Maria O’Brien, the actress and longtime acting coach best known for her 15-year tenure on The days of our lives and appearances in films, including Protocol And Smiledied at the age of 75.
She died on February 24, but the cause of death has not been released.
Born on August 14, 1950 in Los Angeles, O’Brien comes from true Hollywood royalty.
His father, Edmond O’Brien, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1954. The Barefoot Countesswhile his mother, Olga San Juan, was a musical theater star who appeared in a series of films, including Are you with it? And A touch of Venus.
Maria followed them into the industry and got her first on-screen credit in 1963 in the television series. Sam Benoît.
Over a career spanning six decades, she has amassed an impressive body of work in both film and television.
His screen credits included The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Table for fiveand the 1984 comedy Goldie Hawn Protocoland she made appearances in some of the most popular series of the 80s and 90s, including Magnum PI, The Murder She Wrote, Los Angeles Law, Matlock, BulletsAnd The love boat.
Along the way, she shared scenes with Angela Lansbury, Lily Tomlin, Tom Selleck, Melanie Griffith and Goldie Hawn.
She also won a Drama-Logue Award in 1990 for her performance in The servants at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
In the late 1990s, O’Brien became a coach, joining daytime dramas. Beach at sunset And Passions before accepting his longtime position as acting coach on The days of our livesrole she held until her retirement in 2022.
Off-screen, she was a strong advocate for Alzheimer’s research.
Her father had been among the first celebrities to be publicly diagnosed with the disease, and in 1983 O’Brien testified before Congress about its devastating impact.
His advocacy played an important role in securing government funding for research into this disease.
She is survived by her three children, Thomas, Danica and Sean Anderson, as well as her sister Bridget O’Brien Adelman.
