History Creator / EugeneONeill

* GreekChorus: In ''Mourning Becomes Electra'', a retelling of ''Theatre/TheOresteia'' by Creator/{{Aeschylus}} set in a 1930s American town, the various townsfolk fill the role of a Greek chorus, commenting on the events of the play and the main characters' behavior.

* SettingUpdate: ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a classical Greek tragedy reset in America during the immediate aftermath of the Civil War.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eugene_o_neill.png]]
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953), was in his lifetime, and probably still is, America's most famous playwright.

Appropriately enough, O'Neill was born on Broadway, the child of Irish immigrants, his father an actor. He went to boarding school and then to Princeton but he dropped out of college after a year, one story holding that he was kicked out for throwing a bottle in Professor UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson's window. O'Neill then worked as a merchant sailor, where the alcoholism and depression that made his plays [[SarcasmMode so cheerful]] first developed.

His life got even more cheerful when he contracted tuberculosis, which led to him leaving the merchant sailor life and starting a literary career. His first published play, ''Theatre/BeyondTheHorizon'', won the UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize and immediately made him famous in the theater world. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times in his career, including posthumously for ''Long Day's Journey Into Night'', a play that O'Neill insisted not be staged until after his death due to its highly autobiographical story. He also won the UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature.

O'Neill's personal life was just as depressing as his plays. His brother drank himself to death. His second wife became a drug addict. His oldest son was an alcoholic who killed himself in 1950. His younger son was a heroin addict who killed himself in 1977. And he [[IHaveNoSon disowned his only daughter]], Oona O'Neill, after 18-year-old Oona married 54-year-old Creator/CharlieChaplin, a man almost Eugene's own age, in 1943.

His great-granddaughter is actress Creator/OonaChaplin. O'Neill is a character in the 1981 film ''Film/{{Reds}}'', where he's portrayed by Creator/JackNicholson.

* SettingUpdate: ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' is a classical Greek tragedy reset in America during the Depression.

Appropriately enough O'Neill was born on Broadway, the child of Irish immigrants, his father an actor. He went to boarding school and then to Princeton, but he dropped out of college after a year, one story holding that he was kicked out for throwing a bottle in Professor UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson's window. O'Neill then worked as a merchant sailor, where the alcoholism and depression that made his plays [[SarcasmMode so cheerful]] first developed.

O'Neill's personal life was just as depressing as his plays. His brother drank himself to death. His second wife became a drug addict. His oldest son was an alcoholic who killed himself in 1950. His younger son was a heroin addict who killed himself in 1977. And he [[IHaveNoSon disowned his only daughter]], Oona O'Neill, after 18-year-old Oona married 54-year-old Creator/CharlieChaplin, a man almost his (Eugene's) own age, in 1943.

His great-grandaughter is Creator/OonaChaplin. O'Neill is a character in the 1981 film ''Film/{{Reds}}'', where he's portrayed by Creator/JackNicholson.

Appropriately enough O'Neill was born on Broadway, the child of Irish immigrants, his father an actor. He went to boarding school and then to Princeton, but he dropped out of college after a year, one story holding that he was kicked out for throwing a bottle in Professor UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson's window. O'Neill then worked as a merchant sailor, where the alcoholism and depression that made his plays so cheerful first developed.

O'Neill's personal life was just as depressing as his plays. His brother drank himself to death. His second wife became a drug addict. His oldest son was an alcoholic who killed himself in 1950. His younger son was a heroin addict who killed himself in 1977. And he [[IHaveNoSon disowned his only daughter]], Oona O'Neill, after 18-year-old Oona married 54-year-old Creator/CharlieChaplin in 1943.

Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), was in his lifetime, and probably still is, America's most famous playwright.

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!!See also:

'''Eugene O'Neill''' (1888-1953), was in his lifetime, and probably still is, America's most famous playwright.