Dan O'Herlihy
Encyclopedia
Daniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish
film
actor
.
, Ireland
in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age. He was educated at Christian Brothers College in Dun Laoghaire
and later studied in University College Dublin
, graduating in 1944 with a degree in Architecture
.
and Carol Reed
's Odd Man Out
in 1947. His first American film role was as Macduff
in Orson Welles
' version of Macbeth
(1948). In 1952, he starred in the Red Scare film Invasion U.S.A.
and in 1954 in Luis Buñuel
's Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor
(Marlon Brando
won for On the Waterfront
instead).
O'Herlihy later was featured in The Young Land
in 1959 as Judge Millard Isham. He starred in Fail-Safe
in 1964 (as General Black, or "Blackie"), The Big Cube
and 100 Rifles
, in 1969, and in the 1970 epic Waterloo, playing the part of Marshall of France Michel Ney
. In 1982, there was Halloween III: Season of the Witch
, The Last Starfighter
in 1984 as Grig, Alex Rogan's copilot, navigator, and sidekick, The Whoopee Boys in 1986 as a conman, John Huston
's The Dead
in 1987, in RoboCop
, and its sequel RoboCop 2
.
He also had a fairly extensive career in television, appearing in such shows as CBS's anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson
, and ABC
's crime drama, Target: The Corruptors!
.
In 1963-64, he appeared as the wandering gold-seeker father in the western
series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
with co-star Kurt Russell
. On ABC
's The Long, Hot Summer, O'Herlihy became the lead star, having replaced Edmond O'Brien
in the part of Will Varner midway through the program's one-season run. In 1966, he appeared in the episode "Have You Seen the Aurora Borealis?" of NBC's western series The Road West
, starring Barry Sullivan
. In 1974, on British television, he played the Senior American Officer, Col Max Dodd in the second series of BBC's POW drama Colditz
. In 1978, he guest starred in the second part of the Battlestar Galactica
episode "Gun on Ice Planet Zero
" as Dr. Ravishol. O'Herlihy also portrayed the ill-fated lumber tycoon Andrew Packard in the cult television program Twin Peaks
(1991), and in the episode, "Deep Freeze" of Batman: The Animated Series
voicing the Mr. Freeze
-obsessed theme park mogul Grant Walker. In 1998, O'Herlihy acted in his last film, The Rat Pack
, playing Joseph P. Kennedy.
(1928–1997) and the father of actor Gavan O'Herlihy
, visual artist Olwen O'Herlihy, and architect Lorcan O'Herlihy
. He was also the grandfather of Cian Dowling, Colin O'Herlihy, Micaela O'Herlihy
and Eilis O'Herlihy.
Dan O'Herlihy died of natural causes in Malibu, California in 2005, aged 85. His personal papers are held in the University College Dublin Archives.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Early life
O'Herlihy was born in WexfordWexford
Wexford is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. It is situated near the southeastern corner of Ireland, close to Rosslare Europort. The town is connected to Dublin via the M11/N11 National Primary Route, and the national rail network...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age. He was educated at Christian Brothers College in Dun Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...
and later studied in University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
, graduating in 1944 with a degree in Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
.
Career
O'Herlihy first appeared in Hungry HillHungry Hill (film)
Hungry Hill is a 1947 British film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Cecil Parker with a screenplay by Terence Young and Daphne du Maurier, from the novel by Daphne du Maurier....
and Carol Reed
Carol Reed
Sir Carol Reed was an English film director best known for Odd Man Out , The Fallen Idol , The Third Man and Oliver!...
's Odd Man Out
Odd Man Out
Odd Man Out is a 1947 Anglo-Irish film noir directed by Carol Reed, starring James Mason, and is based on a novel of the same name by F. L. Green.-Plot:The film's opening intertitle reads:...
in 1947. His first American film role was as Macduff
Macduff (thane)
Macduff, the Thane of Fife, is a character in William Shakespeare's Macbeth . Macduff plays a pivotal role in the play: he suspects Macbeth of regicide and eventually kills Macbeth in the final act...
in Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
' version of Macbeth
Macbeth (1948 film)
Macbeth is a 1948 American film adaptation by Orson Welles of William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth.-Pre-production:In 1947, Orson Welles began promoting the notion of bringing a Shakespeare drama to the motion picture screen. He initially attempted to pique investors’ interest in an adaptation of...
(1948). In 1952, he starred in the Red Scare film Invasion U.S.A.
Invasion U.S.A. (1952 film)
Invasion U.S.A. is a 1952 motion picture set during the Cold War and portraying the invasion of the United States by an unnamed Communist enemy meant to be taken as the Soviet Union....
and in 1954 in Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés was a Spanish-born filmmaker — later a naturalized citizen of Mexico — who worked in Spain, Mexico, France and the US..-Early years:...
's Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
won for On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a 1954 American drama film about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
instead).
O'Herlihy later was featured in The Young Land
The Young Land
The Young Land is a 1959 American Western drama film directed by Ted Tetzlaff starring Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper. The cinematography was by Technicolor developer Winton C. Hoch and Henry Sharp. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation.It is the third and final of only 3 films...
in 1959 as Judge Millard Isham. He starred in Fail-Safe
Fail-Safe (1964 film)
Fail-Safe is a 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. It tells the story of a fictional Cold War nuclear crisis...
in 1964 (as General Black, or "Blackie"), The Big Cube
The Big Cube
The Big Cube is a 1969 Warner Bros. thriller directed by Tito Davison and starring Lana Turner, Karin Mossberg , George Chakiris, Dan O'Herlihy and Richard Egan; it was one of Lana Turner's last movies...
and 100 Rifles
100 Rifles
100 Rifles is a 1969 western directed by Tom Gries. The film stars Jim Brown, Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, and Fernando Lamas. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.-Plot:...
