45-568: Hughie is a short two-character play by Eugene O'Neill set in the lobby of a small hotel on a West Side street in Midtown Manhattan , New York, during the summer of 1928. The play is essentially a long monologue delivered by a small-time hustler named Erie Smith to the hotel's new night clerk Charlie Hughes, lamenting how Smith's luck has gone bad since the death of Hughie, Hughes' predecessor. O'Neill wrote Hughie in 1942, although it did not receive its world premiere until 1958, when it
90-481: A sanatorium where he was recovering from tuberculosis , he decided to devote himself full-time to writing plays (the events immediately prior to going to the sanatorium are dramatized in his masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night ). O'Neill had previously been employed by the New London Telegraph , writing poetry as well as reporting. In the fall of 1914, he entered Harvard University to attend
135-482: A course in dramatic technique given by George Piece Baker , but left after one year. During the 1910s O'Neill was a regular on the Greenwich Village literary scene, where he also befriended many radicals, most notably Communist Labor Party of America founder John Reed . O'Neill also had a brief romantic relationship with Reed's wife, writer Louise Bryant . O'Neill was portrayed by Jack Nicholson in
180-500: A fact, for then some day I would meet Strindberg". When Winther objected that "that would scarcely be enough to justify immortality", O'Neill answered quickly and firmly: "It would be enough for me". After a ten-year pause, O'Neill's now-renowned play The Iceman Cometh was produced in 1946. The following year's A Moon for the Misbegotten failed, and it was decades before coming to be considered as among his best works. He
225-686: A rare form of brain deterioration unrelated to either alcohol use or Parkinson's disease. In Warren Beatty 's 1981 film Reds , O'Neill is portrayed by Jack Nicholson , who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. George C. White founded the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1964. Eugene O'Neill is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame . O'Neill
270-458: A single month in 1932, the Harvard educated playwright takes a well deserved vacation from this cold and unrelenting world, and gives us a surprisingly warm portrayal of middle-class family life in "large small-town America."" He further remarked about the play "The character Richard Miller was clearly modeled on O'Neill's image of himself as an aspiring poet, but unlike O'Neill, Richard's rebellion
315-558: A successful writer of commercial fiction, and they married on April 12, 1918. They lived in a home owned by her parents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey , after their marriage. The years of their marriage—during which the couple lived in Connecticut and Bermuda and had two children, Shane and Oona —are described vividly in her 1958 memoir Part of a Long Story . They divorced on July 2, 1929, after O'Neill abandoned Boulton and
360-404: A televised adaptation was shown on Front Row Center on CBS. The story was also made into the 1959 Broadway musical Take Me Along starring Jackie Gleason as the drunken Uncle Sid (Beery's role in the film), Walter Pidgeon as Nat and Robert Morse as Richard. The production ran for 448 performances. Gleason won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical . A revival in 1984 had
405-552: A window", or according to a more concrete but possibly apocryphal account, because he threw "a beer bottle into the window of Professor Woodrow Wilson ", the future president of the United States. O'Neill spent several years at sea, during which he suffered from depression, alcoholism and despair. Despite this, he had a deep love for the sea and it became a prominent theme in many of his plays, several of which are set on board ships like those on which he worked. O'Neill joined
450-962: A wistful re-imagining of his youth as he wished it had been. O'Neill was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1935. In 1936, O'Neill received the Nobel Prize in Literature after he had been nominated that year by Henrik Schück , member of the Swedish Academy . O'Neill was profoundly influenced by the work of Swedish writer August Strindberg , and upon receiving the Nobel Prize, dedicated much of his acceptance speech to describing Strindberg's influence on his work. In conversation with Russel Crouse , O'Neill said that "the Strindberg part of
495-551: Is O'Neill's only well-known comedy. The play was successful in its first Broadway production and the touring production that followed. It has since become a staple of community repertory. The play takes place on the Fourth of July 1906 and focuses on the Miller family, presumably of New London, Connecticut . The main plot deals with the middle son, 16-year-old Richard, and his coming of age in turn-of-the-century America. "Perhaps
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#1732772953691540-495: Is often included on lists of the finest U.S. plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams 's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller 's Death of a Salesman . He was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature . O'Neill is also the only playwright to win four Pulitzer Prizes for Drama . O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on
585-463: Is quelled and his craving for romantic endeavors extinguished by a loving family who cares and wishes him the best." The play was made into a 1935 film of the same title and again in 1948 as the musical Summer Holiday . Mickey Rooney starred as Tommy in the former and Richard in the latter. The success of the first film led MGM to reunite much of the cast in another film based on a small town coming of age play, A Family Affair , which became
630-708: Is referenced by Upton Sinclair in The Cup of Fury (1956), Dianne Wiest's character in Bullets Over Broadway (1994), by J.K. Simmons ' character in Whiplash (2014), by Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), specifically Long Day's Journey into Night , and Long Day's Journey into Night is also referenced by Patrick Wilson's character in Purple Violets (2007). O'Neill
675-656: Is referred to in Moss Hart 's 1959 book Act One , later a Broadway play. O'Neill's home in New London, Monte Cristo Cottage , was made a National Historic Landmark in 1971. His home in Danville, California, near San Francisco, was preserved as the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in 1976. Connecticut College maintains the Louis Sheaffer Collection, consisting of material collected by
720-621: The 1981 film Reds , about the life of John Reed; Louise Bryant was portrayed by Diane Keaton . His involvement with the Provincetown Players began in mid-1916. Terry Carlin reported that O'Neill arrived for the summer in Provincetown with "a trunk full of plays", but this was an exaggeration. Susan Glaspell describes a reading of Bound East for Cardiff that took place in the living room of Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook 's home on Commercial Street, adjacent to
765-489: The 1984 Robards/Dodson version: in 1959 (for Swedish television), 1960 (Norwegian television), 1963 (Dutch television) and 1983 (French television). Eugene O%27Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism , earlier associated with Chekhov , Ibsen , and Strindberg . The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night
810-719: The Horizon , opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama . His first major hit was The Emperor Jones , which ran on Broadway in 1920 and obliquely commented on the U.S. occupation of Haiti that was a topic of debate in that year's presidential election. His best-known plays include Anna Christie (Pulitzer Prize 1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (Pulitzer Prize 1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness! ,
855-641: The Hyde Park Festival Theatre in 1981 and with the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island , in 1991, also televising their performances in 1984 for PBS . Hughie has been produced on Broadway three times since the 1964 Robards/Quintero production. In 1975 it was paired in repertory with David Scott Milton 's play Duet , this time with Ben Gazzara as Erie (who also won a Tony Award nomination for
900-628: The Marine Transport Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which was fighting for improved living conditions for the working class using quick 'on the job' direct action. O'Neill's parents and elder brother Jamie (who drank himself to death at the age of 45) died within three years of one another, not long after he had begun to make his mark in the theater. After his experience in 1912–13 at
945-668: The O'Neill biographer. The principal collection of O'Neill papers is at Yale University . The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut , fosters the development of new plays under his name. There is also a theatre in New York City named after him located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The Eugene O'Neill Theatre has housed musicals and plays such as Yentl , Annie , Grease , M. Butterfly , Spring Awakening , and The Book of Mormon . The Glencairn Plays, all of which feature characters on
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#1732772953691990-559: The age of 40. Shane O'Neill became a heroin addict and moved into the family home in Bermuda, Spithead, with his new wife, where he supported himself by selling off the furnishings. He was disowned by his father before also committing suicide (by jumping out of a window) a number of years later. Oona ultimately inherited Spithead and the connected estate (subsequently known as the Chaplin Estate). In 1950 O'Neill joined The Lambs ,
1035-582: The basis for the Andy Hardy series. The play was also adapted for radio on The Campbell Playhouse in a one-hour version produced by and starring Orson Welles on September 17, 1939. Additional one-hour radio adaptations were performed on the Theatre Guild on The Air on October 7, 1945, Studio One on July 15, 1947, and the Ford Theater on November 2, 1947. On June 15, 1955,
