Brendan O'Brien (actor)

{{Infobox person

| name = Brendan O'Brien

| image = Brendan O'Brien.png

| alt = O'Brien smiling at a camera

| birth_name = Brendan James O'Brien

| birth_date = {{birth date|1962|05|09}}

| birth_place = Hollywood, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|03|23|1962|05|09}}

| death_place = California, U.S.

| alma_mater = Loyola Marymount University

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = {{hlist|1972–2003|2020–2021}}

| spouse = {{Marriage|Ingrid K. Behrens|2000}}

| parents = {{ubl|Olga San Juan|Edmond O'Brien}}

| website = {{url|brendanobrien.com/}}

}}

Brendan James O'Brien (May 9, 1962 – March 23, 2023) was an American actor. He served as the original voice of Crash Bandicoot and various other character voices for the Crash Bandicoot video games during the Naughty Dog years.

Early life

Brendan James O'Brien was born in Hollywood, California, on May 9, 1962.{{Cite web|title=Brendan James O'Brien|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/brendan-o-brien-obituary?id=51839781|date=May 9, 2023|access-date=September 24, 2023|publisher=Legacy.com}} He was the son of actor Edmond O'Brien (1915–1985) and actress Olga San Juan (1927–2009).{{cite news |title=Edmond O'Brien, Actor, Dies at 69 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/10/arts/edmond-o-brien-actor-dies-at-69.html |access-date=March 26, 2020 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 10, 1985 |page=D22}}{{cite news |title=Olga San Juan dies at 81; actress sang and danced with Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire |url=http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-sanjuan9-2009jan09-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=August 15, 2018}} His two sisters are television producer Bridget O'Brien Adelman and actress Maria O'Brien.

He attended Loyola High School in East Los Angeles where he played guitar in various high school bands throughout his early years. He was also a graduate of the Loyola Marymount University.

Career

O'Brien began his acting career in 1972 at ten years old, he was discovered by director Bernard L. Kowalski who cast him in his first acting role in the first episode of the television series The Streets of San Francisco, along with his father. His other live action credits was in the television film Honor Thy Father. He also acted in 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, P.U.N.K.S., Race to Space, and Grindhouse.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

He got the role of Crash Bandicoot after Joe Pearson suggested that he call Jason Rubin (who was looking for a voice artist). After going to the studio for the call (where his parents used to work), he got the role. The recordings that O'Brien did for Crash Bandicoot were done in an intimate setting at the Alfred Hitchcock Theater.{{cite web |title=Crash Bandicoot an Oral History |url=https://www.polygon.com/2017/6/22/15820540/crash-bandicoot-an-oral-history |date=June 22, 2017 |website=Polygon |access-date=August 15, 2018}}

O'Brien also performed additional voices for the animated series adaptation of Spawn and Ralph Bakshi's Spicy City. He has also acted in several live action television shows such as Candid Camera and The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

He went on a hiatus from acting in 2003; he returned to acting sixteen years later and appear in an episode of Riverdale as a math teacher and also had a small part in the TV mini-series The Slowest Show as a Male Millionaire.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} He was also in talks to have a role in Antonblast, a video game partly inspired by Crash Bandicoot; however, O'Brien died before this could occur.{{cite web|url=https://x.com/graysonZ80/status/1657782039930650624|title=Antonblast director's tweet about Brendan O'Brien's death|website=Twitter|date=May 14, 2023|access-date=November 15, 2024}}

Personal life

Brendan O'Brien met his wife Ingrid K. Behrens in 1995; they married five years later in 2000 and remained married until his death.

Death

He died on March 23, 2023, at his home in California at the age of 60.{{cite news |last1=Beckwith |first1=Michael |title=Original Crash Bandicoot voice actor dies aged 60 |url=https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/15/original-crash-bandicoot-voice-actor-dies-aged-60-18783699/ |access-date=May 15, 2023 |newspaper=Metro |date=May 15, 2023}}

Filmography

=Film=

class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable"| Notes

1973

| Honor Thy Father

| Child

| TV movie

1989

| Hollywood Chaos

| Guido Luini

| Indie film

1995

| Get Street Smart: A Kid's Guide to Stranger Dangers

| Capricorn's Dad (voice)

| Short film

1996

| The Legend of Galgameth

| Heretic

1997

| Casper: A Spirited Beginning

| Terrified Worker

| Direct-to-video

1998

| 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain

| Zed

1999

| P.U.N.K.S.

| Repo Supervisor

rowspan=2| 2000

| The Trial of Old Drum

| Brendan

| TV movie

Wild Grizzly

| Earl

| TV movie

2001

| Race to Space

| Centrifuge Technician

|{{cite book |last1=Willis |first1=John |last2=Monush |first2=Barry |title=Screen World 2003 |date=February 2004 |url=https://archive.org/details/screenworldvolum00barr |url-access=registration |publisher=Applause Theatre & Cinema Books |isbn=1557835284 |pages=447}}

2003

| Grindhouse

| Father Holloway

=Television=

class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable"| Notes

1972

| The Streets of San Francisco

| Kid

| Episode: "The Thirty-Year Pin"

1991

| Candid Camera

| Pincushion/Self

| 2 episodes

1992

| The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys

| Milkman / Award Presenter

| 2 episodes

1997

| Spicy City

| Additional voices

| Episode: "Love Is a Download"

1997–1999

| Todd MacFarlane's Spawn

| Additional voices

| 6 episodes

2020

| Riverdale

| Math Teacher

| Episode: "Chapter Seventy-Four: Wicked Little Town"

2021

| The Slowest Show

| Male Millionaire

| TV Mini-series
Episode: "Bowling Alley"; Final role

=Video games=

class="wikitable sortable"

! Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable"| Notes

1996

| Crash Bandicoot

| Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Neo Cortex, Doctor Nitrus Brio

|{{cite web|url=https://voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=10166|title=Brendan O'Brien|publisher=|access-date=August 21, 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Brendan-OBrien/|title=Brendan O'Brien (visual voices guide)|website=Behind The Voice Actors|type= A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information}}

1997

| Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

| Crash Bandicoot, Doctor Nitrus Brio, Doctor N. Gin, Komodo Moe, Tiny Tiger

1998

| Crash Bandicoot: Warped

| Crash Bandicoot, Tiny Tiger, Doctor N. Gin

1999

| Crash Team Racing

| Tiny Tiger, N. Gin, Pinstripe Potoroo

2000

| Crash Bash

| Crash Bandicoot, Tiny Tiger, Doctor Nitrus Brio, Komodo Moe, Papu Papu