O'Neill, James

O'Neill, James (1847–1920), Irish-born American actor, once considered the rival and successor of Edwin Booth. Taken to America as a small child, he made his stage début in Cincinnati in 1867. In 1871 he joined the company of James V. McVicker in Chicago, and five years later was at the Union Square Theatre in New York. He then went to San Francisco, where among other parts he played Christ in a Passion play directed by David Belasco at the Grand Opera House. He married in 1875 Ella [ Mary Ellen] Quinlan, by whom he had two sons, the younger being the playwright Eugene O'Neill. James O'Neill was considered a good Shakespearian actor, but romantic swash-buckling roles suited him best, and in 1883 he found the perfect part for himself in Edmond Dantès, the hero of the elder Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. This became so popular with the American public that for the next 30 years O'Neill played almost nothing else, being seen in it at least 6,000 times. The resultant frustration told heavily on him and he took to drink, his gradual decline, and that of his long-suffering wife, being tragically depicted in Eugene's autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night.