Eileen O'Brien was born on the 4th of December 1945 in Liverpool. Her mum and dad were from Liverpool, but her great-grandparents were from Ireland. She has played a wide variety of roles in British television over many years with her first appearance in 'Angels' (1975). The same year she starred in Willy Russell's 'Breezeblock Park' at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, set on a Liverpool housing estate at Christmas, and also 'Funny Peculiar' (1975). When she was only in her 20s, she found she was playing older women and that seemed to continue into her later life playing characters 20 years older than she was. She was the wife of the late London born writer and actor Stephen Mallatratt with whom she had a child but they later divorced. Throughout her entertainment career as an accomplished actress, Eileen graced the silver screen many times. Her second TV appearance was in 7 episodes of 'The Crezz' (1976), telling of the lives of the residents of a rather select housing estate, the Crescent - known to these residents as "the Crezz". Other one-off appearances followed which included the role of Freda Dean in 'Boys from the Blackstuff' (1982). Eileeen says, "The Boys from the Blackstuff is of course such a favourite as it was such fun to do and is now part of television history really. I always liked working on series with the same people, because it involved going in every day and the money was good too. But I think as well my favourite were the one-off dramas, which I did a lot of when I was younger. They don't seem to make them as much anymore. They were sort of like plays and almost little films, they were great." In 1983 she appeared in several TV series with the first being 'The Nation's Health' and then 'Coronation Street', when she played Marjorie Proctor, a Bolton housewife who was having an affair with Len Fairclough when he was killed in a car accident. Then she played Mrs O'Gorman in Alan Bleadale's series 'Scully' (1984).
She began her movie career
in 1983 in the role of Gillian Lindsay in the Kate Hardie drama 'Runners' alongside James Fox, Jane Asher and Bernard Hill. The following year came the comedy 'A
Private Function' (1984) with Michael Palin. Then she appeared in 37 episodes of the Granada medical series 'The Practice' (1985-86), set in a GP's surgery in the fictional Manchester suburb of Castlehulme. This was followed by a long run in the British educational drama, 'How We Used to Live' (1985-88), tracing the lives and fortunes of fictional Yorkshire families from Victorian times, The soap, 'Eastenders' (1987-88) gave her the part of Mrs Smith for 7 episodes following which rival soap 'Brookside' (1983-1997) gave her the parts of Gladys Charlton and Pauline Hoskins. Eileen recalls that time, "Gladys Charlton in Brookside was another great part to play, again I was playing an older woman
there who had started off with arthritius, which developed into bone
cancer and eventually died. So it was quite hard and I was glad to race
away on holiday afterwards. It was probably the toughest acting
challenge I'd had. That kind of telly is good fun though." Other notable appearances were in 30 episodes of 'Merseybeat' (2001-03), 9 episodes of 'Emmerdale Farm' (1993-2013) playing 3 different characters, then 7 episodes of 'Doctors' (2004-20) saw her playing 3 different characters and then as Ester in ''Goldies's Oldies' (2021) for 20 episodes.
There were also more film appearances such as 'A Month in the Country' (1988) with Colin Firth and Kenneth Branagh, 'Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre' (1993), 'The Life and Crimes of William Palmer' (PBS, 1998-99), the Kerry Fox comedy 'Fanny and Elvis' (1999) and 'Her Married Lover' (Lifetime, 1999-2000).
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| Playing Maggie with Joe McGann in Hope Place in 2014 at the Everyman |
The many stage productions she appeared in included 'Redundant' and 'The
Knocky' (1995) at the Royal Court Upstairs, London and at the
Liverpool Playhouse, 'Sex & the Three Day Week' (2014), 'Hope Place'
(2014), 'Macbeth' (2011) and '’Tis Pity She’s a Whore' (2010). She won the
Liverpool Daily Post Award for Best Actress in 'Rag & Bone' at the
Everyman, Liverpool and the Manchester Evening News Award for Best
Actress in 'The Plough & the Stars' at the Royal Exchange,
Manchester before winning it again in 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' at
the Bolton Octagon.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/11/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-tony.html
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