Dick O'Neill was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 stage

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

 best known for playing Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 cops, fathers, judges and army generals. He began his acting career as an original company member of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

He served in the Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 then returned to the theater. In the late 1950s, he began appearing on television. His television credits cover everything from Car 54, Where Are You?

Car 54, Where Are You?

Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes. Most of its filming was on location in The Bronx, and at Biograph...

, The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners

The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...

, Barney Miller

Barney Miller

Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker...

, Sanford and Son

Sanford and Son

Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....

, Kaz

Kaz (TV series)

Kaz is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 10, 1978 to April 22, 1979.-Overview:Ron Leibman starred as Martin "Kaz" Kazinsky, a former convict who became a criminal defense attorney after he was released from prison. Leibman won an Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actor in...

, M*A*S*H, The Facts of Life

The Facts of Life (TV series)

The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from August 24, 1979 to May 7, 1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focused on Edna Garrett as she becomes a housemother at the fictional Eastland School, a prestigious...

, Family Matters, Mad About You

Mad About You

Mad About You is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 23, 1992 to May 24, 1999. The show starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a newly married couple in New York City. Reiser played Paul Buchman, a documentary film maker. Hunt played Jamie Stemple Buchman, a public relations specialist...

, Murder, She Wrote

Murder, She Wrote

Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...

, Three's Company

Three's Company

Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....

, Magnum, P.I.

Magnum, P.I.

Magnum, P.I. is an American television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....

, Dark Justice

Dark Justice

The series began airing in 1991 and ran for three seasons finishing in 1993.Tagline: "Justice may be blind... but it can see in the dark."- Production and filming :...

, Cheers

Cheers

Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

, Dharma & Greg

Dharma & Greg

Dharma & Greg is an American television sitcom that aired from September 24, 1997, to April 30, 2002.It starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as Dharma and Greg Montgomery, a couple who married instantly on their first date despite being complete opposites...

, Cybill

Cybill

Cybill is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre, which aired on CBS from January 2, 1995 to July 13, 1998. Starring Cybill Shepherd, the series revolves around Cybill Sheridan, a twice-divorced single mother of two and struggling actress in her 40s, who has never gotten her show...

, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990 to May 20, 1996. The show stars Will Smith as a fictionalized version of himself, a street-smart teenager from West Philadelphia who is sent to move in with his aunt and uncle in their...

 to Home Improvement. He was probably best known for his role as Charlie Cagney in the television hit Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from October 8, 1981 to May 16, 1988...

. Before moving to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, he appeared on the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 stage in such hits as Promises, Promises

Promises, Promises

Promises, Promises is a musical based on the 1960 film The Apartment. The music is by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, and book by Neil Simon. Musical numbers for the original Broadway production were choreographed by Michael Bennett; Robert Moore directed and David Merrick produced...

, The Unsinkable Molly Brown

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (musical)

The Unsinkable Molly Brown is a musical with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson and book by Richard Morris. The plot is a fictionalized account of the life of Margaret Brown, who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and her wealthy miner-husband....

, and Skyscraper

Skyscraper (musical)

Skyscraper is a musical with a book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and music by Jimmy Van Heusen.Based on the 1945 Elmer Rice play Dream Girl, it focuses on an antiques dealer who is determined to save her midtown Manhattan brownstone from the bulldozer. The girders of a new skyscraper are...

.

His film credits include The Mugger

The Mugger

The Mugger is a 1958 American film about a police psychiatrist, Dr. Pete Graham, who is attempting to catch a mysterious mugger that has been attacking women in his city. The film's screenplay, written by Henry Kane, is based on the novel of the same name by Evan Hunter. William Berke directed the...

, Gamera the Invincible, Pretty Poison

Pretty Poison (film)

Pretty Poison is a thriller film directed by Noel Black, starring Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld, about an ex-convict and high school cheerleader who commit a series of crimes....

, The Taking of Pelham 123, The Buddy Holly Story

The Buddy Holly Story

The film was adapted by Robert Gittler from Buddy Holly: His Life and Music, the biography of Holly by John Goldrosen. It was directed by Steve Rash.-Plot:...

, MacArthur

MacArthur (film)

MacArthur is a 1977 American biographical war film directed by Joseph Sargent and starring Gregory Peck in the eponymous role as American General Douglas MacArthur.-Plot:...

, House Calls

House Calls (film)

House Calls is a 1978 film comedy starring Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, directed by Howard Zieff.-Plot summary:Charles Nichols is a respected doctor. He is also a new widower, and as soon as he returns from a tropical vacation and period of mourning, he finds himself propositioned by a number...

, Posse

Posse (1975 film)

Posse is a 1975 Western film, produced by, directed by and starring Kirk Douglas. The screenplay was written by Christopher Knopf and William Roberts. The plot centers on a U.S. marshal with political ambitions leading an elite posse in pursuit of a notorious bank robber to further his political...

, The Jerk

The Jerk

The Jerk is a 1979 American comedy film. Directed by Carl Reiner, the film was written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb and Michael Elias. This was Steve Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also features Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh and Jackie Mason.-Plot:The film begins...

, The Mosquito Coast

The Mosquito Coast

The Mosquito Coast is a 1986 American film directed by Peter Weir, based on the novel by Paul Theroux. The film stars Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix. The film tells the story of a family that leaves the United States and tries to find a happier and simpler life in the jungles of...

, Loose Cannons

Loose Cannons

Loose Cannons is a 1990 comedy film, written by Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson, and Bob Clark, who also directed the film. The film is about a hard-nosed cop who is teamed up with a detective with multiple-personality disorder to uncover a long-lost Nazi sex tape, featuring Adolf...

, Prizzi's Honor

Prizzi's Honor

Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy film directed by John Huston. It stars Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Turner, Robert Loggia and Anjelica Huston.The film was adapted by Richard Condon and Janet Roach from Condon's novel of the same name...

 and Wolfen

Wolfen (film)

Wolfen is the title of a 1981 horror film starring Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Gregory Hines and Edward James Olmos based on Whitley Strieber's 1978 novel The Wolfen...

.

On November 17, 1998, O'Neill died at the age of 70.

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