March 1, 2016

Eugene O'Neill

Foremost American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature

Profile

  • Full Name: Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
    Eugene Gladstone O'Neill
  • AKA: Gene, Eugene O'Neill
  • Date of Birth: October 16, 1888
  • Place of Birth: New York City, New York, U.S.A.
  • Zodiac Sign: Libra
  • Physique: Slender
  • Height: 5 ft 11 in
  • Eye Colour: Dark
  • Nationality: American
  • Death: November 27, 1953
  • Place of Death: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  • Last Words: “I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room – and God damn it – died in a hotel room.”
  • Cause of Death: Bronchial Pneumonia
  • Place of Burial: Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  • Father: James O'Neill (1847-1920)
  • Mother: Ella O'Neill (1857-1922)
  • Siblings:
1. Brother-James O'Neill, Jr. (1878-1923)
2. Brother-Edmund Dantes Burke O'Neill (1883- 1885)
3. Half brother-Alfred Hamilton O'Neill (1874-?)
  • Spouse(s):
1. Kathleen Jenkins (m. 1909–1912) (1 child)
2. Agnes Boulton (m. 1918; div. 1929) (2 children)
3. Carlotta Monterey (m. 1929; till his death 1953)
  • Children: 03
1. Son- Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950)
2. Son- Shane Rudraighe O'Neill (1918–1977)
3. Daughter- Oona Chaplin O'Neill (1925–1991)
  • Alma Mater: Harvard University, St. Aloysius Academy for Boys, De La Salle Institute, Princeton University, Betts Academy
  • Known for: bringing revolutionary changes in the American theatre
  • Criticized for: writing plays depicting interracial marriage, equality of the sexes, infanticide, and infidelity and abortion
  • Influences: Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), August Strindberg (1849–1912), Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), Emma Goldman (1869–1940), and Carl Jung (1875–1961)
  • Influenced: Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), Arthur Miller (1915 –2005)

Awards

1920: Pulitzer Prize for Beyond the Horizon
1922: Pulitzer Prize for Anna Christie
1928: Pulitzer Prize for Strange Interlude
1937: Nobel Prize in Literature
1957: *Pulitzer Prize for Long Day's Journey into Night
1957: *Tony Award for Long Day's Journey into Night (Best Author)
1957: *Tony Award for Long Day's Journey into Night (Best Play)

* Posthumous recognition

Quotes

“None of us can help the things life has done to us. They’re done before you realize it, and once they’re done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you’d like to be, and you’ve lost your true self forever.” Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey Into Night

Major Themes

  • The conflict between idealism and materialism
  • Death
  • Guilt
  • Fury
  • Forgiveness
  • Repentance
  • Greek mythology
  • Human psychology
  • Social Criticism

Notable Works:

  • Bread and Butter, 1914
  • Servitude, 1914
  • The Personal Equation, 1915
  • Now I Ask You, 1916
  • Beyond the Horizon, 1918 - Pulitzer Prize in 1920
  • The Straw, 1919
  • Chris Christophersen, 1919
  • Gold, 1920
  • Anna Christie, 1920 - Pulitzer Prize in 1922
  • The Emperor Jones, 1920
  • Diff'rent, 1921
  • The First Man, 1922
  • The Hairy Ape, 1922
  • The Fountain, 1923
  • Marco Millions, 1923–25
  • All God's Chillun Got Wings, 1924
  • Welded, 1924
  • Desire Under the Elms, 1924
  • Lazarus Laughed, 1925–26
  • The Great God Brown, 1926
  • Strange Interlude, 1928 - Pulitzer Prize
  • Dynamo, 1929
  • Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931
  • Ah, Wilderness!, 1933
  • Days Without End, 1933
  • The Iceman Cometh, written 1939, published in 1940, first performed in 1946
  • Hughie, written in 1941, first performed in 1959
  • Long Day's Journey Into Night, written in 1941, first performed in 1956 - Pulitzer Prize in 1957
  • A Moon for the Misbegotten, written between 1941–1943, first performed in 1947
  • A Touch of the Poet, completed in 1942, first performed in 1958
  • More Stately Mansions, second draft found in O'Neill's papers, first performed in 1967
  • The Calms of Capricorn, published in 1983

Did You Know?

  • His father, James O'Neill was a famous late 19th century touring actor. Throughout his life James kept touring and performed his most popular role of The Count of Monte Cristo over 5,000 times.
  • O'Neill was born in a hotel and also died in a hotel.
  • He spent much of his childhood either in hotel rooms or on trains.
  • Many critics consider him the father of the modern American theatre.
  • He was one of the first American playwrights to incorporate realism and include American colloquial speech in plays.
  • In 1936 he became the first American dramatist to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
  • In 1909 he secretly married Kathleen Jenkins, which he concealed untill Kathleen's pregnancy.  Kathleen gave birth to Eugene O'Neill, Jr.
  • After his divorce with his first wife O'Neill married Agnes Boultont in 1918. The couple had two children: Shane and Oona.
  • Having separated from his second wife O'Neill married Carlotta Montere in 1929.
  • After O'Neill's birth his mother was addicted with morpheme, which the doctor prescribed her to alleviate the pain.
  • At his 14th year O'Neill was informed by his family that his birth caused all the miseries to his mother. The information greatly affected his mind and O'Neill resorted to alcohol, narcotics, and prostitutes to soothe this sense of guilt.
  • O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin, who was only six months junior to him.
  • Although O'Neill clearly instructed not to publish the autobiographical play Long Day's Journey Into Night until 25 years after his demise, Carlotta opted to publish it in 1956.
  • In 1912 O'Neill attempted a failed suicide.
  • He contracted tuberculosis In 1912.
  • Due to a severe Parkinson-like tremor in his hand, O'Neill could not write for the last 10 years of his life.
  • His posthumously published play Long Day's Journey into Night earned him two Pulitzer prizes.

Media Gallery

Videos

Photos

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Agnes Boulton and Oneil with their children

Agnes Boulton and Oneil

Agnes Boulton and Oneil with their children

Oneil with his children

Carlotta Monterey and O'Neill

Carlotta Monterey and O'Neill

Carlotta Monterey and O'Neill

O'Neill and Carlotta Monterey

Carlotta Monterey and O'Neill

Carlotta Monterey and O'Neill

O'Neill and Carlotta Monterey

Eugene O'Neill, Cap d'Ail, France, 1929

Eugene O’Neill in Bermuda in 1926

Eugene O'Neill

Charles Chaplin & Oona O'Neill

Charles Chaplin & Oona O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill, Jr., November, 1931


References

" Eugene O'Neill.” Wikipedia. 2016. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 2 February 2016
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_O'Neill>.

“Eugene O'Neill” Microsoft Encarta. DVD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 2005.

" Eugene O'Neill Biography.” The Biography.com website. 2016.
A&E Television Networks. 2 February 2016
<http://www.biography.com/people/eugene-oneill-9428728#leading-playwright>.

" Eugene O'Neill.” IMDb. 2016. IMDb.com, Inc. An Amazon.com company. 2 February 2016
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0642156/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm>.


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