Charles Francis "Frank" O'Connor (September 22, 1897 –November 7, 1979) was an American actor, painter, and rancher and the husband of novelist Ayn Rand. Frank O'Connor performed in several films, typically as an extra, during the silent and early sound eras until about 1934. While working on the set of the 1927 film The King of Kings, O'Connor met Rand, and they eventually dated each other steadily. They married in 1929. When O'Connor and Rand moved to California so Rand could work on the movie adaptation of her novel The Fountainhead, O'Connor purchased and managed a ranch in the San Fernando Valley for several years. In addition to raising numerous flora and fauna on the ranch, he there developed the Lipstick and Halloween hybrids of Delphinium and Gladiolus.
After the couple moved to New York City in 1951, he took up painting and became a member of the Art Students League of New York. He provided the cover art for some of Rand's published work after this time. Rand attributed to O'Connor inspiration for some of the themes and characters in her writing, and he provided the title for her novel Atlas Shrugged.
In 1954, Rand pressured O'Connor into assenting to her having a sexual affair with Nathaniel Branden. The affair deeply troubled O'Connor and lasted until 1968. Late in his life, O'Connor struggled with excessive alcohol consumption. He died in 1979 and was buried in Kensico Cemetery; after Rand died in 1982, she was buried alongside him.
According to cognitive psychologist Robert L. Campbell, O'Connor "eludes" Rand's biographers.[2] Rand said that O'Connor was an inspiration for her writing and the model for her idealized male protagonists, like Howard Roark and John Galt. Other associates of Rand and O'Connor have objected and said that Rand's claims about O'Connor's personality were inaccurate and that their marriage struggled because he was more soft-spoken and gentle than she preferred.
Biography
Early life
Charles Francis "Frank" O'Connor was born September 22, 1897, in Lorain, Ohio to steelworker Dennis O'Connor and homemaker Mary Agnes O'Connor, the third of their seven children.[3][4] Although raised Catholic, Frank O'Connor dropped out of his Catholic school when he was fourteen years old, and he was atheist thereafter.[5] When he was fifteen, his mother died, and O'Connor and three brothers left Ohio to live on their own; the four of them moved to New York, where O'Connor began an acting career. O'Connor moved to Hollywood, where most American film studios were by then, sometime around 1926.[6]
Acting
The King of Kings (1927), a silent film O'Connor performed in as an extra.
In Hollywood, O'Connor worked part-time in acting, primarily as a film extra.[7] His first Hollywood role was as a Roman legionnaire in Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, and he first met Rand on the film's set.[8] As an adult, O'Connor was "mesmerizingly handsome", according to cultural analyst Lisa Duggan,[9] and Rand was smitten with O'Connor virtually at first sight. To get his attention, Rand intentionally tripped O'Connor, whereupon he apologized for stepping on her, and they shared their names with each other.[10]
O'Connor ran into Rand again at a public library in Hollywood, and this time they kept in touch and began courting, going to movies and having dinner with each other and with O'Connor's brothers Joe and Harry. O'Connor was most likely Rand's first kiss.[11]
Perhaps partly in order to help her obtain legal residence before her temporary visa expired, O'Connor married Rand on April 15, 1929, in the Los Angeles City Hall of Justice.[12] After marrying, O'Connor eked out a modest life with Rand, and they both worked odd jobs.[13] Rand was, in the words of historian Jennifer Burns, "the breadwinner from the start".[14] Soon, however, O'Connor's acting career improved, and for a few years he had regular employment in small roles for early talkies.[15] With his income, O'Connor also provided for Rand, including by buying her a writing desk and a typewriter. O'Connor also took the lead in decorating their apartment.[15]
O'Connor's performed in several films released in 1933 and 1934, though he continued landing relatively small roles, sometimes as humorous characters; this dismayed Rand, who believed he deserved to play a romantic lead.[16] O'Connor featured in a speaking role as Jake Canon for both the film and stage versions of As Husbands Go.[17][lower-alpha 1] The Austin Daily Texan complimented the film's entire cast in its review, stating that "the stars and the supporting cast are discerningly chosen, fit their roles exactly, and enact them to the uttermost nuance of perfection."[18]
When Rand received a producer's offer to take her play Night of January 16th to Broadway, she convinced O'Connor to move with her to New York City; they departed in November and arrived in December.[19] In New York, O'Connor's career idled, and he joked that he was "Mr. Ayn Rand" as she was the breadwinner while he took care of paying bills, doing household chores, and decorating their apartments.[20]
O'Connor landed roles for summer stock theater in Connecticut in 1936 and 1937. In August 1936, he temporarily moved to Connecticut to perform in Night of January 16th as Guts Regan.[21] O'Connor returned to Connecticut in July 1937, this time accompanied by Rand, and they stayed in Stony Creek where he performed for several plays, including reprising his role as Guts Regan for Night of January 16th.[22]
Although O'Connor was not particularly intellectual the way Rand was, he was socially adept. At social gatherings, he secretly passed Rand notes with suggestions about what to talk about, and she found his sense of humor hilarious.[23] With each other, they could be silly; O'Connor nicknamed Rand "Fluffy", and she called him "Cubbyhole".[24]
After overhearing a phone conversation between Rand and Isabel Paterson during the summer of 1943 in which Rand mentioned that "all the creative minds in the world [going] on strike… would make a good novel", O'Connor affirmed to her "That would make a good novel." This idea eventually became Atlas Shrugged.[25]
Ranching
A patio on the Chatsworth property which O'Connor managed. The man sitting center may be O'Connor.
