Una O'Connor (actress)
Una O'Connor ( born October 23, 1880 in Belfast, † February 4, 1959 in New York City; actually Agnes Teresa McGlade ) was an Irish actress. Although the theater actress until the age of 50 made her first film, she achieved fame through the personification of quirky servants, mistresses and wives in numerous Hollywood films.
Life and career
Una O'Connor played first at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin before she appeared on London's theaters. From 1911 she also played on Broadway in the United States. In 1932 O'Connor played the role of Ellen Bridges in Noel Coward 's play Cavalcade, whereupon she was also engaged for Frank Lloyd film a year later for this role. The appearance in the Oscar-winning movie meant her breakthrough on the canvas. Previously, O'Connor had been in Alfred Hitchcock's British thriller Murder - Sir John intervenes! played a minor role and completed her first film appearance. For horror movie director James Whale in 1933 she was in The Invisible Man and two years later in The Bride of Frankenstein front of the camera and managed to finally establish himself as a character actress. John Ford put them mid-1930s in his films a Traitor and The Plough and the Stars. Your signature roles were somewhat hysterical maids and wives, they often represented as comic relief.
In addition, O'Connor played frequently in historical films and literary adaptations like David Copperfield, signals to London and Little Lord Fauntleroy, all with child star Freddie Bartholomew in the lead role. In 1938, she was seen as a servant of Olivia de Havilland in the adventure classic Robin Hood King of the Vagabonds, in which Errol Flynn played the title role. Also in the 1940s continued her career in similar roles until 1947 for the time being ended her film career.
Una O'Connor, who increasingly played theater after her film work, again, was there often occupied for quirky characters in supporting roles, as well as in the play Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie, which was performed in 1954 on Broadway. O'Connor played the role of a Scottish housekeeper here. In the same film adaptation of Billy Wilder from 1957 they also played this role. It was her first film appearance for several years while her last. In the film, she stood in the cross-examination of Charles Laughton, with whom she had played 1944 in The Canterville Ghost and The Barretts of Wimpole 1934 in Street. The Times praised O'Connor expressly qualified in their film criticism to witness for the prosecution as " a wasp that is looking for a victim to poke at the Old Bailey. "
In 1958, she retired into private life. Una O'Connor died in 1959 at the age of 78 of a heart attack. She was never married and had no children. Her grave is located on the Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, New York.