Michael O'Sullivan

Michael O'Sullivan (March 4, 1934 – 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. Arguably, his most famous role was in the 1968 film Hang 'Em High as Francis Elroy Duffy, a condemned prisoner whose final words before hanging warn of the dangers of drinking alcohol.

Clive Barnes of the New York Times designated O'Sullivan as "one of America's best young actors." ) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1957 and 1958.

He was one of the ten actor corps hired by the San Francisco Actor's Workshop under a 1960 Ford Foundation grant to the company. 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, 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."

In July 1971, Michael O'Sullivan was found dead in his San Francisco apartment at the age of 37, a bottle of sleeping pills by his side. It is not known whether his death was accidental or a suicide. ) Six roles in repertory for Stanford Rep New York return Sedgewick in It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman, 1966, Alvin Theater (Broadway debut; Tony Award nominee) Malvolio in Love at Let Love (Musical based onTwelfth Night), 1968 Count Alexei in The Bench, by N. R. Teitel, 1968, Gramercy Arts Theater Camille Chandel in A Flea in Her Ear, 1969, American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco at ANTA, New York

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1966 You're a Big Boy Now Kurt Dougherty, the Albino Hypnotherpist 1968 Hang 'Em High Francis Elroy Duffy, Prisoner (final film role)