When Rand sold the film rights to her novel The Fountainhead and was called on to write the script for a movie adaptation, O'Connor moved with Rand back to California in December 1943.[26] While they started out in a small apartment in Hollywood, O'Connor researched purchasing land in the San Fernando Valley. O'Connor picked out a Richard Neutra house with thirteen acres of land in an area that later became Chatsworth, and O'Connor and Rand bought it and moved into it in 1943.[27] "Reinventing himself as a gentleman farmer," in historian Jennifer Burns's words, O'Connor "thrived in California".[28] He tended the San Fernando property's acres, gardens, and orchards as a working ranch.[29] He raised peacocks, chickens, and rabbits on the property and tended flowers, fruit trees, and gardens.[30] O'Connor developed a skill for horticulture and raised alfalfa, bamboo, blackberries, chestnuts, pomegranate trees, and gladioli; he earned some money selling alfalfa and extra produce, and after learning flower arranging he sold gladiolas to hotels in Los Angeles.[31] By breeding delphiniums and gladiolas in a greenhouse, he created two new hybrids: Lipstick and Halloween.[32] O'Connor once joked to a friend that his activity was "Not the sort of thing Howard Roark would do!"[33] He tended the property with great satisfaction and happiness.[34]
The August 1949 edition of House and Garden featured the San Fernando Valley ranch, along with O'Connor and Rand, calling it "a steel house with a suave finish".[35]House and Garden complimented the property's "[m]assed evergreens" which gave "depth and shade" to the house's porte-cochère, the "arresting pattern" of philodendron above the living room fireplace, and the "enrich[ing]" effect of colorful gladiolus.[36] O'Connor managed the ranch from 1944 to 1951.[37]
In 1950, O'Connor and Rand became acquainted with Nathaniel Blumenthal (later Branden) and Barbara Weidman, whom the O'Connors took to calling "the children".[38] When Branden and Weidman moved to New York City for graduate university studies, Rand, missing Branden who had become an important intellectual disciple and emotional connection, pressed O'Connor to join her in moving back to New York to be near Branden and Weidman, despite how happy the ranching life made him.[39] O'Connor made the cross-country trip with Rand to New York City in 1951.[40] According to friend Ruth Hill, Rand told O'Connor that the New York move would be temporary and they would return to the ranch (O'Connor even asked the Hills to take care of his flowers until he was back[41]) but that Rand never actually planned on doing so. They never returned to California, and eventually sold the Chatsworth property in 1962.[42]
Painting
In New York City, O'Connor obtained part-time work as a florist, making flower arrangements for hotels.[43] He also took up visual art with what archivist Jeff Britting calls "serious interest", drawing sketches and painting people, urban landscapes and floral still lifes. Some observers thought O'Connor was a talented artist, albeit unrefined and untrained.[44] He became a member of the Art Students League of New York, and Ilona Royce Smithkin mentored him.[45] His "most important artwork", according to cognitive psychologist Robert L. Campbell, was a portrait of Ayn Rand he painted in 1961.[46] When O'Connor had his own painting studio in the 1960s, Rand sometimes liked to visit his studio to watch him paint; he generally appreciated her attention, though a guest observed that "the only time I ever saw him [O'Connor] lost his temper" was on an occasion when Rand pressed with a criticism and O'Connor insisted she "leave [him] alone".[47]
In 1953, Branden and Weidman were married; O'Connor attended the wedding as Branden's best man.[48] As a wedding gift, O'Connor filled the Brandens' new studio apartment with flowers of his arrangement.[49]
During the fall of 1954, Rand and Nathaniel Branden told O'Connor and Barbara Branden that they had fallen in love with each other.[50] Rand and Branden asked that their respective spouses give the two of them time with each other for a romantic but nonsexual relationship.[51] In November, Rand and Branden invoked Rand's value theory of sexuality to insist that their spouses also give them permission to escalate the affair to a sexual relationship.[52] O'Connor assented, and he vacated the apartment twice a week for Rand and Branden, often going to a bar.[53] There is no known written record by O'Connor of his thoughts on Rand's relationship with Branden, and he only ever discussed it with Rand and the Brandens.[54] Historian Jennifer Burns concludes that of all those involved in the affair, O'Connor may have been "the hardest hit" emotionally.[55]
