From: A Trilogy of TerrorAn interview with Ian McCulloch
by Jason J. Slater & Marcelle Parks
Diabolik number 1 (1997)
Donald O'Brien who played the mad doctor in ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST stayed in Italy for a number of years to make horror and war movies. Like his character in Girolami's film, he quickly became typecast as a monster, Nazi or something on those lines.
He was a nice Irish chap based in Paris, wasn't he? After the film had finished, he had this horrible accident where he banged his head and was stuck in a hospital in Paris for a long time. O'Brien was in a very bad way, no one knew if he could live, walk or even go on. If he has sort of gone on then I'm very pleased for him and that's fantastic.
[The fellow's name was Donal O'Brien, but reportedly he had to get identification listing his name as "Donald O'Brien" because his paychecks - as well as his film credits - kept misspelling his name. The near fatal accident reportedly occured in 1980 but he was able to resume working in a few years. The interviewer seemed unaware of O'Brien's career in Italian Westerns co-starring with Tomas Milian in RUN MAN RUN and with Richard Harrison in JESSIE AND LESTER, TWO BROTHERS IN A PLACE CALLED TRINITY.]
I think O'Brien is still reported by IMDb as having died in 2003. I've heard that this is not so and he's alive and living in Rome. Can anyone verify this?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the booklet of the "Run Man Run"-DVD from Koch Media O´Brien died on 29th November 2003.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alexander.
ReplyDelete