Deirdre O'Connell

Acting

Deirdre O'Connell

Born

1951-12-30 (74)

Place of birth

Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

86 titles

Deirdre O'Connell (born December 30, 1951) is an American character actress. She began her career at Stage One, an experimental theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. She made her Broadway debut in the 1986 revival of The Front Page, and was nominated for the 1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the off-Broadway production Love and Anger. She is the recipient of two Drama-Logue Awards and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her stage work in Los Angeles. O'Connell made her screen debut in Tin Men. Additional film credits include State of Grace, Straight Talk, Leaving Normal, Fearless, City of Angels, Hearts in Atlantis, Imagina…

Known for

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order: Criminal Intent poster
7.6

The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001

Person of Interest poster
8.1

John Reese, former CIA paramilitary operative, is presumed dead and teams up with reclusive billionaire Finch to prevent violent crimes in New York City by initiating their own type of justice. With the special training that Reese has had in Covert Operations and Finch's genius software inventing mind, the two are a perfect match for the job that they have to complete. With the help of surveillance equipment, they work "outside the law" and get the right criminal behind bars. 

Person of Interest

2011

The Closer poster
7.8

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

The Closer

2005

The Bear poster
8.2

Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.

The Bear

2022

Film credits

2020s · 4 titles

2010s · 13 titles

St. Vincent poster
7.1

A young boy whose parents just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic, war veteran who lives next door.

St. Vincent

2014

Being Flynn poster
6.2

Working in a Boston homeless shelter, Nick Flynn re-encounters his father, a con man and self-proclaimed poet. Sensing trouble in his own life, Nick wrestles with the notion of reaching out yet again to his dad.

Being Flynn

2012

You Don't Know Jack poster
7.0

Controversy and legal problems follow Dr. Jack Kevorkian as he advocates assisted suicide.

You Don't Know Jack

2010

The Boy Downstairs poster
6.0

A young woman is forced to reflect on her first relationship when she inadvertently moves into her ex boyfriend's apartment building.

The Boy Downstairs

2018

I Am a Seagull poster
NR

Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" is interpreted by a handful of top-shelf stage actors from New York City as they converge in an upstate lakeside retreat. Surrounded by a menagerie of paper lanterns, circus tents, ten-foot tall puppets and floating furniture, the players merge with the reckless choices of their characters.

I Am a Seagull

2019

Apartment Troubles poster
5.0

Two codependent roommates, on the verge of eviction, flee New York for the promise of sunshine in Los Angeles where their friendship is tested by a chance at fame, a fortune teller and an amorous wealthy aunt.

Apartment Troubles

2014

Detours poster
4.9

A newly single New Yorker must re-locate to Florida for her dream job. She drives south with her widowed dad, her mom's ashes in a coffee can, and a GPS with a mind of its own.

Detours

2016

Diane poster
6.1

Diane is a devoted friend and caretaker, particularly to her drug-addicted son. But as those around her begin to drift away in the last quarter of her life, she is left to reckon with past choices and long-dormant memories.

Diane

2019

In the Radiant City poster
7.0

A man must return home to rural Kentucky where he and his family, fragmented and haunted, still carry the stigma of a murder his brother committed 20 years ago.

In the Radiant City

2016

Gabriel poster
6.8

Convinced that reuniting with his old girlfriend will bring his dreams to fruition, Gabriel risks it all in a desperate and increasingly obsessive pursuit.

Gabriel

2015

Lez Bomb poster
6.7

A closeted young woman brings her girlfriend home for Thanksgiving, only to have her coming-out efforts thwarted by the unexpected arrival of her male roommate.

Lez Bomb

2018

The Holdouts poster
NR

A comedy about New Yorkers who can’t afford to live in New York anymore

The Holdouts

2017

The Quitter poster
NR

When a failed baseball player's ex-girlfriend moves back to the neighborhood with her seven-year-old daughter, he realizes he carries more regrets than how he handled his baseball career.

The Quitter

2014

2000s · 16 titles

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster
8.1

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004

What Happens in Vegas poster
6.1

During a wild vacation in Las Vegas, career woman Joy McNally and playboy Jack Fuller come to the sober realization that they have married each other after a night of drunken abandon. They are then compelled, for legal reasons, to live life as a couple for a limited period of time. At stake is a large amount of money.

What Happens in Vegas

2008

Hearts in Atlantis poster
6.8

A widowed mother and her son change when a mysterious stranger enters their lives.

Hearts in Atlantis

2001

Synecdoche, New York poster
7.5

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Synecdoche, New York

2008

Secondhand Lions poster
7.2

The comedic adventures of an introverted boy left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles, whose exotic remembrances stir the boy's spirit and re-ignite the men's lives.