In 1956, while Rand was writing a novel she up to that point tentatively titled The Strike, O'Connor suggested that she rename it Atlas Shrugged, a phrase which had up to then only been the title of a chapter in the book. Rand adopted Atlas Shrugged as the novel's title.[56] She later averred, "When I couldn't think of a title for one of my novels, he did. He told the whole story in two words".[57] When a circle of Rand's associates threw a party to celebrate Atlas Shrugged's publication, O'Connor put together flower arrangements for the event.[58]
O'Connor oil paintedMan Also Rises, which Rand reported was his depiction of a sunset they saw in San Francisco.[59][60] A reproduction of Man Also Rises was used as the cover art for the 1968 twenty-fifth anniversary edition of The Fountainhead; Rand dubbed it "the proper climax of the book's history".[59][61]
O'Connor increased his time and attention spent on painting in the 1960s.[62] The Art Students League was a rare respite in his life, and he wanted to be known there as himself rather than only as Ayn Rand's husband. He eventually won a seat on the league's Board of Control.[63]
Later life
As O'Connor aged, his health declined. A surgery temporarily staved off painful contractions in his hands' tendons in the late 1960s, but the difficulty recurred in 1968, and he withdrew from the Art Students League and resigned from its Board of Control.[64] The Brandens reported often finding him drinking alcohol as Rand pulled him into her increasingly contentious social world, including by having O'Connor be present for difficult conversations between Rand and Nathaniel Branden during the waning period of their affair,[65] before she broke it off in 1968 after learning that Branden was having another affair with a different, younger woman.[66]
O'Connor continued accompanying Rand. He gave her a ring with forty rubies to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary in 1969.[67] In 1974, he was a guest, with Rand, to the swearing in of Alan Greenspan (one of Rand's former acolytes in Objectivism) to the Council of Economic Advisers.[68]
In the late 1970s, O'Connor's health worsened further. He mentally declined, fell victim to alcoholism, and eventually became homebound. Sometimes, he could not recognize people; sometimes he refused to eat and was "terribly frightened" when Rand tried to force him. He still retained his habit of standing when a woman entered the room.[69]
Campbell observes that "on the personal side, it is Frank O’Connor who still eludes every biographer" of Rand.[2] Rand said that O'Connor was her "top value", and she claimed that he was the model for her fictional protagonists and "as near to" being Fountainhead protagonist Howard Roark as "anyone I know".[72]Ayn Rand Institute archivist Jeff Britting writes that O'Connor "did share her [Rand's] deepest values and approach to life."[73]
Others who knew O'Connor aver that Rand mischaracterized O'Connor and that in reality while he was witty, kind, and chivalrous, he was emotionally restrained and very passive.[74] Literary scholar Mimi Gladstein summarizes, "there is not much public evidence to corroborate Rand's" claims about O'Connor.[75] Despite how Rand described him, Robert Sheaffer concludes that O'Connor "was a very generous and decent man" but "was no John Galt".[76] Unlike Rand, O'Connor had little interest in books or the ideas she enjoyed thinking about, and he was kind and insisted on politeness.[77] An acquaintance later reported that during their time in the San Fernando Valley, Rand actually considered divorcing him out of frustration with his lack of intellectuality and sexual drive.[78] Despite this tension between them and despite his melancholy, O'Connor consistently supported Rand and never left her.[79]
The Passion of Ayn Rand, a 1999 biopic directed by Christopher Menaul and based on the 1986 biography of the same name by Barbara Branden, depicts O'Connor as an unintellectual, gentle man whom Rand becomes frustrated with for not fulfilling her erotic ideal of an aggressive, dominant partner. Peter Fonda performs in the role of O'Connor.[80] Writing for Variety, reviewer David Kronke observed that Fonda lends "an air of Quaalude dependency" to his depiction of O'Connor through acting with a "droopy and curious turn".[81]New York Times reviewer Ron Wertheimer criticized the film as "pretty muddled" but praised Fonda's performance, writing that "only Peter Fonda, as Rand's pathetic husband, Frank O'Connor, is really worth watching" and that "Fonda can't save" the movie but does "make it more interesting".[82] For his performance as O'Connor, Fonda received the 2000 Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor in a series, miniseries, or film made for television.[83][84]
