Arthur O'Connell
Audiences rate Arthur O'Connell’s films higher than 95% of the 3,467 people with 10 or more films on ThumbScore. See the full ranking
Free to watch now (26 Oct): The Great Race (Plex, Tubi, Kanopy) · Pocketful of Miracles (Tubi) · Anatomy of a Murder (Fawesome) · Man of the West (Plex, Tubi) · There Was a Crooked Man... (Fandango at Home, Plex, Tubi) · Ben (Philo, Roku Channel, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, Shout! TV, Plex, Prime Video (free), Cineverse, Xumo Play, Tubi, Kanopy).
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The ThumbScore for Arthur O'Connell (81.5%) is the average audience approval rating across 10 films. Each movie's ThumbScore represents the percentage of real audiences who rated it positively. A higher score means more of Arthur's films are well-received by everyday viewers.
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.
Born 1908-03-29 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 1981-05-18.
Sources: TMDB