Secondhand Lions

2003

Dragonfly poster
6.6

A grieving doctor is being contacted by his late wife through his patient's near death experiences.

Dragonfly

2002

A Dog Year poster
6.1

Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?

A Dog Year

2009

The Greatest poster
6.2

Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she's pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer's door. She needs their help, and although they can't quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.

The Greatest

2009

Wendy and Lucy poster
6.8

A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.

Wendy and Lucy

2008

Stephanie Daley poster
5.8

Stephanie collapses in a pool of blood while on a school skiing trip. A doctor discovers that the blood is the after-effects of giving birth. Soon afterward, the body of a newborn baby is found in a toilet, its mouth blocked with toilet paper. Despite Stephanie's insistence that her child was stillborn and that she had no idea that she was pregnant, she is arrested for the murder of the child.

Stephanie Daley

2007

Winter Passing poster
6.1

Actress Reese Holden has been offered a small fortune by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters that her father, a reclusive novelist, wrote to her mother, who has since passed away. Returning to Michigan, Reese finds that an ex-grad student and a would-be musician have moved in with her father, who cares more about his new friends than he does about his own health and well-being.

Winter Passing

2006

Imaginary Heroes poster
6.5

Matt Travis is good-looking, popular, and his school's best competitive swimmer, so everyone is shocked when he inexplicably commits suicide. As the following year unfolds, each member of his family struggles to recover from the tragedy with mixed results.

Imaginary Heroes

2004

American Loser poster
5.2

A dramatic comedy about a self-induced attention-deficit disordered, learning disabled, Tourette's syndrome suffering, balance impaired, ex-alcoholic young man from the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the gold-digging girl who inspires him to try to get it together.

American Loser

2007

Just Ask My Children poster
6.8

Based on the true story of a modern-day witch hunt, in which a couple is falsely accused and imprisoned for molesting their own children.

Just Ask My Children

2001

Relative Evil poster
5.8

Relative Evil (aka Ball in the House) - When JJ (Jonathan Tucker) returns home from rehab, he is greeted by a conniving family who are plotting to cash in on a life insurance policy before his 18th birthday

Relative Evil

2001

Socket poster
3.9

Dr. Bill Matthews is struck by lighting. While recovering at the hospital where he works, he begins an intimate relationship with Dr. Craig Murphy, who invites Bill to join a strange group of lightning survivors.

Socket

2007

1990s · 22 titles

City of Angels poster
6.8

When a guardian angel – who invisibly watches over the citizens of Los Angeles – becomes captivated by a strong-willed heart surgeon, he ponders trading in his pure, otherworldly existence for a mortal life with his beloved. The couple embarks on a tender but forbidden romance spanning heaven and Earth.

City of Angels

1998

State of Grace poster
6.9

Hell's Kitchen, New York. Terry Noonan returns home after a ten-year absence. He soon reconnects with Jackie, a childhood friend and member of the Irish mob, and rekindles his love affair with Jackie's sister Kathleen.

State of Grace

1990

Cool World poster
5.7

While incarcerated for murder, cartoonist Jack Deebs found escape by creating Cool World, a series featuring a voluptuous femme fatale named Holli Would. But the artist becomes a prisoner of his own fantasies when Holli transports Jack into Cool World with a scheme to seduce him and bring herself to life. Hard-boiled detective Frank Harris – the only other human in Cool World – cautions Jack with the law: Noids (humans) don't have sex with doodles (cartoons). However, flesh proves weaker than ink as Holli takes human form in Las Vegas, staring in a trans-universal chase that threatens the destruction of both worlds.

Cool World

1992

Smoke poster
7.2

Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.

Smoke

1995

Breast Men poster
5.3

We follow the two Texas doctors who invented the modern breast implant and its surgical procedure. However, when success and money come their way, they split up and follow different paths. One becomes the surgeon of the everyday woman while the other's career freefalls and has to settle with strippers and actresses. The film covers their history and their inventions, from the sixties until today.

Breast Men

1997

Straight Talk poster
6.1

Honest and straightforward small-town Shirlee Kenyon chucks her boyfriend and heads for Chicago. Accidentally having to host a radio problem phone-in show, it is clear she is a natural and is hired on the spot. But the station insists she call herself Doctor, and as her popularity grows a local reporter starts digging for the truth. Problem is, the more he is around her the more he fancies her.

Straight Talk

1992

Just Looking poster
5.9

It's 1955. Lenny is a 14-year old boy who is totally fascinated by sex. He is too scared to "do it," so he dedicates his summer to seeing two other people do it. Easier said than done. Caught in the act of spying, his mother and stepfather ship him off to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in "the country" -- Queens. His plan looks like a bust and his summer seems destined for boredom, until he meets a whole new group of friends -- young teens who have a "sex club."

