Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O'Brien ( born November 11, 1899 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, † October 15, 1983 in Santa Monica, California, William Joseph Patrick O'Brien actually ) was an American actor of Irish descent, who, among other things as co-star acted by James Cagney and Spencer Tracy.
Life and career
Pat O'Brien was born to Irish parents son in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He was an altar boy in his youth in the Gesu Church in Milwaukee, later he attended Marquette University. At school, O'Brien befriended closely with Spencer Tracy. Both originally wanted to become a priest, but then joined the Military Academy at Marquette. Detours both then got into acting. He has played on Broadway. A great success was the piece Special Edition ( The Front Page ) by Ben Hecht, where he played the role of Walter Burns. When the play was in 1931 by Lewis Milestone as The Front Page filmed, but embodied Adolphe Menjou the role of Burns and O'Brien took over the lead role of Hildy Johnson partner. This role should give him the breakthrough as a film actor.
In larger films, he usually played the friend of the main character, in smaller films, he also took on himself the lead role. Although he had decided against the occupation of a Catholic priest, he wore the clerical garb in his films very often; best example of this is Michael Curtiz 's legendary gangster film classic Chicago - Angels with Dirty Faces, where he can be seen next to James Cagney in the role of Father Connelly. Overall, O'Brien was in the 1930s, with Cagney eight times before the camera, in his last film Ragtime (1981 ) appeared together after 40 years for the first time together on. Cagney and O'Brien had met first time in 1926 and remain all their lives through friends.
Many of his roles played O'Brien with an Irish accent, he said, but not in real life. In the 1950s, the film deals O'Brien were scarce and he had to focus on television work. His old friend Spencer Tracy was able to prevail only with difficulty in the studio, that O'Brien was given a supporting role in Tracy's film The Last Hurrah. One of his few successes in this period was Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot, where - as in many other movies too - a police commissioner plays, which dominates the first ten minutes of the film classic, but then has only two small appearances. He worked until shortly before his death as an actor and had a total of nearly 150 film and television appearances.
The actor was seen as very conservative. With his wife, Eloise Taylor, he was married from 1931 until his death, they had four children, three of whom were adopted. He died of a heart attack at the age of 83 years. Pat O'Brien is immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with two stars. He was buried in the cemetery of Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.