Erin O'Brien-Moore

Actress Erin O'Brien-Moore's many Broadway credits included Makropolous Secret, Street Scene, Tortilla Flat and State of the Union. O'Brian-Moore made her first film appearance in a 1930 short subject; her feature debut came four years later. She spent several years at Warner Bros., where her most famous part was the worn-out trollop Nana in The Life of Emile Zola (1937). Her hopes for screen stardom were tragically dashed in 1939, when she was seriously burned in a restaurant fire. After extensive plastic surgery, she resumed her Broadway career as a character actress. She later appeared on TV Charlie Ruggles' wife in the 1949 comedy sitcom The Ruggles, and as Nurse Choate in the 1960s nighttime serial Peyton Place (she'd played a different character in the 1957 film version of the Grace Metalious novel). Her last movie role was an uncredited cameo as Rudy Vallee's sister in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967). Erin O'Brien-Moore was at one time married to theatre critic Mark Barron.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide