Background
James O'Neill was born on November 15, 1847, in Kilkenny, Ireland, the son of Edmond and Katherine O'Neill, and was brought by his parents to America when he was five years of age.
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James O'Neill
Edit ProfileEducation
James O'Neill obtained his schooling in Buffalo, Cincinnati.
Career
O'Neill's first appearances on the stage were made in Cincinnati in 1867. In one of these he found himself on the stage carrying a spear as a member of the guard that was to arrest Edwin Forrest in one of his typical robustious characters, and he was so overawed by the reputation and personality of the star that he failed utterly in his task. Undaunted by this failure, he succeeded in securing successive positions in stock companies in Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, and other cities.
Finally his great opportunity came, and on October 2, 1876, he became a member of the Union Square Theatre Company in New York, sharing for a time leading roles with Charles R. Thorne, Jr. His debut there was made as the cripple Pierre in The Two Orphans, one of the most sympathetic roles in that lachrymose melodrama, and among the other characters he acted there during that and later seasons were Vladimir in The Danicheffs, Mons. Florion in The Mother's Secret, Maurice in Miss Multon, George Lovell in The Man of Success, Mons. de Montaiglin in Raymonde, and Julian Gray in The New Magdalen.
In 1877 he went to San Francisco and remained there three years, his most notable appearance in that city being as Christ in Salmi Morse's production of the Passion Play at the Grand Opera House which aroused so much discussion and opposition that it was withdrawn by legal process and caused the arrest and fining of members of the company.
With his first appearance in 1882 as Edmond Dantes in a stage version of Monte Cristo began a new era in his career. Heretofore he had been known as a versatile actor. Henceforth for practically the rest of his life he was condemned to be identified with one play and one character. Season after season his reappearance as Edmond Dantes was an annual event in many cities throughout the country. He made again and again ineffectual attempts to abandon it, and while he failed to attract the public in one new part after another, in Monte Cristo he was always successful. Remembering his earlier triumphs in a wide range of parts, he naturally had no ambition to be famous in one character, but the public would not allow him to be anyone but Edmond Dantes. In time, therefore, he inevitably came to act it by rote, and the interminable repetition of "The world is mine, " and the successive "One, " "Two, " and "Three, " became bywords of the stage.
Among the other plays he produced from time to time were Fontenelle, by Harrison Grey Fiske and Minnie Maddern Fiske, and Don Carlos de Seville, a poetic drama by Eugene Fellner. The public did not care to see him in any of them. He was no more fortunate with revivals of The Three Musketeers, The Dead Heart, and Virginius. In his last active years on the stage he helped in the making of a motion picture version of Monte Cristo, and his last real acting was done as Jesse, the Jewish patrician in The Wanderer, during the season of 1916-17.
For some two years before his death, which occurred at New London, Connecticut, where he had made his home for many years, he had been in failing health, the result of an automobile accident.
Achievements
Membership
James O'Neill was a member of the Union Square Theatre Company in New York.
Personality
Unlike some actors who have only the one quality to help them advance in their profession, James O'Neill possessed both the advantage of physical attraction and the distinction of intellectual attainments. He has been described in his early days as "of faultless figure, as erect in carriage as a major, with dark hair and deep brown eyes, darker and deeper for the clearness and whiteness of his complexion, his manner easy and bearing graceful, his voice rich-toned and musical. "
Quotes from others about the person
William Winter describes him, while he was still in the full flight of his Monte Cristo career, as a "thorough actor, powerful when power is required, very versatile, and in his demeanor, gesture, vocalism, and spirit, honest and sincere, " and creating and sustaining "romantic illusion. "
Connections
James O'Neill was married to Ellen Quinlan in July 1875, and she accompanied him on many of his tours, although he once remarked that she had somewhat of an aversion for the atmosphere of the stage. Eugene O'Neill, the American dramatist, is their son.