Just Looking

1999

Fearless poster
6.9

After surviving a plane crash that kills many others, Max Klein develops a sense of invulnerability, leading to radical, compulsive actions. Can a psychologist and a fellow guilt-ridden survivor bring him down to earth?

Fearless

1993

Brain Dead poster
5.6

In a battle of man versus machine, Martin, a top neurosurgeon who's studying brain malfunctions that cause mental illness, delves deep into his own mind to save himself from a megalomaniacal corporation.

Brain Dead

1990

CrissCross poster
6.1

A 12-year-old boy comes of age in 1969 Key West against the backdrop of the Apollo moon landing, when he begins to sell cocaine so his mother can stop stripping.

CrissCross

1992

Lifeform poster
5.4

When the Viking space capsule suddenly returns to Earth from its long ago trip to Mars, it brings with it an intelligent visitor that is part "Alien" and part "ET". Encased in armor, it extends a human like form from its shell to examine its surroundings and shows an interest in humans including a soft caress of a female scientist prior to the Army killing it. This only enrages its sibling.

Lifeform

1996

Trial by Fire poster
5.5

A high-school teacher tries to help one of her troubled male students, who misinterprets her interest.

Trial by Fire

1995

Leaving Normal poster
6.0

Darly, a waitress with a past that's weighing her down, decides to drive to Alaska to try and come to terms with her unfortunate history. Along the way, she meets Marianne, an impulsive young woman leaving an abusive relationship. The two hit the road together and keep driving north, bonding over the hardships that they have endured and meeting a number of eccentric characters as they get closer to their destination.

Leaving Normal

1992

Daybreak poster
5.2

When a substantial portion of the nation's populace falls victim to a deadly plague, the tyrannical government quarantines them in camps, offering no alternative except death. But a gutsy rebel named Torch sets out to help the afflicted by leading an underground effort to spirit the victims to humane sanctuary.

Daybreak

1993

A Deadly Vision poster
5.6

A waitress who has psychic visions of murders before they happen is asked by a police detective to help find a serial killer.

A Deadly Vision

1997

Murder in a Small Town poster
6.1

A widowed theatre director moves to a small Connecticut town where he gets involved in solving the murder of a millionaire, who was the most despised man in town.

Murder in a Small Town

1999

Falling from Grace poster
5.0

Rock singer John Mellencamp makes his screen and directorial debut in this story by "Lonesome Dove" author, Larry McMurtry. The story, not too separated from Mellencamp's real life, finds him as a country music star whose meanderings and philandering has thrown his life into turmoil. Returning to his native Indiana to try to reestablish a normal life. Instead he takes up with an old lover (Lenz), ignoring his loving wife (Hemingway), and duplicating the lifestyle of his womanizing father (Akins).

Falling from Grace

1992

Kansas poster
5.5

When a single mother and high-powered Chicago ad executive returns to her home town in Kansas to care for her ailing father, she rediscovers the joys and hardships of farm life.

Kansas

1995

Our Son, the Matchmaker poster
6.8

As seen in flashback, this is the story of 43-year-old Julie a beautician who when 15 was forced by her mother to give up her baby for adoption. Her son, now 28, a minister, with his wife expecting, begins to search for his biological mother to find out his family medical history. She hears of his search and reunites.

Our Son, the Matchmaker

1996

Pastime poster
6.5

A veteran minor league pitcher in 1957 tutors a young phenomenon.

Pastime

1990

Fighting for My Daughter poster
4.7

Unable to get the police to help, a woman launches her own investigation to save her daughter from a dangerous prostitution ring.

Fighting for My Daughter

1995

Chasing the Dragon poster
6.5

Working class mother becomes addicted to heroin, and soon her life falls apart.

Chasing the Dragon

1996

1980s · 4 titles

Series credits

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit poster
8.0

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order poster
7.3

In cases ripped from the headlines, police investigate serious and often deadly crimes, weighing the evidence and questioning the suspects until someone is taken into custody. The district attorney's office then builds a case to convict the perpetrator by proving the person guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Working together, these expert teams navigate all sides of the complex criminal justice system to make New York a safer place.

Law & Order

1990

Law & Order: Criminal Intent poster
7.6

The third installment of the “Law & Order” franchise takes viewers deep into the minds of its criminals while following the intense psychological approaches the Major Case Squad uses to solve its crimes.

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

2001

Person of Interest poster
8.1

John Reese, former CIA paramilitary operative, is presumed dead and teams up with reclusive billionaire Finch to prevent violent crimes in New York City by initiating their own type of justice. With the special training that Reese has had in Covert Operations and Finch's genius software inventing mind, the two are a perfect match for the job that they have to complete. With the help of surveillance equipment, they work "outside the law" and get the right criminal behind bars. 

