Actor Pat O'Brien, whose film portrayals of gruff, heart-of-gold Irish cops and priests were so popular that lesser character actors became known as the "Pat O'Brien type," died early yesterday of a massive heart attack in a Santa Monica Hospital. He was 83.
In fact, it was O'Brien, already an established star in 1939, who suggested to studio head Jack Warner that he give the young Reagan a screen test as Gipp.
"Ronnie always says I got him his first job," O'Brien said a few years ago, when he was working the Manassas Hayloft Dinner Theater and Reagan was working the White House. In Reagan's first year as president, he and O'Brien appeared together at Notre Dame to receive honorary degrees.
According to his daughter Brigid, O'Brien entered St. John's Hospital Tuesday for minor prostate surgery. "He came through beautifully. He was resting comfortably, then he had a heart attack. It's a blessing, really."
She said that President Reagan had phoned the hospital several times and that Nancy Reagan had sent O'Brien "a massive box" of roses. "The president has been very loyal," she said. (According to a White House spokesman, the Reagans, who are at Camp David, "are deeply saddened" by O'Brien's death.)
Although O'Brien never won an Academy Award, he was one of Hollywood's most famous Irishmen. His roles as the sturdy, straightforward Roman Catholic priest, especially in such films as "Fighting Father Dunne" and "The Fighting 69th", put him in Hollywood's hagiography alongside Spencer Tracy ("Boys Town") and Bing Crosby ("The Bells of St. Mary's").
His most memorable role in Roman Catholic collar was in "Angels With Dirty Faces," which costarred his longtime friend James Cagney. As boyhood pals who grew up on opposite sides of the law, priest O'Brien and gangster Cagney meet for the last time as Cagney prepares to walk "the last mile" to the electric chair. O'Brien persuades Cagney to pretend to be a coward so that the Dead End Kids, who idol-worship Cagney, will be disillusioned.
William Patrick O'Brien, born Nov. 11, 1899 in Milwaukee, made his debut at age five as a Christmas pageant lamb and won his spurs as a bit player in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
At Marquette, where he split his time between acting and athletics, he was captain of the varsity football team; ironically, in his final appearance, he ran 67 yards for a touchdown through the Notre Dame team he would "coach" on film 20 years later.
He made his film debut in 1931 for director Howard Hughes as Hildy Johnson, the scrappy Chicago reporter star of "The Front Page." His most recent film appearance, again with Cagney, was in the 1981 film of E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime." Cagney was persuaded to return from 20 years' retirement to play New York police commissioner Rhinelander Waldo; O'Brien played Harry Thaw's attorney and his wife, Eloise McGovern, played Thaw's mother.
Dancer Gene Kelly said yesterday, "I admired him very much and loved him very dearly. The last time I saw him was on St. Patrick's Day. We honored him at a gala at the Beverly Hilton. I will say a prayer for him."
In the past 30 years, O'Brien and McGovern had spent most of their time in road companies and summer stock. Despite his fame in the '30s and '40s, after 1950, O'Brien found the studio gates mysteriously shut to him.
He and McGovern had two sons and two daughters, including actress Brigid, who often toured with her parents. He never smoked, "but I have a drop of the creature every night before dinner--and maybe a drop afterward. No liquor for the 40 days and 40 nights of Lent--that way you'll find out whether it's got you or you've got it."
O'Brien had suffered for some years from a duodenal ulcer and arthritis, and had a pacemaker to control an irregular heartbeat.
Last June, appearing with McGovern at a San Antonio dinner theater in "On Golden Pond," O'Brien collapsed from the bleeding ulcer. In February, he checked into a New Orleans hospital after becoming ill during a performance of "On Golden Pond." Doctors said then that O'Brien was suffering from exhaustion and a virus.