1080-611: The children, for the actress Carlotta Monterey (born San Francisco, California, December 28, 1888; died Westwood, New Jersey , November 18, 1970). O'Neill and Carlotta married less than a month after he officially divorced his previous wife. In 1929, O'Neill and Monterey moved to the Loire Valley in central France, where they lived in the Château du Plessis in Saint-Antoine-du-Rocher , Indre-et-Loire. During
1125-437: The darker themes that he later thrived on. Here he focused on the brothel world and the lives of prostitutes, which also play a role in some fourteen of his later plays. In particular, he memorably included the birth of an infant into the world of prostitution. At the time, such themes constituted a huge innovation, as these sides of life had never before been presented with such success. O'Neill's first published play, Beyond
1170-550: The disappearance of a group of manuscripts that O'Neill had brought with him from San Francisco. "When the table was cleared I learned the cause of the tension; the manuscripts were lost. They had disappeared mysteriously during the day and there was no clue to their whereabouts." O'Neill died at the Sheraton Hotel (now Boston University 's Kilachand Hall ) on Bay State Road in Boston, on November 27, 1953, at age 65. As he
1215-497: The early 1930s they returned to the United States and lived in Sea Island, Georgia , at a house called Casa Genotta. He moved to Danville, California , in 1937 and lived there until 1944. His house there, Tao House , is today the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site . In their first years together, Monterey organized O'Neill's life, enabling him to devote himself to writing. She later became addicted to potassium bromide , and
1260-690: The eleven plays O'Neill proposed, A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions , were completed. As his health worsened, O'Neill lost inspiration for the project and wrote three largely autobiographical plays, The Iceman Cometh , Long Day's Journey into Night , and A Moon for the Misbegotten , which he completed in 1943, just before leaving Tao House and losing his ability to write. The book " Love and Admiration and Respect": The O'Neill-Commins Correspondence " includes an extended account written by Saxe Commins, O'Neill's publisher, in which he talks of "snatches of dialogue" between Carlotta and O'Neill over
1305-558: The famed theater club. After suffering from multiple health problems (including depression and alcoholism) over many years, O'Neill ultimately faced a severe Parkinson's -like tremor in his hands that made it impossible for him to write during the last 10 years of his life; he tried dictation but found himself unable to compose that way. While at Tao House, O'Neill had intended to write a collection of works he called "the Cycle" chronicling American life spanning from 1755 to 1932. Only two of
1350-508: The fictional ship Glencairn —filmed together as The Long Voyage Home : Other one-act plays include: Ah, Wilderness! Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a happy family in turn-of-the-century America. It
1395-516: The fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, ultimately sliding into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well-known ( Ah, Wilderness! ). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. O'Neill was born on October 16, 1888, in a hotel, the Barrett House, on what was then Longacre Square (now Times Square ) in New York City. A commemorative plaque
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1440-484: The marriage deteriorated, resulting in a number of separations, although they never divorced. In 1943, O'Neill disowned his daughter Oona for marrying the English actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin when she was 18 and Chaplin was 54. He never saw Oona again. He also had distant relationships with his sons. Eugene O'Neill Jr. , a Yale classicist, suffered from alcoholism and committed suicide in 1950 at
1485-673: The most atypical of the author's works, the play presents a sentimental tale of youthful indiscretion in a turn-of-the-century New England town." The title derives from Quatrain XII of Edward Fitzgerald 's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (5th edition, 1889), one of Richard's favorite poems: Theatre Guild Producer Philip Moeller Director Robert Edmond Jones Scenic Designer CAST George M. Cohan as Nat Miller Adelaide Bean as Mildred Miller John Butler as Salesman Ruth Chorpenning as Norah Elisha Cook, Jr. as
1530-503: The role of the warmhearted Nat, perhaps contributing to the critical and audience success of the play, a staple of community repertory since the original production. The play was included in Burns Mantle 's The Best Plays of 1933–1934 with George M. Cohan in the cast and again as a revival in 1941–42. In a review of a 1998 production of the play at The Huntington Theatre in Boston, the reviewer noted O'Neill, who "penned [it] in
1575-816: The role), and in 1996 by the Circle in the Square Theatre in a production directed by and starring Al Pacino . The designers for that production were David Gallo (sets), Donald Holder (lights), Candice Donnelly (costumes) and John Gromada (sound). Goodman Theatre in Chicago put on the play in January and February 2010, with Brian Dennehy in the starring role. The production was variously well-reviewed, with emphasis on Dennehy's strong performance. Later in 2010, Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, brought
