Liam O'Brien

Screenwriter and producer Liam O'Brien received an Oscar nomination for the story of Frank Capra's Here Comes the Groom (1951). He penned or co-penned most of his movie scripts during the '50s through the early '60s and became a television producer afterwards. The brother of actor Edmond O'Brien and a native of New York, O'Brien held several creative jobs following studies at Fordham University and Manhattan College. He was a poet, a cartoonist, a union organizer, and had also been with the army signal Corps during WWII but it was as a playwright that O'Brien first made a name for himself. His first hit was the Broadway-produced comedy The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker. The show's great success led O'Brien to Hollywood and to the Capra film. After its success, O'Brien wrote screenplays for some of Hollywood's biggest names, including Bing Crosby, Elizabeth Taylor, Burt Lancaster, and Tony Curtis. Film credits include Chain Lightning (1950) and The Devil at 4 0'Clock (1961). As a producer, O'Brien was behind such television series as Gibbsville, Police Story, Miami Vice, and miniseries such as The Awakening Land, starring Elizabeth Montgomery. O'Brien died of heart failure on March 24, 1996.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide