Michael O'Sullivan (March 4, 1934 â€" July 24, 1971) was an American
actor, "larger than life," who appeared on Broadway, at Lincoln
Center, on the London stage, at San Francisco's Actor's Workshop and
in many regional theaters and festivals of America throughout his
brief career in the late 1950s and '60s.Clive Barnes of the New York
Times designated O'Sullivan as "one of America's best young actors."
Raised in Phoenix, AZ, O'Sullivan studied and acted at the University
of Denver and the Goodman Memorial Theater in Chicago, then played
major roles (including a remarkable "prancing" Pandarus in Troilus and
Cressida) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1957 and 1958.He was
one of a ten actor corps hired by the San Francisco Actor's Workshop
under a 1960 Ford Foundation grant to the company, and he came to
national prominence with his portrayal of the title role in the
Workshop's 1961 King Lear as a "preening, deranged, screeching Lear,
imbued with primordial divinity," under Herbert Blau's direction. In
1963 he won the Obie and the Laura D'Annunzio Awards for his portrayal
of the Director in Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author,
directed by William Ball, a role he also performed in London, and in
1965 he performed the title role in Ball's staging of Molière's
Tartuffe for the new Repertory Company of Lincoln Center, prompting
critic Howard Taubman to praise O'Sullivan for showing "how a Molière
performance can be larger than life, and not out of focus... [moving]
between cringing, shuffling humility and outrageous arrogance."
O'Sullivan was a nominee for the Tony award in 1966 for his role as
the villain Sedgwick in the Broadway musical, It's a Bird, It's a
Plane, It's Superman. His last New York appearance was in 1969 in
Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear with the American Conservatory
Theater at the ANTA Theater, and Clive Barnes said of that
performance, "zany... galvanic lunacy... this is great farce acting."
actor, "larger than life," who appeared on Broadway, at Lincoln
Center, on the London stage, at San Francisco's Actor's Workshop and
in many regional theaters and festivals of America throughout his
brief career in the late 1950s and '60s.Clive Barnes of the New York
Times designated O'Sullivan as "one of America's best young actors."
Raised in Phoenix, AZ, O'Sullivan studied and acted at the University
of Denver and the Goodman Memorial Theater in Chicago, then played
major roles (including a remarkable "prancing" Pandarus in Troilus and
Cressida) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1957 and 1958.He was
one of a ten actor corps hired by the San Francisco Actor's Workshop
under a 1960 Ford Foundation grant to the company, and he came to
national prominence with his portrayal of the title role in the
Workshop's 1961 King Lear as a "preening, deranged, screeching Lear,
imbued with primordial divinity," under Herbert Blau's direction. In
1963 he won the Obie and the Laura D'Annunzio Awards for his portrayal
of the Director in Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author,
directed by William Ball, a role he also performed in London, and in
1965 he performed the title role in Ball's staging of Molière's
Tartuffe for the new Repertory Company of Lincoln Center, prompting
critic Howard Taubman to praise O'Sullivan for showing "how a Molière
performance can be larger than life, and not out of focus... [moving]
between cringing, shuffling humility and outrageous arrogance."
O'Sullivan was a nominee for the Tony award in 1966 for his role as
the villain Sedgwick in the Broadway musical, It's a Bird, It's a
Plane, It's Superman. His last New York appearance was in 1969 in
Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear with the American Conservatory
Theater at the ANTA Theater, and Clive Barnes said of that
performance, "zany... galvanic lunacy... this is great farce acting."
Share this
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
SUBSCRIBE OUR NEWSLETTER
Join us for free and get valuable content delivered right through your inbox.