{"id":505368,"date":"2026-03-05T14:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505368\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T14:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T14:20:11","slug":"beloved-matlock-actress-maria-obrien-dead-at-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/505368\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved ‘Matlock’ Actress Maria O’Brien Dead at 75"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria O’Brien, perhaps best known for her roles in Matlock and Protocol, died at age 75 on February 24, according to Deadline<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Born in August 1950, O’Brien got her start in Hollywood in the early 1960s with appearances in shows such as Sam Benedict, Ironside and Police Woman. <\/p>\n

The Los Angeles native was destined for stardom, following in the footsteps of her father, Oscar-winning actor Edmond O\u2019Brien, and mother, musical comedy star Olga San Juan.<\/p>\n

Throughout her decades on screen, O’Brien starred alongside A-list talent such as Goldie Hawn, Melanie Griffith, Lily Tomlin, Angela Lansbury, and Tom Selleck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Later in her career, O\u2019Brien worked off-camera as an acting coach for daytime drama series Sunset Beach and Passions. She would later spend 15 years as an acting coach on the long-running soap opera Days of Our Lives, where she remained until her retirement<\/a> in 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O’Brien is survived by her three children, James Anderson, Danica Anderson, and Sean Anderson, and her sister<\/a> Bridget O\u2019Brien Adelman.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Mar 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maria O’Brien, perhaps best known for her roles in Matlock and Protocol, died at age 75 on February…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,229980,88,229981,93084,229983,229982],"class_list":["post-505368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-edmond-obrien","tag-entertainment","tag-maria-o39brien","tag-melanie-griffith","tag-olga-san-juan","tag-sam-benedict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}