Photo: Elmer Fryer / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Pat O'Brien is exactly the kind of golden-age craftsman I love to champion. The Milwaukee-born, Marquette-educated actor stacked up over a hundred screen credits playing priests, cops, soldiers, pilots and reporters, earning the press nickname 'Hollywood's Irishman in Residence.' What strikes me is the dependability. He rarely needed to be the star to make a film better; his presence gave the 1930s and 1940s their texture, the working spine beneath the marquee names. That Walk of Fame star feels less like a reward and more like an acknowledgment of sheer reliable labor. Decades after his death, he's still on screen in those old pictures, quietly doing the job.
Overview
William Joseph Patrick O'Brien (November 11, 1899 – October 15, 1983) was an American film actor with more than 100 screen credits. Of Irish descent, he often played Irish and Irish-American characters and was referred to as "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence" in the press. One of the best-known screen actors of the 1930s and 1940s, he played priests, cops, military figures, pilots, and reporters.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Pat O'Brien
- Name (Japanese)
- パット・オブライエン
- Reading
- ぱっと・おぶらいえん
- Born
- November 11, 1899 – October 15, 1983
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Boar
- Origin
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / stage actor / film actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Marquette University
Awards & achievements
- Daytime Emmy Award
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Stage actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.