Theatre O'Brien began working in
summer stock in
Yonkers. He made his first Broadway appearance at age 21 in
Daughters of Atreus. He played a grave digger in
Hamlet, toured in
Parnell, and then appeared in Maxwell Anderson's
The Star Wagon with stars
Lillian Gish and
Burgess Meredith. In 1940, O'Brien performed with
Ruth Chatterton in
John Van Druten's
Leave Her to Heaven on Broadway. Twelve years later, O'Brien appeared in Van Druten's ''
I've Got Sixpence.''
Film O'Brien's theatre work attracted the attention of
Pandro Berman at RKO. Berman offered O'Brien the role of a romantic lead in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). O'Brien returned to Broadway to play Mercutio opposite
Laurence Olivier and
Vivien Leigh in
Romeo and Juliet. RKO offered O'Brien a long-term contract.
Harold Lloyd was then producing comedies for RKO, and co-starred O'Brien with
Lucille Ball and
George Murphy in
A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob (1941). O'Brien co-starred with
Nancy Kelly, whom O'Brien would later marry, in
Parachute Battalion (1941). O'Brien went back to the Harold Lloyd unit, which continued to function after the producer's departure, and displayed a breezy sense of humor in the farce comedy
Obliging Young Lady (1942), a vehicle for the young Broadway star
Joan Carroll. In May 1942,
Universal bought out O'Brien's RKO contract so he could star opposite
Deanna Durbin in
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday (1943). After that, O'Brien joined the armed services.
World War II During
World War II, O'Brien served in the
U.S. Army Air Forces and appeared in the Air Forces'
Broadway play Winged Victory. He was joined in the
Moss Hart production by
Red Buttons,
Karl Malden,
Kevin McCarthy,
Gary Merrill,
Barry Nelson, and
Martin Ritt. The play was filmed in 1944 with O'Brien reprising his stage performance and
Judy Holliday co-starring. O'Brien toured for two years in the stage production, appearing alongside a young
Mario Lanza. voted that O'Brien had more "male magnetism" than any other man in America. "All women adore ruggedness," league president Shirley Connolly said. "Edmund O'Brien's magnetic appearance and personality most fully stir women's imaginative impulses. We're all agreed that he has more male magnetism than any of the 60,000,000 men in the United States today." (Runners-up were
Ezio Pinza,
William O'Dwyer and
Doak Walker.)
Broadcasting O'Brien's contract with Warner Bros. ended following his appearance as the second lead in
Backfire (shot in 1948 but not released until 1950). In the meantime he signed on with
CBS Radio for the radio drama
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, playing the title role of a two-fisted insurance investigator. He remained with the role for exactly 31 months, starring in 103 half-hour episodes from February 3, 1950 to October 3, 1952. His other work in radio included
Philip Morris Playhouse on Broadway.
Freelance O'Brien returned to film noir, where he was a frequent player, and made one of his most famous movies,
D.O.A., where he portrays a man investigating his own murder. He followed this with the lead in the noir
711 Ocean Drive (1950). Next was a starring role in the comedy
The Admiral Was a Lady, co-starring roles in the noir
Between Midnight and Dawn (1950) and the Western
The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951), then the leads in the crime film
Two of a Kind and the Westerns
Warpath and
Silver City, all in 1951. These were followed by the lead in the Western
Denver and Rio Grande, and second lead in the noir
The Turning Point. However, even though O'Brien still managed to command leading-man roles, the prestige of his pictures and casts had begun to diminish and his career hit a slump. According to TCM, "In the early '50s, O'Brien started struggling with his weight, which could change significantly between films. He had no problems if that relegated him to character roles, but for a few years, "it was hard to come by anything really first rate." In 1951 he was in a well-publicized brawl with
Serge Rubinstein at a cafe. In spite of the ups and downs of his Hollywood career, O'Brien was still capable of greatness, both on the stage and on film. In 1954 Mankiewicz cast O'Brien as press agent Oscar Muldoon in
The Barefoot Contessa, O'Brien followed this with a number of important roles, including the second lead in the musical crime film ''
Pete Kelly's Blues, the lead in the dystopian political movie 1984 and the noir A Cry in the Night (1956), co-lead in the World War II drama D-Day the Sixth of June'' (all 1956). That same year he had a refreshing change of pace as the comedy lead (a
Runyonesque gangster who stumbles into
rock-and-roll) in ''
The Girl Can't Help It'',
Television on
Sam Benedict in 1963 O'Brien appeared extensively in television, including the 1957 live 90-minute broadcast on
Playhouse 90 of
The Comedian, a drama written by
Rod Serling and directed by
John Frankenheimer in which
Mickey Rooney portrayed dictatorial television comedian Sammy Hogarth. O'Brien played Al Preston, the show's headwriter driven to the brink of insanity. Burned out dealing with the volatle Hogarth, unable to come up with new material for the show's comedy sketches, Preston deliberately plagiarizes material authored by a young comedy writer who died in combat during World War II. When the ruse is discovered, Preston is fired, but tells Hogarth his rages are rooted in his inability to find love. In 1958 he directed and starred in a TV drama written by his brother, "The Town That Slept With the Lights On", about two Lancaster murders that so frightened the community that residents began sleeping with their lights on. From 1959 to 1960, O'Brien portrayed the title role in the syndicated
crime drama Johnny Midnight, about a New York City actor-turned-
private detective. The producers refused to cast him unless he shed at least 50 pounds, so he went on a crash vegetarian diet and quit drinking. He made a French film,
The Restless and the Damned for a fee more than $200,000. He was cast on the strength of his performance in ''The Girl Can't Help It'' and his Oscar. O'Brien had roles on many television series, including an appearance on
Target: The Corruptors!,
The Eleventh Hour,
Breaking Point and
Mission: Impossible.
1960s film work O'Brien walked off the set of
The Last Voyage in protest at safety issues during the shoot. He later came back and found out that his co-starring role had been trimmed. He was cast as American reporter
Jackson Bentley in
Lawrence of Arabia (1962), but had a heart attack during filming and was replaced in the co-starring role by
Arthur Kennedy. O'Brien recovered to direct his first feature
Man-Trap (1961), a
neo-noir starring
Jeffrey Hunter and
Stella Stevens, co-starred in the
Disney comedy
Moon Pilot (1962), and in the star-studded ensemble cast of the World War II epic
The Longest Day (1962). He continued to receive good roles, co-starring in
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and as the author of the
Robert Stroud biography the
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) was based upon. "I've never made any kind of personality success," he admitted in a 1963 interview. "People never say 'that's an Eddie O'Brien part.' They say, 'That's a part Eddie O'Brien can play.'" He was a cast member of
The Other Side of the Wind,
Orson Welles' unfinished 1970s movie that finally was released in 2018. In 1971, he was hospitalized with a "slight pulmonary condition." His last works, both in 1974, were an episode of the television series
Police Story and main role in the film
99 and 44/100% Dead.
Recording In 1957 O'Brien recorded a spoken-word album of
The Red Badge of Courage (Caedmon TC 1040).
Billboard said, "Edmond O'Brien brings intensity in the narrative portions and successfully impersonates the varied characters in dialog." ==Personal life==