, in 1969, and in the 1970 epic Waterloo, playing the part of Marshall of France Michel Ney
Michel Ney
Michel Ney , 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I...
. In 1982, there was Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...
, The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter is a 1984 science fiction adventure film directed by Nick Castle. The film tells the story of Alex Rogan , an average teenage boy recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also featured Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Norman...
in 1984 as Grig, Alex Rogan's copilot, navigator, and sidekick, The Whoopee Boys in 1986 as a conman, John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
's The Dead
The Dead (1987 film)
The Dead is a 1987 film directed by John Huston, starring his daughter Anjelica Huston. The Dead was the last film that Huston directed, and it was released posthumously....
in 1987, in RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
, and its sequel RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan...
.
He also had a fairly extensive career in television, appearing in such shows as CBS's anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson
The DuPont Show with June Allyson
The DuPont Show with June Allyson is an American anthology drama series which aired on CBS from September 21, 1959 to April 3, 1961 with rebroadcasts continuing until June 12, 1961...
, and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's crime drama, Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors! is a 35-episode crime drama starring Stephen McNally as newspaper reporter Paul Marino, which aired on ABC from September 29, 1961 to June 8, 1962. The character Jack Flood, Marino's undercover agent, was portrayed by Robert Harland...
.
In 1963-64, he appeared as the wandering gold-seeker father in the western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (TV series)
The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters is a 26-episode western television series based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Robert Lewis Taylor. The show aired in the 1963-1964 television season and was produced by MGM Television....
with co-star Kurt Russell
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
. On ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's The Long, Hot Summer, O'Herlihy became the lead star, having replaced Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien
Edmond O'Brien was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa...
in the part of Will Varner midway through the program's one-season run. In 1966, he appeared in the episode "Have You Seen the Aurora Borealis?" of NBC's western series The Road West
The Road West
The Road West is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1966 to May 1, 1967 for twenty-nine episodes with rebroadcasts continuing until August 28. The hour-long series, sponsored by Kraft Foods, aired in the 9 p.m...
, starring Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
. In 1974, on British television, he played the Senior American Officer, Col Max Dodd in the second series of BBC's POW drama Colditz
Colditz
Colditz is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, near Leipzig, located on the banks of the river Mulde. The town has a population of 5,188 ....
. In 1978, he guest starred in the second part of the Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction television series, created by Glen A. Larson. It starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict and ran for one season in 1978–79. After cancellation, its story was continued in 1980 as Galactica 1980 with Adama, Lieutenant Boomer and...
episode "Gun on Ice Planet Zero
Gun on Ice Planet Zero
"Gun on Ice Planet Zero" is a two-part episode of the original Battlestar Galactica television series. Robert Thurston adapted the screenplay into a novel he titled The Cylon Death Machine.-Summary:...
" as Dr. Ravishol. O'Herlihy also portrayed the ill-fated lumber tycoon Andrew Packard in the cult television program Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
(1991), and in the episode, "Deep Freeze" of Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series
Batman: The Animated Series is an American animated series based on the DC Comics character Batman. The series featured an ensemble cast of many voice-actors including Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Arleen Sorkin, and Loren Lester. The series won four Emmy Awards and was nominated...
voicing the Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze
Mr. Freeze, real name Dr. Victor Fries , is a DC Comics supervillain, an enemy of Batman. Created by Bob Kane, he first appeared in Batman #121 ....
-obsessed theme park mogul Grant Walker. In 1998, O'Herlihy acted in his last film, The Rat Pack
The Rat Pack (film)
The Rat Pack is a 1998 HBO TV movie about the Rat Pack. The movie stars Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., and Angus Macfadyen as Peter Lawford....
, playing Joseph P. Kennedy.
Nominations
| Year | Result | Award | Category | Film or series |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Nominated | Academy Award | Best Actor | Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe (1954 film) Robinson Crusoe , also known as Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe, is a film by director Luis Buñuel, based on the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.... |
Private life
Dan O'Herlihy married Elsie Bennett in 1945. He was the brother of director Michael O'HerlihyMichael O'Herlihy
Michael O'Herlihy was an Irish television producer and director who directed shows like Gunsmoke , Maverick , Star Trek , Hawaii Five-O , M*A*S*H and The A-Team . Born in Dublin, Ireland, O'Herlihy was the younger brother of actor Dan O'Herlihy...
(1928–1997) and the father of actor Gavan O'Herlihy
Gavan O'Herlihy
Gavan O'Herlihy is an Irish actor.O'Herlihy was born in Dublin, the son of Elsa Bennett and Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy. In his youth, he was an avid tennis player, and even became Irish National Tennis Champion...
, visual artist Olwen O'Herlihy, and architect Lorcan O'Herlihy
Lorcan O'Herlihy
Lorcan O'Herlihy is an architect. While studying architecture in Europe in the late 1970s, Lorcan became deeply immersed in painting, developing a highly international abstract expressionism style...
. He was also the grandfather of Cian Dowling, Colin O'Herlihy, Micaela O'Herlihy
Micaela O'Herlihy
Micaela O'Herlihy is a multimedia artist best known for her short experimental film A Thunderperfect Mind which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival....
and Eilis O'Herlihy.
Dan O'Herlihy died of natural causes in Malibu, California in 2005, aged 85. His personal papers are held in the University College Dublin Archives.
External links
- Daniel O'Herlihy in The Long Hot Summer (1965-66) http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=long+hot+summer+daniel+o%27herlihy&aq=f