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Eileen O'Neill Profile

Eileen O'Neill
Eileen O'Neill
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(Eileen T. O'Neill)
3 July 39 is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent to Harry and Mary O’Neill. Her father's a bus driver.
? enrolls in the Philadelphia Modeling School
? lands a regular gig on a locally televised talk show
? moves to California without telling her parents and lands a Pepsi commercial the first week
April 59 is chosen "Miss Rally Round the Flag, Boys" to spark the opening of the 1959 bond campaign in Pennsylvania
April 60 places second in the "Miss Los Angeles Press Photographers" contest. Winner is 19-year-old Darlene Tompkins of Pacoima.
29 September 61 marries director-producer and big-game hunter William D. Holmes, the ex of starlet Shirley Buchanan, in Los Angeles. He's 35; she's 22.
January 63 attends Eartha Kitt’s dancing classes. Other members of the class are Joi Lansing, Karen Dolin, Jeannie Said, Bobbie Adair, Marge Meade, and Barbara Wiener. The proceeds from Eartha's classes are donated to the Syanon House, a non-profit organization in nearby Santa Monica, dedicated to the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Spring 63 she and Holmes separate after 18 months of marriage
63 goes to New York when chosen as one of the six finalists in the "Miss Rheingold" contest. There she becomes friendly with co-finalist Chris Noel.
December 63 rooms with fellow newcomers Kathy Kersh and Chris Noel
8 January 64 obtains an annulment of her marriage to Holmes in Los Angeles Superior Court. She claims her marriage was kissless and her honeymoon a three-month tiger hunt in India. The setting was romantic, she says, but Holmes wasn't. She testifies that he explained to her: "One has to stay in excellent physical condition..."
April 64 columnist Dorothy Kilgallen notes her dating Ty Hardin "since his wife, former beauty queen Marlene Schmidt, took off for Europe leaving no note saying she intended to return"
November 64 columnist Mike Connolly notes from Hollywood: "Sam Spiegel, surrounded by such sexpots as Anne Francis, Chris Noel, Pamela Curran and Eileen O'Neill, slipped me some news: he just signed Arthur Penn to direct The Chase with Steve McQueen..."
December 64 columnist Earl Wilson notes her and fellow actresses Barbara Nichols, Roxanne Arlen, and Barbara Hines at a party celebrating the completion of Marty Ransohoff's upcoming The Loved One
January 65 the press knows: "Five days a week, Eileen O'Neill plays a police sergeant on television's 'Burke's Law.' On weekends, she relaxes at her Beverly Hills home."
April 65 columnist Dorothy Kilgallen tells: "Jacques Bergerac and Debbie Loew have shelved their romance. He's found Eileen O'Neill..."
June 65 is among 150 performers taking part in "A Night of Stars," Hollywood's salute to Senator George Murphy, held at the Hollywood Palladium. Other celebrities are Morey Amsterdam, Jacques Bergerac, Pat Buttram, Dale Evans, Rhonda Fleming, Reginald Gardiner, Johnny Grant, Connie Hines, Eartha Kitt, Jock Mahoney, Raymond Massey, Terry Moore, Ken Murray, Lloyd Nolan, Jay North, Laya Raki, Ronald Reagan, Roy Rogers, Rowan and Martin, Susan Seaforth, April Stevens, Gale Storm, and Clint Walter.
November 65 is among show people spending a Saturday with 20 boys from broken homes on a fishing boat offshore California
December 65 together with Dan Rowan & Dick Martin, Chris Noel and Beverly Adams, she visits a Viet Nam veteran’s hospital in San Francisco
? she and Noel rent a house together on Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills. During this same period Noel becomes involved with her Vietnam cause.
February 66 is signed to a co-starring role in Lewis H. Horwitz' upcoming Spy Hook
May 66 is off to New York to promote her next movie, Why Spy?
October 67 together with John Saxon, James Darren, and Chris Noel, she attends the San Francisco Film Festival and sparks the party aboard the Klamath moored at Pier 5 on the Embarcadero and later at the Hilton
March 68 as "Operation Entertainment Girls" she, Shawn Robinson, Karen Joy, and Sivi Aberg are pictured saluting the boys onboard the USS Constellation.
August 68 she and fellow "Operation Entertainment Girls" Marina Ghane, Shawn Robinson, and Sivi Aberg return to Hollywood in a chartered airplane. The 85-member cast and crew of ABC's traveling variety show, including Terri Gibbs and his band, had been "on the road since July 7."
68 when "Operation Entertainment" ends, she moves to New York and becomes involved in some 80 TV commercials
December 70 promotes wall shelves in local newspapers
71 turns down a part in There Was a Crooked Man. Barbara Rhoades gets the role.
November 71 promotes Day Brothers wigs in local department stores
73 moves back to Beverly Hills, where she meets attorney-real estate developer Richard John Barich
? marries Richard John Barich. He's 16 years her senior.
24 June 97 becomes the widow of Barich, who dies at age 74 in Los Angeles
March 99 completes the 26.2 miles of the Los Angeles Marathon
January 23 lives in Redondo Beach, California
March 23 is featured in Classic Images
Sources:
Film Fatales by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul, Van Nuys News, Reno Evening Gazette, Times-Mirror, Long Beach Independent, The Lima News, The Coshocton Tribune, The Daily Intelligencer, Indiana Evening Gazette, The Port Arthur News, Oakland Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, The Fresno Bee, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Classic Images, www.Ancestry.com, pro.Corbis.com
Recommended Books:
Film Fatales by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul
Links:
Filmography
!WOm!WAm!: Eileen O'Neill