Jack O'Connell

Death of American director Jack O'Connell, who studied with Antonioni & Fellini

On July 20, 2019, Jack O'Connell, director of iconic indie movies that depicted America's beat and hippie generations died peacefully at his New York City apartment, with his wife Britta Lindgren by his side. He was 96. His legacy is assured by the movies GREENWICH VILLAGE STORY, REVOLUTION and THE HIPPIE REVOLUTION.

He was born on May 2, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated with an BA from Princeton University in 1947, and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Advertising and Marketing major) in 1949. He served in the U.S. Army for three years during World War II (19 months in Europe, doing signal intelligence behind the German lines).

After a ten-year career in advertising on Madison Avenue, working in all phases of print, poster, and film commercials for national and regional clients, O'Connell got his start in feature films in 1959 with Antonioni (on L'Avventura) and Fellini (on La Dolce Vita). They were a seminal influence on his subsequent filmmaking in America. Jack wrote about his experience in his Italian diary which he called "Bring in the Lions: Behind the Scenes with Fellini and Antonioni." The diary includes many wonderful photos that he took. It has yet to be published.

In July 2015, IndieCollect began an exhaustive inventory of the hundreds of film and sound elements in Jack's apartment. Once they had completed the inventory, they were able to place the most important elements at the Anthology Films Archives in New York City. This collaboration led in 2017 to Anthology's retrospective of two of the films, The Greenwich Village Story (1963) and Revolution (1968). J. Hoberman, in his New York Times article about the re-discovery of O'Connell's work, noted that after seeing Revolution, Antonioni cast one of the extras, dancer Daria Halprin, as the lead in Zabriski Point, closing the circle between mentor and protégé.

Jack is survived by his wife, Britta Lindgren, his sister-in-law Lela O'Connell, two nieces, Caroline O'Connell and Melissa Verdugo, grand-nieces Jillian and Annelise Sinton, and a grand-nephew, Justin Verdugo.

- NY Times: "Did They Wear Flowers in their Hair? See the Happy Hippies in 1967": https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/movies/did-they-wear-flowers-in-their-hair-see-the-happy-hippies-in-1967.html

- LA Times: "‘Hippie Revolution’ Updates Landmark Documentary": https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-09-05-ca-40575-story.html

- SF Chronicle: "The Haight, Yesterday and Today / Ex-hippie recalls starring role in documentary": https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/The-Haight-Yesterday-and-Today-Ex-hippie-3499581.php

Links to Jack's website and IMDb page.

Jack O'Connell website has evocative photos:

http://www.jackoconnellfilms.com/

Jack O'Connell film credits on IMDb

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0640080/

Photo; Jack (left) with Anthology archivist John Klacsmann,

taken in Jack's home the summer of 2015