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PAT O’ BRIEN: THE IRISH IN HIM

"Sometime, when the team is up against it -- and the breaks are beating the boys -- tell them to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper..."

-Actor Pat O'Brien in Knute Rockne, All American (1940)

Whether playing second fiddle to his pals James Cagney and Spencer Tracy or starring in his own films, Pat O’Brien was one of the most enduring and endearing icons of Classic Hollywood. And, along with Barry Fitzgerald, the screen’s quintessential Irishman.

Offscreen he was known for his gift of blarney, which he would often use to charm boss Jack L. Warner when it came to contract negotiations. Or he would break into a favorite Irish tune that would bring tears to the eyes of Jimmy Cagney. He was a man completely free of pretense who was one of the best liked men and respected performers in Hollywood. Perhaps because what you saw of Pat O’Brien onscreen mirrored what he was like off-camera. A talented and extremely nice man.

O’Brien was one of Warner Brothers’ staples during the 1930s, appearing in a wide variety of roles that still, however, showcased his heritage. Whether playing a newsman, naval officer, aviator, cop or, most especially, a priest, he would come to be known as Hollywood’s “Irishman in Residence” a title of which he was proud.

O’Brien, though, was not born on the Emerald Isle. William Joseph Patrick O’Brien hailed from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whence came another Irish lad, Spencer Tracy, with whom O’Brien would become friends when both attended Marquette Academy. Interestingly, both boys harbored early ambitions to join the priesthood, but another calling awaited them. After attending Marquette University and serving in the Navy during World War I, O’Brien set his sights on a career in the theater. It was his role of Walter Burns in the Broadway production of “The Front Page” that brought O’Brien to the attention of Hollywood, though a casting snafu occurred when the studio, confusing Burns with the other lead role, ace reporter Hildy Johnson, offered O'Brien the latter role assuming it was the one he had played onstage. Nevertheless, O’Brien took the job. O’Brien appeared in a number of rather forgettable films at various studios until he was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers. He appeared with Bette Davis in the programmer “Bureau of Missing Persons” (1933), and the next year made the first of nine movies where he would co-star with his close friend James Cagney: “Here Comes the Navy” (1934). The teaming instantly clicked with movie audiences who enjoyed the usual onscreen rivalry between the calm and authoritative O’Brien and the undisciplined and feisty Jimmy. (Although in real life, it was Cagney who was the quiet homebody and O’Brien the gregarious nightclubber). O’Brien also made impressive solo films, such as “Oil for the Lamps of China” (1935) where he played the rather unsympathetic role of Stephen Chase, an American employed by an oil company in the East who takes his job so seriously that he neglects all but his company’s interests. He played another initially unsympathetic character in the sentimental “The Great O’Malley” (1937). His Officer James Aloysius O’Malley is so “by the book” that he causes a desperate man (Humphrey Bogart) to become a criminal.

Of course O’Brien’s signature role was the real-life Notre Dame football coach “Knute Rockne, All-American” (1940), which co-starred Ronald Reagan as George Gipp.

His movie career entered a decline in the 1950s, though he worked frequently on television. His big hit of the decade was as Detective Mulligan, a cop hot on the trail of gangster George Raft in “Some Like it Hot” (1959). O’Brien remained active in films, television and even on the stage until his death in 1983. His final film role was a cameo in “Ragtime” (1981), which also proved to be Jimmy Cagney’s cinematic swan song – and their first appearance in the same movie in 41 years.

THIS WEEK AUGUST 24TH AT 8 PM ET

DAUGHTER BRIGID O'BRIEN

ON ACTOR PAT O'BRIEN