Edmond O'Brien

Edmond O'Brien (September 10, 1915 – May 9, 1985) was an American actor, winner of an Academy Award in the category of best supporting actor.

Born in New York, he became interested in the world of acting in a very early childhood. He was helped in this by his neighbor, the famous magician Harry Houdini. He abandoned his studies at Fordham University to pursue acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater thanks to a scholarship. At the same time he worked as a bank clerk until embarking on the world of acting in Broadway companies until in 1937 he joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theater and performed regularly on radio programs and in the theater, also in radio shows, among them, YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR.

O'Brien made his film debut in 1938 in supporting roles and gradually made a name for himself in the world of Hollywood. The Hunchback of Our Lady of Paris (1939), by William Dieterle, and The Killers or Outlaws (1946), by Robert Siodmak, are among the best of this first stage as an actor. At that time, he married the actress Nancy Kelly in 1941 (a marriage that only lasted one year) and later with Olga San Juan, with whom he would have a daughter, Maria O'Brien, who would also dedicate herself to the world of acting. 

In the 1950s, he would stand out in numerous works. Above all of them, the interpretation of a dying man who desperately searches for his murderer in his last hours of life in With the Counted Hours (1950), an excellent and powerful thriller by Rudolph Maté. But he would have others like Red Hot (1949), The Man Who Killed Liberty Valance (1962), The Man from Alcatraz (1962), The Longest Day (1962) or The Wild Bunch (1969).

He would win an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and was nominated a second time for his participation in Seven Days in May (1964).

O'Brien would die in Inglewood, California from Alzheimer's disease and was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. The actor has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 1725 Vine Street and 6523 Hollywood Boulevard.