1620-711: The show to its stage with Brian Dennehy as Erie once again. The play was revived in 2013 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. , with Richard Schiff as Erie. It returned for a fourth time to Broadway with Forest Whitaker as Erie Smith in February 2016. The 2016 revival was directed by Michael Grandage with Darren Bagert as a lead producer. The production had a shortened run of 55 performances and closed on March 27, 2016. Hughie has been televised at least four times in addition to
1665-429: The son, Richard Miller Ruth Gilbert as Muriel McComber Eda Heinemann as Lily Miller Ruth Holden as Belle Gene Lockhart as Sid Davis Marjorie Marquis as David's mother, Essie Miller Donald McClelland as Bartender William Post, Jr. as Arthur Miller Richard Sterling as David McComber Walter Vonnegut, Jr. as Tommy Miller John Wynne as Wint Selby When the play first toured, Will Rogers took
1710-479: The speech is no 'telling tale' to please the Swedes with a polite gesture. It is absolutely sincere. [...] And it's absolutely true that I am proud of the opportunity to acknowledge my debt to Strindberg thus publicly to his people". Before the speech was sent to Stockholm , O'Neill read it to his friend Sophus Keith Winther . As he was reading, he suddenly interrupted himself with the comment: "I wish immortality were
1755-676: The wharf (pictured) that was used by the Players for their theater: "So Gene took Bound East for Cardiff out of his trunk, and Freddie Burt read it to us, Gene staying out in the dining-room while reading went on. He was not left alone in the dining-room when the reading had finished." The Provincetown Players performed many of O'Neill's early works in their theaters both in Provincetown and on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village . Some of these early plays, such as The Emperor Jones , began downtown and then moved to Broadway. In an early one-act play, The Web , written in 1913, O'Neill first explored
1800-402: Was also part of the modern movement to partially revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese Noh theatre in some of his plays, such as The Great God Brown and Lazarus Laughed . O'Neill was married to Kathleen Jenkins from October 2, 1909, to 1912, during which time they had one son, Eugene O'Neill, Jr. (1910–1950). In 1917, O'Neill met Agnes Boulton ,
1845-531: Was dying, he whispered: "I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and died in a hotel room." He is interred in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston 's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. In 1956, Carlotta arranged for his autobiographical play Long Day's Journey into Night to be published, although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death. It
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1890-458: Was first dedicated there in 1957. The site is now occupied by 1500 Broadway , which houses offices, shops and the ABC Studios . He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan , who was also of Irish descent. His father suffered from alcoholism; his mother from an addiction to morphine, prescribed to relieve the pains of the difficult birth of Eugene, who
1935-1123: Was her third son. Because his father was often on tour with a theatrical company, accompanied by Eugene's mother, in 1895 O'Neill was sent to St. Aloysius Academy for Boys , a Catholic boarding school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. In 1900, he became a day student at the De La Salle Institute on 59th Street in Manhattan. The O'Neill family reunited for summers at the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London, Connecticut . He also briefly attended Betts Academy in Stamford. He attended Princeton University for one year. Accounts vary as to why he left. He may have been dropped for attending too few classes, been suspended for "conduct code violations", or "for breaking
1980-640: Was produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. It is widely considered his finest play. Other posthumously published works include A Touch of the Poet (1958) and More Stately Mansions (1967). In 1967, the United States Postal Service honored O'Neill with a Prominent Americans series (1965–1978) $ 1 postage stamp. In 2000, a team of researchers studying O'Neill's autopsy report concluded that he died of cerebellar cortical atrophy ,
2025-760: Was staged in Sweden at the Royal Dramatic Theatre with Bengt Eklund as Erie Smith. It was first staged in English at the Theatre Royal, Bath , in 1963 with Burgess Meredith as Erie. The play was first presented on Broadway in 1964 starring Jason Robards as Erie and directed by José Quintero . Robards received a Tony Award nomination for his performance, and revived the production in 1975 in Berkeley, California , with Jack Dodson as Charlie Hughes. Robards and Dodson returned to perform it at
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