Arthur O'Connell Trailers
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker TrailerMarilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend 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: 75
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.
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.
15 May 1956
Robert Ryan plays an aging sheriff responsible for law and order in a frontier cattle town. Virginia Mayo plays his fiancee.
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.
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.
24 August 1950
Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation.
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.
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.
05 September 1967
Roy Fleming is a small-town kiddie-ride operator who is deathly afraid of heights. After learning that his father has signed him up for the space program, Roy reluctantly heads for Houston, only to find out upon arriving that his job is as a janitor, not an astronaut.
17 April 1941
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist.
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.
16 August 1940
A mild-mannered insurance salesman gets mixed up with gangsters.
01 February 1939
A London nightclub hostess pretends to fall for the mobster who killed her husband.
01 January 1966
Jonas Trapp falls in love with the beautiful Jessie, a wealthy girl out of his humble class. Against the wishes of her snobbish aunt, she marries him, later faking a pregnancy to win her aunt's consent.
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.
13 August 1958
Jim Burton, chronic alcoholic, is cared for by Ellen, his incredibly patient, sexy, hard-working wife.
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.
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.
11 September 1970
War is brewing between the soldiers at an otherwise quiet army base and the civilians of a nearby Southern town.
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.
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.
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.
08 October 1968
James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit.
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.
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.
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.
04 May 1975
The Hiding Place is an account of a Dutch family who risk their lives by offering a safe haven for JI
01 December 1960
The epic story of a family involved in the Oklahoma Land Rush of April 22, 1889.
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.
13 August 1966
Melvin Byrd, who dreams of being a scientist, is a Cape Kennedy "miniscule molecular particle surveillance monitor" - in short, a janitor.
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.
11 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.
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.
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.
01 December 1972
When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.
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.
19 April 1986
Her story is well-known — the lonely child who yearned for affection and approval which she finally seemed to find as Hollywood's greatest love goddess.
05 April 1940
A teenager falls hard for an irresponsible playboy.
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.
06 March 1965
A hitchhiker sleeps with a rancher's wife and is hunted by the sheriff for her murder.
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.
06 September 1940
A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic.
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.
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.
04 November 1964
The story of the country and western singer Hank Williams.
02 August 1951
A newly promoted plant supervisor finds himself in the position of having to announce a layoff of his fellow workers.
20 June 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
22 April 1942
In Chicago, an unemployed actor aims to solve the mystery concerning a string of ax murders, apparently committed by a lunatic.
30 April 1948
An industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.
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.
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".
31 August 1956
Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie.
18 September 1970
Arizona Territorial Prison inmate Paris Pitman, Jr. is a schemer, a charmer, and quite popular among his fellow convicts — especially with $500,000 in stolen loot hidden away and a plan to escape and recover it.
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.
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.
