Darcy O'Brien

Darcy O'Brien
Born	(1939-07-16)July 16, 1939 Los Angeles, California
Died	March 2, 1998(1998-03-02) (aged 58) Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Alma mater	Princeton University University of Cambridge University of California, Berkeley
Occupations	Author literary critic professor at the University of Tulsa
Children	1
Parent(s)	George O'Brien Marguerite Churchill
Relatives	Orin O'Brien (sister)

Darcy O'Brien (July 16, 1939, in Los Angeles – March 2, 1998, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) was an award-winning American author of fiction and literary criticism, most well known for his work in the genre of true crime. His first novel, A Way of Life, Like Any Other, was a fictionalized account of his childhood in Hollywood. In 1985, he wrote a book about the Hillside Stranglers entitled Two of a Kind: The Hillside Stranglers, which was adapted into a made-for-television film called The Case of the Hillside Stranglers, starring Richard Crenna.

Biography

Darcy O'Brien was born in Los Angeles, the son of Hollywood silent film actor George O'Brien and actress Marguerite Churchill, a frequent co-star of John Wayne.

O'Brien attended Princeton University and University of Cambridge, and received a master's degree and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1965 to 1978 he was a professor of English at Pomona College. In 1978 he moved to Tulsa, and taught at the University of Tulsa until 1995.

O'Brien was married three times and had one daughter named Molly O'Brien. His sister is Orin O'Brien, a double bassist and member of the New York Philharmonic.

O'Brien died of a heart attack in Tulsa on March 2, 1998.

Awards

• 1978: Ernest Hemingway Award for best first novel, A Way of Life, Like Any Other
• 1997: Edgar Allan Poe Award, Power to Hurt

O'Brien was inducted into the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame in 1997.

Selected works

• A Way of Life, Like Any Other (1977 & 2001). New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0393087987. OCLC 3203215
• Moment by Moment, novelization of screenplay by Jane Wagner (1979)
• The Silver Spooner (1981)
• Two of a Kind: The Story of the Hillside Stranglers (1985)
• Murder in Little Egypt (1989)
• Margaret in Hollywood (1991)
• A Dark and Bloody Ground (1993)
• Power to Hurt (1996)
• The Hidden Pope (1998)
• The Conscience of James Joyce (2016)

External links

• Darcy O'Brien at IMDb
• Lyman, Rick (4 March 1998). "Darcy O'Brien, 59, Author Of Fiction and 'True Crime'". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2019.