Donald O'Brien
Acting
Biography
Donal "Donald" O'Brien (September 15, 1930) is a French-born Irish film and television actor. In his near 40-year career, O'Brien appeared in dozens of stage performances and in more than 60 film and television productions. O'Brien was born in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, raised in both Northern France and Dublin, Ireland with his family, and made his feature film debut in 1953 with Anatole Litvak's war drama Act of Love. He studied acting in Dublin and initially joined the Gate Theatre at age 19 before making the transition to film several years later. O'Brien's performance in The Train (1964), in which he played an SSFeldwebel, led to his first breakout role in Grand Prix (1966) starring alongside James Garner and Eva Marie Saint.
Born: September 15, 1930
Place of Birth: Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France
Known For
The Train
As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.
The Name of the Rose
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.
Return from Death: Frankenstein 2000
When a woman is beaten into a coma and saved from being raped by her handyman (Donald O'Brien), the local security force does a cover-up to save the town's reputation and frames the saviour. After he hangs himself, the woman's strange comatose psi-powers revive him from the dead to exact revenge.
Dynamite Jack
Antoine Espérandieu, a French tenderfoot, lands in Windows Canyon, Arizona, a remote place under the thumb of dangerous outlaw Dynamite Jack, only to discover the friend he was to meet there has been murdered. Worse, it is not long before Antoine realizes he is Jack's perfect lookalike. All the same, he decides to settle down in the small town, where he becomes the local tax collector. One day, he finds himself face to face with the bandit...
Grand Prix
The most daring drivers in the world have gathered to compete for the 1966 Formula One championship. After a spectacular wreck in the first of a series of races, American wheelman Pete Aron is dropped by his sponsor. Refusing to quit, he joins a Japanese racing team. While juggling his career with a torrid love affair involving an ex-teammate's wife, Pete must also contend with Jean-Pierre Sarti, a French contestant who has previously won two world titles.
Mortacci
Before finally entering the afterlife, the dead spend a period in a limbo from which they depart only when, among the living, there is no one who remembers them. Under the care of the salacious Domenico the visitors of a small cemetery recount how they arrived at eternal peace.
Hail! Mafia
A couple of hit men set out to kill an old friend.
Flight from Paradise
In a futuristic society, an old man tells the legend of a strange medal to two children. In flashback, we learn that after a nuclear catastrophe, two teenagers were living in an artificial paradise, maintained by electronic means, and once decide to leave that shelter and escape using that same medal - a mini video-disc - in search of outer-space freedom.
Weekend at Dunkirk
In June 1940, during the Dunkirk evacuation of Allied troops to England, French sergeant Julien Maillat and his men debate whether to evacuate to Britain or stay and fight the German troops that are closing-in from all directions.
Keoma
Half-breed Keoma returns to his border hometown after service in the Civil War and finds it under the control of Caldwell, an ex-Confederate raider, and his vicious gang of thugs. To make matters worse, Keoma's three half-brothers have joined forces with Caldwell, and make it painfully clear that his return is an unwelcome one. Determined to break Caldwell and his brothers' grip on the town, Keoma partners with his father's former ranch hand to exact violent revenge.
Filmography
as Barone
as Justice Jonathan Ford
as Gunther
as Bernardino, hermit
as Archibald Williams
as Valkos
as Pietro d'Assisi
as Professor Olster
as Monk
as General
as Black One
as Dr. Obrero / Dr. Butcher
as Roman Soldier
as Mr. Slider
as Exorcist
as Major Hagerty
as Flertcher
as SS Officer
as Sgt. Stricker
as Donald McKenzie
as Burt Craven
as Caldwell
as Professor Riccardo Rossi
as Sheriff of Salt Flat
as Caroll
as Liverpool
as Inspector
as Frank
as Outlaw
as Collins
as Lester O'Hara
as Burt Jones
as Lee Rast
as Jack Forest
as Captain Ned Carter
as Daniel Cassidy
as Self
as Plotting German Officer (uncredited)
as Wallace Bennett
as Polard
as American Officer
as Gallery visitor
as Mafia Thug
as Dolbry
as L'officier anglais
as Schwartz
as American tourist (segment "Ella") (uncredited)