A veteran Irish-American lead and character player, Pat O'Brien is best known as one of the cynical reporters in the sterling first screen version of the Broadway play, "The Front Page" (1931), the title role (opposite Ronald Reagan) in "Knute Rockne--All American" (1940) and as Jimmy Cagney's clerical confidante in "Angels With Dirty Faces" (1938).
A sharp, wisecracking type in the early 1930s, O'Brien found his star persona becoming increasingly sentimentalized after the Production Code crackdown of 1934, but occasionally returned memorably to his earlier type, as in "Torrid Zone" (1940), opposite Cagney and Ann Sheridan. He remained a popular star through the 40s, often in stalwart roles such as not only his Rockne but also "The Iron Major" (1943). A childhood friend of Spencer Tracy, O'Brien acted with Tracy in "The People Against O'Hara" (1951) and in John Ford's sentimental roundup of veteran character players, "The Last Hurrah" (1958). Billy Wilder also put his iconic value to good use as an Irish cop on the tail of both the gangsters and the cross-dressing heroes on the run in the director's hilarious "Some Like It Hot" (1959).
- Also Credited As:
William Joseph Patrick O Brien Jr, William Joseph Patrick O'Brien Jr
- Born:
November 11, 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
- Died:
October 15, 1983.
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Job Titles:
Actor, Insurance salesman
Family
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Daughter: Brigid O Brien.
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Daughter: Mavourneen O Brien.
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Father: William O Brien. son of Irish immigrants
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Mother: Margaret O Brien. daughter of Irish immigrants
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Son: Sean O Brien.
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Son: Terry O Brien.
Education
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Marquette Academy, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milestones
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1923 Joined a traveling stock theater company
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1930 Had an uncredited turn as a police detective in Compliments of the Season
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1931 Breakthrough film role, Hildy Johnson in The Front Page
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1933 Played a studio head in Victor Fleming s Hollywood satire Bombshell , starring Jean Harlow
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1934 First film with James Cagney, Lloyd Bacon s Here Comes the Navy
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1935 Featured in Bacon s Devil Dogs of the Air and The Irish In Us with James Cagney
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1935 Reteamed with Cagney in Howard Hawks Ceiling Zero
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1938 Played the priest opposite Cagney s gangster in Angels With Dirty Faces , Michael Curtiz s iconic portrait of childhood friends who take different paths
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1938 Reteamed with Bacon and Cagney, playing a wisecracking screenwriter in the fast-moving Hollywood spoof Boy Meets Girl
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1940 Played Father Francis Duffy, the beloved chaplain of WWI s famed New York Irish regiment in The Fighting 69th
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1940 Starred as the titular Notre Dame coach in Knute Rockne, All American ; producers initially wanted Cagney for the role but Rockne s widow insisted upon O Brien
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1942 Starred with George Raft in the second film adaptation of the Prohibition-set Broadway
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1943 Played Major Chick Davis, a commander in charge of turning cadets into fighter pilots in the quasi-documentary Bombardier
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1944 Was star of the jungle-set WWII adventure Marine Raiders
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1945 Starred as a lawyer trying to keep his clients out of trouble on their honeymoon in the zany but predictable caper Having Wonderful Crime
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1947 Starred with Anne Jeffreys in the adventure Riffraff , playing private eye Dan Hammer
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1948 Played Gramp, a lovable ex-vaudevillean who serves as guardian to The Boy with Green Hair , an orphaned and tormented youngster played by Dean Stockwell
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1948 Starred in Fighting Father Dunne as a parish priest in 1900s St Louis trying to help the street urchin newsboys
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1950 As Father O Hara in The Fireball , runs the orphanage that Mickey Rooney s rollerskating champ flees
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1951 Featured in The People Against O Hara ; paired with Spencer Tracy, who had never starred in a film with O Brien despite their longtime friendship
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1952 Played the Commander of a Navy warship leading an attack on Japan in Okinawa , a WWII action drama
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1955 Co-starred in Inside Detroit , a dramatized expose of corruption in the US auto industry
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1958 Starred with Tracy in John Ford s political drama The Last Hurrah
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1959 Had a featured role in the Billy Wilder classic Some Like it Hot , playing the cop trailing the gangsters and the bumbling heros in drag
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1960 Starred as a maverick veteran lawyer partnered with his newly practicing by-the-book son in the ABC sitcom Harrigan and Son
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1965 Lone film credit of the decade, co-starring role in the Western Town Tamer
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1969 Starred as a retired Texas Ranger who reenters law enforcement to clean up a besieged small town in the ABC TV-movie The Over-the-Hill Gang , co-starring such fellow veterans as Walter Brennan and Andy Devine
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1973 Starred as a doctor in The Other Woman , an installment of of the daytime drama special series ABC s Matinee Today
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1977 Portrayed the US Vice President in the sequel/remake Billy Jack Goes to Washington
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1978 With Myrna Loy, co-starred as Burt Reynolds parents in the black comedy The End
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1980 Final TV-movie role, co-starring in the Gary Coleman vehicle Scout s Honor
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1980 Played Howard s uncle Joe on Happy Days (ABC)
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1981 Final film role, playing Delmas in Milos Forman s Ragtime , also starring Cagney in his final role
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Cast alongside Tracy in the science fiction play R.U.R.
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Continued to actively perform on stage, working in regional touring theater productions with his wife Eloise Taylor and starring in a popular nightclub comedy act
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Joined the US Navy during World War I; saw no combat
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Met lifelong friend Spencer Tracy in high school in Milwaukee
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Performed on several of early television s drama showcases including Kraft Television Theater and Ford Television Theater (both NBC then ABC)
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Rented an apartment in Manhattan with Tracy; attended acting classes paid for with his veteran s stipend
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Returned to Milwaukee at a girlfriend s urging; worked as insurance salesman; was soon back in NYC, acting on stage
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Returned to Milwaukee to look after his ill father; resumed law studies; when father recovered, returned to NYC
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Returned to Milwaukee, graduated high school and attended law school
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While visiting relatives in NYC, cast as a dancer in the Broadway production Adrienne