Arthur O'Connell Trailers
Way of Tomorrow: The Evolution of Science Fiction Movies TrailerPreminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker TrailerThe Hiding Place Trailer
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.
Most Popular Arthur O'Connell Trailers
Total trailers found: 77
17 April 1941
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist.
23 January 1942
A police reporter solves a murder case in Chicago, then moves on to St. Louis-but not voluntarily, since he has been kidnapped by the minions of the Windy City gang leader against whom he is scheduled to testify.
22 April 1942
In Chicago, an unemployed actor aims to solve the mystery concerning a string of ax murders, apparently committed by a lunatic.
09 April 1942
Cookie is born, producing unmitigated joy in the Bumstead household. Adding to the chaos a new baby always creates is the appearance of Hans Conried as a cynical author who becomes caught up in the Bumstead lifestyle.
30 November 1957
A New York City probation officer, noted for his sympathy with delinquents, put to a severe test when his daughter falls for a boy whom circumstances force into breaking the law.
05 April 1940
A teenager falls hard for an irresponsible playboy.
27 November 1957
A teenager, recently in trouble with the police, is sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their Kentucky farm in order to rediscover life's values.
04 June 1961
Every year the Chincoteague fire department rounds up the wild ponies of Assateague Island and holds an auction to thin out the herd.
19 December 1956
Stylish, sophisticated and absolutely broke, Dino and Maria pursue a romance until they realize neither of them has any money, which forces the gold diggers to turn their attention to a wealthy widower and his daughter.
01 December 1972
When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.
23 April 1942
Rivals Bill Arden and Paul Herbert enter the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in order to impress a girl.
04 August 1965
A man stumbles out of a car crash with no memory of what transpired. Everyone who he meets suggests that he is a ruthless man with an aggressive temper.
18 November 1955
Labor Day in a small Kansas farm town. Hal, a burly and resolute drifter, jumps off a dusty freight train car with the purpose of visiting Alan, a former college classmate and son of the richest man in town.
24 August 1966
In order to save an assassinated scientist, a submarine and its crew are shrunk to microscopic size and injected into his bloodstream.
01 July 1965
Professional daredevil and white-suited hero, The Great Leslie, convinces turn-of-the-century auto makers that a race from New York to Paris (westward across America, the Bering Straight and Russia) will help to promote automobile sales.
09 April 1959
Due to an accident while swimming in the sea, Francis meets the surfer Moondoggie. She's fascinated with his sport and starts to hang out with his clique.
06 February 1942
Nona Brooks, former member of a stranded theatrical troupe, earns a temporary living singing in a café in Duakwa, British Rhodesia, Africa.
15 February 1967
An innocent man is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, but as he's about to be hanged he accidentally kills his executioner.
01 July 1959
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her.
22 November 1972
An enigmatic young woman has been murdered in a small California coast town. The investigation by the local sheriff uncovers a complex web of relationships centering on the victim; the scattered trail of evidence ranges from a mysterious photograph to the victim's own dog.
18 December 1961
A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying royalty.
02 August 1951
A newly promoted plant supervisor finds himself in the position of having to announce a layoff of his fellow workers.
23 June 1972
A lonely boy becomes good friends with Ben, a rat. This rat is also the leader of a pack of vicious killer rats, killing lots of people.
05 December 1959
A World War II submarine commander finds himself stuck with a damaged sub, a con-man executive officer, and a group of army nurses.
28 January 1971
People in a small German village in the last valley to remain untouched by the devastating Thirty Years' War try to exist in peace with a group of soldiers occupying the valley.
06 September 1940
A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic.
11 November 1959
A rustic drama set in the early 20th century, Hound Dog Man is the simple story of a young man, Spud Kinney constantly in hot water for disobeying his mother.
01 October 1958
Heading east to Fort Worth to hire a schoolteacher for his frontier town home, Link Jones is stranded with singer Billie Ellis and gambler Sam Beasley when their train is held up.
30 April 1948
An industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.
18 September 1970
A charming but ruthless criminal is sent to a remote Arizona prison, where he enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot.
04 May 1975
Corrie and Betsie ten Boom are middle-aged sisters working in their father's watchmaker shop in pre-World War II Holland.
14 February 1948
A couple discovers that their friend has gone missing. Their investigation leads them to believe that antisemites are behind the disappearance.
06 March 1964
An Army officer returns to the Smoky Mountains and tries to convince his kinfolk to allow the Army to build a missile site on their land.
31 August 1956
Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie.
17 August 1957
In this wacky military spoof, Lemmon plays a terminally bored Army private waging a war of wits as he tries to throw a party under the nose of his obnoxious commanding officer.
29 April 1948
Self-absorbed Dr. Lee Johnson enlists with the Army medical corps during World War II, more out of a feeling that it's "the thing to do" rather than deep-seated patriotism.
28 October 1991
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s.
12 April 1956
Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria, which resulted in an illegitimate son he's never seen.
19 April 1940
Eddie Kerns sells his song to a Broadway producer and also lands a job dancing in the musical. He sends for his dance partner-fiancée Molly Mahoney who brings her younger sister Pat.
23 December 1960
Fictionalized account of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., who stole or created fictional identities and worked in a variety of occupations, most quite successfully.
18 February 1966
Matt Helm is called out of retirement to stop the evil Big O organization who plan to explode an atomic bomb over Alamagordo, NM, and start WW III.
22 August 1956
Laura Partridge is a very enthusiastic small stockholder of 10 shares in International Projects, a large corporation based in New York.
08 October 1968
James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit.
01 December 1960
The epic story of a family involved in the Oklahoma Land Rush of April 22, 1889.
26 September 1961
Captain Maddocks will never be promoted beyond Captain because of a mistake that he made in the past.
06 March 1965
A hitchhiker sleeps with a rancher's wife and is hunted by the sheriff for her murder.
31 October 1948
This musical tells the tales of two movie extras who abscond to an expensive resort with their costumes and pretend to be aristocrats.
04 March 1948
After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.
23 September 1969
A plane carrying seven blind people to a convention for the blind in Seattle crashes in the mountains due to severe weather.
18 April 1963
This 1963 documentary, released less than a year after Marilyn Monroe's death, showcases the star in memorable scenes from her 20th Century Fox films, including wardrobe tests and clips from her last, uncompleted project, "Something's Got To Give".
25 May 1940
Edgar Kennedy is over-joyed when told he has won a $5,000 prize in a "How To Be Happy Though Married" contest.
15 May 1956
Robert Ryan plays an aging sheriff responsible for law and order in a frontier cattle town. Virginia Mayo plays his fiancee.
20 May 1940
The trials and tribulations of a group of newly sworn-in police officers.
12 October 1971
On her way home from a stay at a mental institution after a traumatic rape, a woman realizes that someone is deliberately trying to drive her insane.
24 May 1974
Huckleberry Finn is a 15-year-old boy who has had a difficult relationship with his often violent father for a long time.
09 January 1974
A small-town banker is forced to protect his town against a vicious gang of bank robbers determined to get the $200,000 stored in his bank.
11 April 1962
When the Kwimper family car runs out of fuel on a new Florida highway and an officious state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading.
21 February 1968
One by one members of a special project team are being killed by telekinesis - the ability to move things with the power of the mind alone.
19 March 1942
A cocky pilot at a Panama Canal bomber station clashes with his trainer over recklessness and a woman.
18 March 1964
An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
