German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5909/1, 1930-1931. Photo: United Artists. Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931) Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
French postcard by Edition Chantal, Rueil-Malmaison, no. 47. Photo: Warner Bros.
The Front Page
William Joseph Patrick O'Brien was born in 1899 to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All four of his grandparents had come from Ireland. As a child, O'Brien served as an altar boy at Gesu Church, while growing up near 13th and Kilbourn Streets in Milwaukee. He attended Marquette Academy with fellow actor Spencer Tracy, who was a lifelong friend. During World War I, O'Brien and Tracy joined the United States Navy. They both attended boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, but they never went to sea. The war ended before their training had finished. Jack Benny was also at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center at the same time as O'Brien and Tracy.
After the war, O'Brien finished his secondary schooling at Marquette Academy and later attended Marquette University. While still at college, he decided to seek work as an actor. He and Spencer Tracy moved to New York, where they both attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. The two struggling young actors shared a small studio apartment and began their careers on stage. O'Brien spent a decade in plays on Broadway and in the New York City area. He made his film debut in the Vitaphone Varieties short film, The Nightingale (1930), produced in New York.
His first starring role was as ace reporter Hildy Johnson in the original version of the screwball comedy The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931) with Adolphe Menjou. Based on the 1928 Broadway play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the film was nominated for the Oscars for Best Picture, Lewis Milestone for Best Director, and Menjou for Best Actor. Pat O'Brien was the lead in Personal Maid (Monta Bell, Lothar Mendes, 1931), and appeared in the musical Flying High (Charles Reisner, 1931), supporting Bert Lahr. He was Irene Dunne's love interest in Consolation Marriage (Paul Sloane, 1932), then co-starred opposite a young Bette Davis in Hell's House (Howard Higgin, 1932).
O'Brien stayed in leads, going from studio to studio: Scandal for Sale (Russell Mack, 1932), The Strange Case of Clara Deane (Louis J. Gasnier, Max Marcin, 1932), Hollywood Speaks (Edward Buzzell, 1932) and American Madness (Frank Capra, 1932). O'Brien played a heroic pilot in Air Mail (1932), directed by John Ford. At the small Majestic Pictures, he starred in The World Gone Mad (Christy Cabanne, 1933) with Evelyn Brent. In 1933, Warners signed O'Brien to a long-term contract. He would remain with the studio until 1940 when he left after a dispute over the terms of his contract renewal. O'Brien supported Dick Powell in College Coach (William A. Wellman, 1933) and Joan Blondell in I've Got Your Number (Ray Enright, 1934). Here Comes the Navy (Earl Baldwin, 1934) was O'Brien's first film with James Cagney, also under contract to Warners. The two originally met in 1926 and remained friends for almost six decades. After O'Brien's death, Cagney referred to him as his "dearest friend."
O'Brien played the lead, a boxer, in The Personality Kid (Alan Crosland, 1934), supported Dick Powell in Flirtation Walk (1934) and was an auctioneer in I Sell Anything (Robert Florey, 1935). Cagney and O'Brien were reteamed in Devil Dogs of the Air (Lloyd Bacon, 1935). He was a critic in love with Dolores del Río in In Caliente (Lloyd Bacon, 1935) and had the lead in the bio-pic Oil for the Lamps of China (Mervyn LeRoy, 1935), which he called "one of my favourite pictures". He headlined the musical Stars Over Broadway (William Keighley, 1935) and then was back with Cagney for Howard Hawks' adventure drama Ceiling Zero (1935). Cagney later sued Warners for billing O'Brien's name above his. Warners gave him some starring parts: I Married a Doctor (Archie Mayo, 1936), Public Enemy's Wife (Nick Grinde, 1936), China Clipper (Ray Enright, 1936), The Great O'Malley (William Dieterle, 1937), and Slim (Ray Enright, 1937) with Henry Fonda. He was Captain of the Guard (on special leave from the US Army) in San Quentin (1937) opposite Humphrey Bogart, romanced Joan Blondell in Back in Circulation (Lloyd Bacon, 1937) and was a veteran sailor in Submarine D-1 (Lloyd Bacon, 1938). He and Cagney reteamed for the screwball comedy Boy Meets Girl (Lloyd Bacon, 1938) with Marie Wilson.
British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Warner. Joan Blondell and Pat O'Brien in I've Got Your Number (Ray Enright, 1934).
Crack-Up
In the late 1930s, Pat O'Brien and a small group of his actor friends began to meet to converse and exchange opinions and stories. Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky dubbed them the "Irish Mafia," but they preferred to call their social group the "Boys Club." In addition to O'Brien, the original members of the club were James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Allen Jenkins and Frank McHugh, all of whom were Irish-Americans. Later Lynne Overman joined their group and then George Brent, James Dunn, Louis Calhern, Brian Donlevy, Ralph Bellamy, James Gleason and Bert Lahr were also frequent guests.
Pat O'Brien has one of his best-ever roles as the former street kid turned priest in the crime drama Angels with Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938) with James Cagney. He went over to Paramount for the drama The Night of Nights (Lewis Milestone, 1939), part of a deal in which Warners bought the rights to The Old Maid from Paramount. He then made the mystery Slightly Honorable (Tay Garnett, 1939) for United Artists. Back at Warner Bros, he was reunited with Cagney for The Fighting 69th (William Keighley, 1940).
