Evening star., 1953-11-28
BY the Assoeio,sd Pres.

ana Broadway IN New YORK. HIS
father was the James O'Neill
who starred for so many years in
"The Count of Monte Cristo." I"
His mother was the former FL
len Quinlan, who was born in
New Haven but was reared in the
Middle West.
Mr.. O'Neill's death was
mourned by Broadway perform
erS, playwrightS and producers.
George Jean Nathan, influen-
tial newspaper and magazine
drama critic, said in New York
the American theater has lost
its greatest playwright and "I
have lost one of my longest
and dearest friends"
Mr.. Nathan was one of the
first to recognize Mr.. O'Neill's
talents and started to open
Broadway doors for him in 1917.
Mr.. O'Neill's last Broadway play
was "The Iceman Cometh," in
1916.
Other Plays Won Fame.
Other O'Neill plays included:
"The Emperor JONES'" THE
Straw" "Desire Under the Elms, :"
Marco Millions" "Ah, Wilder
ness. ""Days Without End" "The
Fountain" and "All Gods Chill
lun Got Wings"
And his one-act plays were
equally famous. They included
THE Long Voyage Home" "The
Dreamy Kid" THE Rope" and
Bound East for Cardiff"
After days Without End" was
produced in 1884, Mr.. O'Neill
was away from the stage until
1916 when THE Iceman Cometh"
arrived on Broadway. That
drama, laid in a Hell's Kitchen
saloon, had drunks and buns as
main characters, and the iceman
was death.
Then Mr.. O'Neill went into Sc
clusion until 1948 when he and
his wife left the Broadway scene.
They bought a small house on
Point of Rocks in Marblehead,
Mass, near the sea which had
surged through many of his plays.
Left Completed Plays.
However, there are three plays
which he left completed, one of
which has been seen off Broad
way and two which have never
been produced.
"A Moon for the Misbegotten"
had its premiere in Columbus,
Ohio, then played Detroit, Cleve-
land and st. Louis.
Another O'Neill play is "a
Touch of the Poet" which has
not yet been seen on the stage.
There is also a third play, un-
titled, which Mr.. O'Neill specified
was not to be produced until 25
years after his death.
The playwright was known
as a man who loved solitude.
Funeral plans are in keeping
with that characteristic-S
private with no public announce
ment of the time or place.
Married Three Times.
Mr.. O'Neill's private life at
times was almost as turbulent
as those of a character in one
OF his plays. He was married
three times, the last in 1929.
His only daughter, Oona
ONeill Chaplin, is the wife of
movie comedian Charlie Chap
lin. They have five children
and live in Lucerne, Switzerland,
and London.
Mr.. O'Neill first tasted fame
at the Wharf Theater in Prov
incetoWn, Mass, from where he
moved to New York's Green
wich Village and then to Broad
way. His road to fame started
with Bound East for Cardiff. !"
Hollywood beckoned when Mr..
O'Neill's dramas brought him
to world attention. But he
Spurned the offers with the
comment that the screen never
interested me as medium"
His plays were translated into
many languages and offered on
stages throughout the world.
"The Hairy Ape" for instance
was translated into Bantu and
presented in South Africa by a
company of Zulus before an
audience of tribesmen.
Few playwrights experienced
his varied experiences as a
wanderer. In 1909 he prospected
for gold in Spanish Honduras
but malarial fever forced him to
return, home. He next toured
with a theatrical company as
assistant manager and followed
that with two years at sea as a
crewman, tending mules" as he
expressed it.
Illness Led to Writing.
His last sea voyage was as an
able seaman on the American
Line between New York and
Southampton. His career also
included a stint as a cub re-
porter in New London. Conn.
uHjl lung trouble forced him