Jim O'Brien (reporter)
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| Jim O'Brien | |
| Born | February 4, 1939 Waco, Texas |
|---|---|
| Died | September 25, 1983 (aged 44) |
Jim O'Brien was the stage name of James Oldham, (February 4, 1939 – September 25, 1983) who came to Philadelphia in 1970 to become a disc jockey at radio station WFIL-AM, after short stints at KHJ in Los Angeles and WOR-FM in New York City.
In 1976, he joined the WPVI Channel 6 Action News team as a sports anchor. He soon became the weatherman and became a local legend with his presentation of the weather, being the only Philadelphia area weatherman to use a pointer while on the air. O'Brien eventually anchored the Noon newscast, the local edition of Dialing for Dollars and the weekend magazine show Primetime.
O'Brien had two favorite hobbies: motorcycle riding and skydiving. It was the latter hobby which would lead to his untimely death in a skydiving accident on September 25, 1983 near Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania. He and another skydiver jumping with him safely deployed their main parachutes; but during their descent under their open parachutes, they accidentally collided with each other, and their parachutes became entangled with one another. After trying unsuccessfully to detach themselves from each other, O'Brien, an experienced jumper, performed a standard skydiving emergency procedure called a "cutaway", in which he jettisoned his main parachute and deployed his reserve parachute. Unfortunately, by the time he performed the "cutaway" maneuver, he was already at such a low altitude that he struck the ground before his reserve canopy, which was in the process of deploying, was able to inflate.[citation needed]
O'Brien was the father of actress Peri Gilpin, who played the character "Roz" on the television program Frasier.
[edit] External links
- http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-10/1102674018112440.xml
- http://www.famous56.com/jim/
- http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1257116;search_string=Jim%20o%27brien;#1257116
- http://www.angelfire.com/celeb/JLeeves/periin.htm
- http://aicommand.com/Obrien121704.htm
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