Person of Interest

2011

The Closer poster
7.8

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson transfers from Atlanta to LA to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Johnson's quirky personality and hard-nosed approach often rubs her colleagues the wrong way, but her reputation as one of the world's best interrogator eventually wins over even her toughest critics.

The Closer

2005

The Bear poster
8.2

Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.

The Bear

2022

Unforgettable poster
7.2

Former Syracuse, New York, police detective Carrie Wells has hyperthymesia, a rare medical condition that gives her the ability to visually remember everything. She reluctantly joins the New York City Police Department's Queens homicide unit after her former boyfriend and partner asks for help with solving a case. The move allows her to try to find out the one thing she has been unable to remember, which is what happened the day her sister was murdered.

Unforgettable

2011

Chicago Hope poster
7.2

Chicago Hope is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It ran on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charity hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago Hope

1994

The Practice poster
7.6

A provocative legal drama focused on young associates at a bare-bones Boston firm and their scrappy boss, Bobby Donnell. The show's forte is its storylines about “people who walk a moral tightrope.”

The Practice

1997

Madam Secretary poster
7.0

After years away from the CIA, Elizabeth McCord is pulled back into the political arena. The newly appointed Secretary of State is tough, fair, and smart, driving international diplomacy, wrangling office politics, and circumventing protocol as she negotiates global and domestic issues, both at the White House and at home.

Madam Secretary

2014

Marvel's Daredevil poster
8.2

Lawyer-by-day Matt Murdock uses his heightened senses from being blinded as a young boy to fight crime at night on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen as Daredevil.

Marvel's Daredevil

2015

American Playhouse poster
6.6

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

American Playhouse

1982

American Playhouse poster
6.6

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

American Playhouse

1982

The Affair poster
6.7

The emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between Noah, a New York City schoolteacher and budding novelist with a wife of twenty years and four children and Alison, a young waitress and wife from Montauk at the end of Long Island, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy.

The Affair

2014

Nurse Jackie poster
7.1

Every day is a matter of life and death in a hectic New York City hospital, but for Nurse Jackie that's the easiest part. Between chronic back pain that won't quit, and a personal life on the constant edge of collapse, it's going to take a white lie here, a bent rule there, and a handful of secret strategies to relieve the pain, and stay one step ahead of total disaster.

Nurse Jackie

2009

Stars in the House poster
NR

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic and theatres across the world closing their curtains indefinitely, SiriusXM host Seth Rudetsky and his husband, producer James Wesley have created Stars in the House, a daily live streamed series to support The Actors Fund and its services.

Stars in the House

2020

The Penguin poster
8.4

With the city in peril following the seawall's collapse, Oswald "Oz" Cobb seeks to fill the power vacuum left by the death of Carmine Falcone and finally give his mother Francis the life he's always promised. But first, Oz must confront his enemies and his own demoralizing reputation as "the Penguin."

The Penguin

2024

Outer Range poster
6.9

A rancher fighting for his land and family stumbles upon an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness, forcing a confrontation with the Unknown in ways both intimate and cosmic in the untamable American West.

Outer Range

2022

The Big Door Prize poster
6.2

A small town is forever changed when a mysterious machine appears, promising to reveal everyone's true potential. Soon residents start changing jobs, rethinking relationships, and questioning long-held beliefs—all in pursuit of a better future.

The Big Door Prize

2023

The Beast in Me poster
7.1

A famous author is pulled into a twisted mind game with her rich, powerful new neighbor — who might be a murderer.

The Beast in Me

2025

The Better Sister poster
6.9

Chloe moves in New York's most elite circles with her lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky tries to make ends meet and stay clean. When Adam is brutally murdered, the investigation sends shockwaves through the family and exposes long-buried secrets.

The Better Sister

2025

From the Earth to the Moon poster
8.1

The story of the United States' space program, from its beginnings in 1961 to the final moon mission in 1972.

From the Earth to the Moon

1998

L.A. Doctors poster
8.5

Four Los Angeles doctors run a practice in this drama that focuses as much on the problems in the American medical system as it does on the patients.

L.A. Doctors

1998

Sirens poster
7.0

Sirens focused on the work and lives of three rookie female Pittsburgh Police officers. Officer Sarah Berkezchuk is dealing with her failing marriage, Officer Lynn Stanton is a single mom, and second-generation cop Officer Molly Whelan has a bad attitude which starts to interfere with her job. Each rookie officer worked under a veteran cop, and each grows and becomes more focused as a result.

Sirens

1993

Second Noah poster
6.7

Second Noah is a television drama that was broadcast in the United States on ABC television from February 5, 1996 to June 8, 1997

Second Noah

1996