A 2016 Atlas Society article observed that although there were several people with the name Frank O'Connor who were documented in biographical Wikipedia articles, at the time O'Connor was not among them.[4] According to Campbell in a 2013 review essay, "Ayn Rand too often spoke for" O'Connor when they were alive, and since their deaths, followers of Rand's teachings have been "keen on reducing him to a cipher" for their own purposes; O'Connor is "poorly known" despite "his character" and "the support he provided to Rand".[85]
Filmography
Much of O'Connor's acting work was as a film extra, sometimes with unnamed or uncredited roles. This list may be nonexhaustive because whether or not O'Connor appeared in later films is unclear due to the emergence of another actor named Frank O'Connor.[86]
↑ Burns (2009, pp.20, 23) writes that "Frank followed the studios west, arriving in Hollywood around the same time as Rand" and that "Rand arrived in 1926".
↑ "Orphans of the Storm (1921)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The First 100 Years, 1893–1993. Archived from the original on August 26, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
↑ "As Husbands Go (1933)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The First 100 Years, 1893–1993. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 23, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2023. To see the credits, click either the "Full page view" toggle or the "Credits" tab.
Alice O'Connor, better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-born American author and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.
Objectivism is a philosophical system named and developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute".
The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an intransigent young architect who battles against conventional standards and refuses to compromise with an architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. Roark embodies what Rand believed to be the ideal man, and his struggle reflects Rand's belief that individualism is superior to collectivism.
Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Russian–American writer Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in the United Kingdom. The story takes place at an unspecified future date when mankind has entered another Dark Age. Technological advancement is now carefully planned and the concept of individuality has been eliminated. A young man known as Equality 7-2521 rebels by doing secret scientific research. When his activity is discovered, he flees into the wilderness and is followed by Liberty 5-3000, a woman he loves. Together they plan to establish a new society based on rediscovered individualism.
We the Living is the debut novel of the Russian American novelist Ayn Rand. It is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia and was Rand's first statement against communism. Rand observes in the foreword that We the Living was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. Rand finished writing the novel in 1934, but it was rejected by several publishers before being released by Macmillan Publishing in 1936. It has since sold more than three million copies.
Night of January 16th is a theatrical play by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, inspired by the death of the "Match King", Ivar Kreuger. Set in a courtroom during a murder trial, an unusual feature of the play is that members of the audience are chosen to play the jury. The court hears the case of Karen Andre, a former secretary and lover of businessman Bjorn Faulkner, of whose murder she is accused. The play does not directly portray the events leading to Faulkner's death; instead the jury must rely on character testimony to decide whether Andre is guilty. The play's ending depends on the verdict. Rand's intention was to dramatize a conflict between individualism and conformity, with the jury's verdict revealing which viewpoint they preferred.
The Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), originally Nathaniel Branden Lectures, was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for many Objectivist lectures and presentations across the United States. Many of those associated with NBI worked on the Objectivist magazines, The Objectivist Newsletter and The Objectivist.
The Objectivist movement is a movement of individuals who seek to study and advance Objectivism, the philosophy expounded by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand's novel, The Fountainhead. The group, ironically named "The Collective" due to their actual advocacy of individualism, in part consisted of Leonard Peikoff, Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Allan Blumenthal. Nathaniel Branden, a young Canadian student who had been greatly inspired by The Fountainhead, became a close confidant and encouraged Rand to expand her philosophy into a formal movement. From this informal beginning in Rand's living room, the movement expanded into a collection of think tanks, academic organizations, and periodicals.
