EUGENE O'NEILL was the son of James O'Neill (1847-1920), an Irish-born actor, and took to the road with his father's company. In his twenties, he travelled in South America and South Africa and (like Mark Twain) tried a bewildering variety of occupations, including the mail order business, gold prospecting, work as a draughtsman and on tramp steamers, beach combing, and so forth. When he was twenty-seven and working as a newspaper reporter, spots on his lungs put him in a clinic for a year, which gave O'Neill thinking time, and he decided to try writing for the stage. He
… More went to Harvard to study dramatic technique, and his first experience as a playwright was in Provincetown, where his short play Bound East for Cardiff was staged. His first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon, was produced on Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize. He went on to write many major plays, including Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, The Emperor Jones, Mourning Becomes Electra, and All God's Chillun Got Wings.O'Neill married three times - his wives were Kathleen Jenkins, Agnes Boulton, and Carlotta Monterey. His children were Oona, Shane, and Eugene Jr. His daughter Oona married the English film star Charlie Chaplin, and O'Neill's grand-children include Geraldine, Michael, Josephine, Christopher, and Victoria Chaplin.
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