Actor George O’Brien Dies at 86

George O’Brien, an athlete turned actor who appeared in 75 films over 40 years, has died in an Oklahoma convalescent home, it was learned today. O’Brien, who was the son of a San Francisco police chief and was the Navy’s Pacific Fleet heavyweight boxing champion in World War I, was 86 when he died at Broken Arrow, near Tulsa.

O’Brien broke into films in 1919 when a friend introduced him to Tom Mix and over the next four decades appeared in “The Iron Horse” and “Sunrise” with Janet Gaynor and more recently the Western epics “Fort Apache” and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” both with John Wayne. His final film was “Cheyenne Autumn” in 1964, directed by John Ford with whom he had a long affiliation.