O'Brien then made the prison film Castle on the Hudson (Anatole Litvak, 1940) with Ann Sheridan and John Garfield. He co-starred with Garfield and Frances Farmer in Flowing Gold (Alfred E. Green, 1940). O'Brien was then given his best-known role, as the famous University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne, All American (Lloyd Bacon, 1940). In the film, he gave the speech to "win just one for the Gipper," referring to recently deceased football player, George Gipp, portrayed in the film by a young Ronald Reagan. Reagan later used this saying as a slogan for his campaign for president in 1980.
O'Brien was at a career peak. He was considered for the role of Alvin York in the film Sergeant York. From this high point, however, O'Brien left Warner Bros in July 1940. O'Brien signed a contract with 20th Century Fox for two films a year. However, they ended up not using him. He signed with Columbia Pictures to make two films a year. He was in the war film Escape to Glory (John Brahm, 1940), then was idle for a year before making Two Yanks in Trinidad (Gregory Ratoff, 1942) with Brian Donlevy and the war drama Flight Lieutenant (Sidney Salkow, 1942) with Glenn Ford. At Universal, he was in the crime musical Broadway (William A. Seiter, 1942) with George Raft.
Soon he signed a contract with RKO and appeared in several films for that studio. He mostly played authority or military roles such as The Navy Comes Through (A. Edward Sutherland, 1942), and Bombardier (Richard Wallace, 1943). The Iron Major (Ray Enright, 1943) was an attempt to repeat the success of Knute Rockne with O'Brien as Frank Cavanaugh. At Universal he supported Deanna Durbin in Frank Borzage's His Butler's Sister (1943) then it was back to RKO for Marine Raiders (Harold D. Schuster, 1944). With his agent Phil Ryan, O'Brien set up his own production company, Teneen Productions. They signed a deal with Columbia to make a film with O'Brien, Secret Command (A. Edward Sutherland, 1944). For Columbia, he made the Film Noir Perilous Holiday (Edward H. Griffith, 1946). In 1946 he starred in the successful Film Noir Crack-Up (Irving Reis, 1946) with Claire Trevor. He was in a thriller, Riffraff (Ted Tetzlaff, 1947) and another biopic Fighting Father Dunne (Ted Tetzlaff, 1948). He followed it with the fantasy drama The Boy with Green Hair (Joseph Losey, 1948) featuring Dean Stockwell and the Film Noir A Dangerous Profession (Ted Tetzlaff, 1949) with George Raft and Ella Raines.
Dutch postcard by J.S.A. (J. Sleding, Amsterdam. Photo: F.B.O. - M.P.E. / Universal. Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone and Pat 'O Brien in His Butler's Sister (Frank Borzage, 1943).
Some Like It Hot
While working as a Hollywood contract player, Pat O'Brien made occasional appearances on the radio in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1946 he collaborated with the contralto Kate Smith on the popular 'Viva America' program for the CBS radio network. In the summer of 1947, he starred with Lynn Bari in Summer Theater, a program "dramatizing episodes in the life of a small-town druggist." O'Brien's film career slowed considerably by the early 1950s, although he still managed to get work in television. In his autobiography, 'The Wind at My Back', he professed to be completely flummoxed about the decline of his career.
His close friend, Spencer Tracy, fought with his studio, MGM, to get roles for O'Brien in his films The People Against O'Hara (John Sturges, 1951) and The Last Hurrah (John Ford, 1958). He still had leads in films like the war film Okinawa (Leigh Jason, 1952), the Film Noir Inside Detroit (Fred F. Sears, 1956) with Dennis O'Keefe and the British crime film Kill Me Tomorrow (Terence Fisher, 1957) with Lois Maxwell.
In 1959 O'Brien appeared in a supporting role in one of his best-known films as a police detective opposite George Raft in the crime comedy Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959), starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis. In his later years, O'Brien often worked in television. He was cast in 1956 and 1957 in four episodes of the religion anthology series, Crossroads. In three of the four programs, he played priests. He also performed in two episodes of The Virginian in the mid-1960s. In the 1960–1961 television season, O'Brien played James Harrigan, Sr. in a sitcom titled Harrigan and Son.
O'Brien made numerous appearances on television as himself, including several on The Ed Sullivan Show. In 1957, Ralph Edwards profiled O'Brien's life and career for an episode of This Is Your Life. He was also the mystery guest on the game show What's My Line? in 1953 and 1957. From the 1960s through the early 1980s, O'Brien often travelled around the United States as a one-man act and in road shows. He also performed frequently in nightclubs. He had a small role as Burt Reynolds' father in the comedy The End (Burt Reynolds, 1978), opposite Myrna Loy, cast as Reynolds' mother.
The drama Ragtime (Milos Forman, 1981) featured Pat O'Brien's final film appearance as well as his friend James Cagney's. Cagney had not acted in a film for nearly 20 years. In 1982, O'Brien's final filmed performance came in an episode of Happy Days. Near the end of his life, he toured in a stage production of 'On Golden Pond', which he considered "absolutely the best play" he had ever read. O'Brien and his wife, Eloise, had four children: Mavourneen, Sean, Terry, and Brigid. Three of his children were adopted. The youngest, Brigid O'Brien (1946-2016), was his biological child. Eloise O'Brien occasionally appeared on stage with her husband. Pat O'Brien died in 1983, from a heart attack at age 83, following minor prostate surgery. President Ronald Reagan released a White House statement noting his sadness over his old friend's death. The president had called the actor at the hospital just days before his death.
British postcard by Milton's, no. 121. Photo: Warner Bros. & Vitaphone Pictures.
Sources: Bill Takacs (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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