Sylvia F. Seader (born Sylvia Freda Carroll; May 4, 1924 – May 10, 2006), known professionally as Sylvia O'Brien, was an Irish-born American actress and singer. Little is known of her personal life. She was the daughter of Cyril and Emily (née Grey) Carroll, who may have hailed from the Ascendancy that largely ceased to exist following the establishment of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

in 1922, following the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

. She died six days after her 82nd birthday. She became a United States citizen in 1965.

Career

She made her way to New York and appeared in numerous stage productions on Broadway, the last one being the musical '' Me and My Girl''. According to the Internet Broadway Database, she appeared in the following Broadway productions. *'' Me and My Girl'' (musical) as "Maria" (8/10/86 - 12/31/89) *'' Da'' (drama) as "Mother" (5/1/78 - 1/1/80) *''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...

'' (musical revival) as "Mrs. Pearce" (03/25/76 - 2/20/77) *''Dear Oscar'' (comedy) as "Comtesse" (11/16/72 - 11/19/72) *''Conduct Unbecoming'' (drama) as "Mrs. Mem Strang" (10/12/70 - 2/14/71) *''

Hadrian VII ''Hadrian the Seventh: A Romance'' (sometimes called ''Hadrian VII'') is a 1904 novel by the English novelist Frederick Rolfe, who wrote under the pseudonym "Baron Corvo". Rolfe's best-known work, this novel of extreme wish-fulfilment developed o ...

'' (drama) as "Agnes" and "Mrs. Crowe" (standby; 1/8/69 - 11/15/69) *''

The Loves of Cass McGuire ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (comedy) as "Alice" (10/6/66 - 10/22/66) *''

The Passion of Josef D. ''The Passion of Josef D'' is a play by Paddy Chayefsky based on the life of Josef Stalin. It only had a short run on Broadway in 1964 despite being directed by Chayefsky himself and featuring a cast including Luther Adler and Peter Falk. This exp ...

'' (drama) (2/11/64 - 2/22/64; ensemble)

Death

Notice of O'Brien's death was not publicly released and the only mention was a tiny paid personal obituary in the Sunday ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' (May 14, 2006), which was very poorly composed and went as follows: ''"Singer starred on Broadway in "DA" appeared in numerous other productions, Television and Films. She leaves her daughter, Charmian and husband, Producer Richard Seader."''Obituary
nytimes.com; accessed March 3, 2016.

References

External links

* *
Sylvia O'Brien Papers
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University. American musical theatre actresses American stage actresses Irish musical theatre actresses Irish stage actresses Irish emigrants to the United States Musicians from County Dublin Place of death missing People with acquired American citizenship 1924 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women {{US-theat-actor-1920s-stub