Jimmy O'Connor (author)

Jimmy O'Connor (May 20, 1918 - September 29, 2001) was a playwright for The Wednesday Play and Play for Today television series on the BBC.

Early life

He was born James O'Connor in Paddington, West London, England in 1918. His father, James O'Connor, was a merchant marine and fish monger from Ireland; his mother a prostitute. Growing up in the slums of West London, O'Connor became schooled in the trade of petty theft.

Doing the "honorable thing" he married Mary Agnes Davey, two years his senior, in the spring of 1936. She was Church of England, while he was Irish Catholic. Their son, James William O'Connor, was born September 19, 1936. Mary O'Connor divorced her husband in 1946 after he attempted to have their son removed from her care and raised Catholic.

With the beginning of World War II, O'Connor enlisted and served with the British Expeditionary Forces in France. He was one of the few survivors of the sinking of the ship RMS Lancastria on June 17, 1941, and shared a life raft with Cunard Line Captain Harry Grattidge. After an honorable discharge, he went back to theft and was sentenced to six months in prison in late 1941.

When O'Connor was released in 1952, his son, not eager for a reunion went to sea, eventually served a few years on The Queen Mary under Captain Harry Grattidge, the very same man with whom O'Connor survived Lancastria. Grattidge later wrote about both O'Connor and his son (under the pseudonym "Terry")

Murder Conviction

In January 1942, O'Connor was arrested for the murder of George Ambridge on April 14, 1941. In spite of questionable testimony, and poor forensic evidence (O'Connor was in the possession of a pocket watch police claimed belonged to the murdered man), he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Only two days before he was to hang, O'Connor was given a reprieve. While in Dartmoor Prison, O'Connor entered into a correspondence course through Ruskin College.

When O'Connor was released from prison in 1952, he became a reporter for the Empire News. Still trying to clear his name with a full pardon, O'Connor met and fell in love with barrister Nemone Lethbridge, who had joined his cause for complete exoneration. They were secretly married in 1959. When their marriage was made public in 1962, with the stigma of O'Connor still being out "At Her Majesty's Pleasure", Lethbridge was forced out of chambers and left unable to practice law.

In 1968, O'Connor and Lethbridge petitioned the courts for a pardon based on new information concerning the pocket watch and the confession to O'Connor by the real killer. Although the evidence against O'Connor was in grave doubt, in 1970 the courts denied O'Connor a full pardon. O'Connor and Lethbridge's first son, Ragnar O'Connor, was born in 1970. O'Connor was still bitter about the denial of his pardon and drank most his money away, causing Lethbridge to leave him in 1971 and return to London seeking a restraining order. The couple reconciled long enough to have a second son, Milo O'Connor, in 1973, but shortly thereafter they divorced.

In 1994, O'Connor was given access to a small selection of files from his 1942 trial. One memo suggested that the actual killer was the same man O'Connor claimed had confessed in 1968. Shortly after the discovery, O'Connor suffered a series of strokes and was placed in a Catholic charity nursing home by Lethbridge, just a few blocks from her home in Stoke Newington.

Career

O'Connor became a noted and successful tele-playwright with his scripts for The Wednesday Play BBC television series. Released in 1965, Tap on the Shoulder, Three Clear Sundays, and The Profile of a Gentleman drew from O'Connor's experiences in prison and the people he grew up with in the West End. He won critical acclaim for The Coming Out Party in 1967. With his earnings as an author, as well as a few well-received tele-pays by Lethbridge, the couple bought a villa on the isle of Mykonos, spending time with the likes of Aristotle and Jackie Onassis.

O'Connor continued to write for television and regained some acclaim with the 1973 Play for Today episode "On Her Majesty's Pleasure" which brought critical attention to a young actor by the name of Bob Hoskins. In 1976, O'Connor's autobiography The Eleventh Commandment became a best-seller. O'Connor continued to drink heavily, resulting in the loss of his Mykonos home, and returned to London.

On September 29, 2001, Jimmy O'Connor died after another series of strokes at the age of 83.

References

• Collier, Richard (1956). Captain of the Queens: The Autobiography of Captain Harry Grattidge, Former Commodore of the Cunard Line. Dutton.
• O'Connor, Jimmy (1976). The Eleventh Commandment. London: Penguin.
• Jimmy O'Connor. Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• Jimmy O'Connor (I). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• Jimmy O'Connor. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• Play for Today (1970-74) BBC. TV Cream. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• The Wednesday Play - Season 2. Startrader.co.uk. Engale Marketing. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• The Wednesday Play - Season 3. Startrader.co.uk. Engale Marketing. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• The Wednesday Play - Season 4. Startrader.co.uk. Engale Marketing. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..
• The Wednesday Play - Season 7. Startrader.co.uk. Engale Marketing. Retrieved on 2008-07-27..