 · Jim Brewster
The Last Valley
1971 · Hoffman
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991 · actor 'Anatomy of a Mu...
7 Faces of Dr. Lao
1964 · Clint Stark
Follow That Dream
1962 · Pop Kwimper
The Proud Ones
1956 · Jim Dexter
Way of Tomorrow: The Evolution of Science Fiction Movies
2022 · Self - (archive footag...
One Touch of Venus
1948 · Reporter
Kissin' Cousins
1964 · Pappy Tatum
They Only Kill Their Masters
1972 · Ernie
Huckleberry Finn
1974 · Col. Grangerford
The Great Impostor
1960 · Warden J.B. Chandler
Fingers at the Window
1942 · Photographer (uncredit...
The Hiding Place
1975 · Casper ten Boom, 'Papa...
Ride Beyond Vengeance
1966 · The Narrator
Homecoming
1948 · Ambulance Attendant (u...
The Solid Gold Cadillac
1956 · Mark Jenkins
Hound-Dog Man
1959 · Aaron McKinney
The Reluctant Astronaut
1967 · Arbuckle "Buck" Flemin...
The Monkey's Uncle
1965 · Darius Green III
A Covenant with Death
1967 · Judge Hockstadter
The Countess of Monte Cristo
1948 · Assistant Director Jen...
Birds Do It
1966 · Professor Wald
Shootout in a One-Dog Town
1974 · Henry Gills
Law of the Jungle
1942 · Simmons
A Taste of Evil
1971 · John
Your Cheatin' Heart
1964 · Fred Rose
Blondie's Blessed Event
1942 · Interne (uncredited)
Voice in the Mirror
1958 · Bill Tobin
The Taming of the Shrew
1950 · Curtis
Misty
1961 · Grandpa Clarence Beebe
Two Girls on Broadway
1940 · Reporter at Wedding (u...
And One Was Beautiful
1940 · Moroni's Parking Atten...
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
1940 · Intern (uncredited)
Seven in Darkness
1969 · Larry Wise
The Golden Fleecing
1940 · Cameraman (uncredited)
If He Hollers, Let Him Go!
1968 · Prosecutor
Marilyn
1963 · archive footage
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
1970 · Mr. Kruft
Bested by a Beard
1940 · Phil
I Take This Oath
1940 · Court Clerk
April Love
1957 · Jed Bruce
The Third Day
1965 · Dr. Wheeler
Open Secret
1948 · Carter
Man From Headquarters
1942 · Goldie Shores
Hullabaloo
1940 · Fourth Page
Murder in Soho
1939 · Lefty
The Violators
1957 · Solomon Baumgarten
'Taint Legal
1940 · Book Salesman