Date of Birth 10 September 1915, New York, New York
Date of Death 9 May 1985, Inglewood,
California, USA. (Alzheimer’s
disease)
Birth Name Redmond O'Brien
Nickname Eddy
Height 5' 10"
Spouses
Olga San Juan (26 September 1948 - 1976) (divorced) 3 children
Nancy Kelly (19 February 1941 - 2 February 1942) (divorced)
Oscar-winner
Edmond O'Brien was one of the most respected character actors in American cinema from his heyday of the mid-1940s through
the late 1960s. Born on September 10, 1915 in New York, New
York, O'Brien learned his craft in the theater, appearing with Orson Welles's Mercury Players. He made his unaccredited debut as an extra in Prison Break (1938), but his real debut was with the plum supporting part of Gringoire in Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1939)
. After returning from his wartime service with the Army Air Force, O'Brien built up a distinguished career as a supporting
actor in A-list films, and as an occasional character lead such as in D.O.A. (1950).
O'Brien won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and also was received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for his role as a drunken
senator ferreting out an attempted coup d'etat in Seven Days in May (1964). He also appeared as the crusty old timer Freddy who antagonizes Ben Johnson's character Tector Gorch in director Sam Peckinpah's classic Western _Wild Bunch, The (1969). Increasingly, he appeared on television in
the 1960s and '70s, but managed a turn in his old boss Welles' unfinished film The Other Side
of the Wind (1972).
O'Brien married and divorced the actresses Nancy Kelly and Olga
San Juan, with the latter wife being the mother of his three children, including actors Maria O'Brien and Brendan O'Brien.
He died in May 1985 Inglewood, California of Alzheimer's Disease
and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.