The Randian hero is a ubiquitous figure in the fiction of 20th-century novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, most famously in the figures of The Fountainhead's Howard Roark and Atlas Shrugged's John Galt. Rand's self-declared purpose in writing fiction was to project an "ideal man"—a man who perseveres to achieve his values, and only his values.
The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism is a 1964 collection of essays by the philosopher Ayn Rand and the writer Nathaniel Branden. Most of the essays originally appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter. The book covers ethical issues from the perspective of Rand's Objectivist philosophy. Some of its themes include the identification and validation of egoism as a rational code of ethics, the destructiveness of altruism, and the nature of a proper government.
For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand is a 1961 work by the philosopher Ayn Rand. It is her first long non-fiction book. Much of the material consists of excerpts from Rand's novels, supplemented by a long title essay that focuses on the history of philosophy.
John Galt is a character in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (1957). Although he is not identified by name until the last third of the novel, he is the object of its often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" and of the quest to discover the answer. Also, in the later part it becomes clear that Galt had been present in the book's plot all along, playing several important roles though not identified by name.
Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It is her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing. She described the theme of Atlas Shrugged as "the role of man's mind in existence" and it includes elements of science fiction, mystery and romance. The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism, including reason, property rights, individualism, libertarianism and capitalism, and depicts what Rand saw as the failures of governmental coercion. Of Rand's works of fiction, it contains her most extensive statement of her philosophical system.
The Passion of Ayn Rand is a biography of Ayn Rand by writer and lecturer Barbara Branden, a former friend and business associate. Published by Doubleday in 1986, it was the first full-length biography of Rand and the basis for the 1999 film of the same name starring Helen Mirren as Rand.
Mimi Reisel Gladstein is a professor of English and Theatre Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her specialties include authors such as Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck, as well as women's studies, theatre arts and 18th-century British literature. In 2011 she was named to the El Paso Historical Hall of Honor.
Journals of Ayn Rand is a book derived from the private journals of the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Edited by David Harriman with the approval of Rand's estate, it was published in 1997, 15 years after her death. Some reviewers considered it an interesting source of information for readers with an interest in Rand, but several scholars criticized Harriman's editing as being too heavy-handed and insufficiently acknowledged in the published text.
Ayn Rand and the World She Made is a 2009 biography of Russian-American philosopher Ayn Rand by Anne C. Heller.
Who Is Ayn Rand? is a 1962 book about the philosopher Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden. It comprises four essays addressing Rand's life and writings and her philosophy of Objectivism. The book's title essay is Barbara Branden's authorized biography of Rand. The Brandens subsequently repudiated the book, deeming its approach too uncritical toward Rand.
The Ayn Rand Cult is a book by journalist Jeff Walker, published by Open Court Publishing Company in 1999. Walker discusses the history of the Objectivist movement started by novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, which he describes as a cult.
The Unconquered is a three-act play written by Russian-American author Ayn Rand as an adaptation of her 1936 novel We the Living. The story follows Kira Argounova, a young woman living in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Her lover Leo Kovalensky develops tuberculosis. To get money for his treatment, Kira has an affair with a Communist official, Andrei Taganov. After recovering from his illness, Leo becomes involved with black market food sales that Andrei is investigating. When Andrei realizes that Kira loves Leo, he helps his rival avoid prosecution, then commits suicide. Leo leaves Kira, who decides to risk her life escaping the country.
Johnson, D. Barton (Fall 2000). "Strange Bedfellows: Ayn Rand and Vladimir Nabokov". Journal of Ayn Rand Studies. 2 (1): 47–67. ISSN1526-1018. JSTOR41560131.
Kear, Lynn; Rossman, John (2016). The Complete Kay Francis Career Record: All Film, Stage, Radio and Television Appearances. McFarland. ISBN9781476602875.
Sheaffer, Robert (1999). "Rereading Rand on Gender in the Light of Paglia". In Gladstein, Mimi Reisel; Sciabarra, Chris Matthew (eds.). Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. Re-reading the Canon. Pennsylvania State University Press. pp.299–318. ISBN0-271-01831-3.
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