Career
Before moving to California, he lived on an island in the middle of Glen Wild Lake, near Bloomingdale, New Jersey. O'Connor specialized in playing officials, military men, and police officers. Some of O'Connor's best-known roles include: Dr. Elias Huer in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Jack Boland in General Hospital, and Elliot Carson in Peyton Place.
He also had recurring roles on Barnaby Jones and Dynasty. He guest starred with Telly Savalas and Joan Hackett in the short-lived medical/police series, Diagnosis: Unknown, on CBS in 1960. In 1963, O'Connor guest starred on The Twilight Zone episode "On Thursday We Leave for Home".
O'Connor was later a guest star in Daniel Boone as Secord in 1970. In 1974, he portrayed Carlyle in the episode "The Driver" of the 1974 ABC police drama Nakia. In 1977, he appeared in two episodes of Wonder Woman as an alien envoy named Andros, alongside Lynda Carter.
He appeared in an episode of The A-Team, in the Season 2 episode "Semi-Friendly Persuasion" as Karl Peerson, a leader of a pacifist religious group the A-Team helps out, and portrayed an alien ambassador on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. His guest appearance as Mr. Thackery in The Dukes of Hazzard episode "Bad Day in Hazzard" demonstrated that he is also capable of playing villains, albeit on the level of a grand seigneur.
Another villainous cameo came as one of Robert Goulet's evil henchmen in the 1991 parody film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear. O'Connor appeared in two episodes of the mystery series Columbo, starring Peter Falk as the rumpled detective — Old Fashioned Murder (1976) and Double Shock (1973). He also appeared in two episodes of the comedy series M*A*S*H. In the episode "Of Moose and Men" he played Colonel Spiker, whom Hawkeye splattered mud on, and later had to operate on to save his life.
O'Connor's film credits include roles in The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972), Across 110th Street (1972), and Sssssss (1973). In recent years, O'Connor was a director for The Foothill Theater Company in Nevada City, California, before it closed. O'Connor starred in the 2011 film Dreams Awake (with "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" co-star Erin Gray).