{"id":513409,"date":"2026-03-04T08:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513409\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T08:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:53:07","slug":"actor-and-days-of-our-lives-acting-coach-was-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/513409\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor and ‘Days of Our Lives’ Acting Coach was 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMaria O\u2019Brien<\/a>, an acting coach and actor known for roles in films including 1975\u2019s \u201cSmile\u201d and 1984\u2019s \u201cProtocol\u201d and numerous TV appearances in the 1980s and \u201990s, died on Feb. 24. She was 75.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the course of her six-decade career, O\u2019Brien graced screens small and large, appearing in films including \u201cThe Incredible Shrinking Woman\u201d and \u201cTable for Five.\u201d She also made guest appearances on a number of shows including \u201cMurder She Wrote,\u201d \u201cMagnum PI,\u201d \u201cThe Love Boat,\u201d \u201cLA Law\u201d and \u201cCHiPs,\u201d amongst others. She acted alongside stars like Melanie Griffith, Lily Tomlin, Angela Lansbury, Tom Selleck and Goldie Hawn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien began her career as an acting coach in the late 1990s when she was hired on the daytime dramas \u201cSunset Beach\u201d and \u201cPassions.\u201d She also held a 15-year position as the acting coach on the beloved drama series\u00a0\u201cDays of Our Lives\u201d until her retirement in 2022.\u00a0In 1990, O\u2019Brien won a Drama-Logue award for \u201cThe Maids\u201d by Jean Genet, performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn on August 14, 1950, in Los Angeles, O\u2019Brien was a part of a family of actors; her father, Edmund O\u2019Brien, won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1954\u2019s \u201cThe Barefoot Contessa,\u201d while her mother was musical comedy star Olga San Juan, who made appearances in a number of films including \u201cAre You with It?,\u201d \u201cThe Countess of Monte Cristo\u201d and \u201cOne Touch of Venus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOutside of performing, O\u2019Brien was also an advocate who played an instrumental role in securing government funding for research for Alzheimer\u2019s Disease. In 1983, O\u2019Brien testified before Congress about the devastation of the disease, which her father had been one of the first celebrities to be diagnosed with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien is survived by her three children, James Anderson, Danica Anderson and Sean Anderson, and her sister Bridget O\u2019Brien Adelman. O\u2019Brien was preceded in death by her brother, actor Brendan O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maria O\u2019Brien, an acting coach and actor known for roles in films including 1975\u2019s \u201cSmile\u201d and 1984\u2019s \u201cProtocol\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,203597],"class_list":["post-513409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-maria-ou2019brien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}