From Reefer to Ranger: Remembering Dave 'Tex' O' Brien

  Dave O' Brien did it all in film and television, but today he's basically remembered for one film from 1936, Reefer Madness. It's time to look at this handsome man with the bad hairpiece. Remembering this forgotten actor I may poke fun at Dave, it's nothing that he didn't do himself; he easily switched back and forth between poverty row cowboy to programmer slapstick comedy leading man, and then move over to the major studios for smaller roles in bigger films.
  As you'll see Dave is one of those under the radar acting gems that requires further examination. It's time he is remembered for more than just the reefer guy who demands his girlfriend play the piano faster in a 1930s cult classic.
  Dave O' Brien, Renaissance Man Born with the non-star-like name of David Poole Fronabarger on May 31, 1912, a truly unsung hero of many a western film is Dave O’ Brien. Dave made 243 film and television appearances of which a major portion of them were "B" westerns. 
   During his days riding the range, Dave supported cowpokes such as, Roy Rogers, Bob Steele, Buster Crabbe, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Tex Ritter. He appeared with Dorothy Page, billed as 'The Singing Cowgirl,' in two of her three films at Grand National Pictures in 1939. Just a year before that studio closed it's doors for good.
   Dave would get an occasional lead in a film or serial as he did in Columbia Pictures' Captain Midnight in 1942. That same year he began a fruitful teaming at MGM with 'shorts' producer/director Pete Smith, popular at the time for his 'Pete Smith Specialties,' one of the filler shorts series that appeared before a feature film at the local theater. 
  However, working at MGM with Smith for 10 years still didn't help his career. He was a working actor much like John Wayne was when given Stagecoach in 1939 by his mentor, director John Ford. But Smith was no John Ford and Dave remained in B features at PRC, with occasional work at Columbia Pictures.
   For fans of 'Tex' O' Brien it must have been quite a shock for them to watch him do pratfall after pratfall while continually losing his obviously fake hairpiece. Dave was totally bald, but many an obvious hairpiece covered a barren leading man's pate during the days of studio contract players. He would also become more involved with production of the MGM shorts division as the Texas Rangers series ended in 1945 after 22 films in four years.
   In 1957, still under the name David Barclay, he became involved on the production end of The Red Skelton Hour doing basically much the same as he did with Pete Smith, although for Red instead of himself, eventually becoming a head writer.
   Never becoming one of the top action stars or screwball comedy actors, both genres of which he did extremely well, Dave O' Brien/Barclay's career was never-the-less a rich and full one.
   He fought all the western bad guys, appeared in the East Side Kids series, and played Captain Midnight, as well as bringing his talents for pratfalls to MGM where he joined Pete Smith's comedy shorts in 1945 and stayed until the mid 1950s.
   If one were to pinpoint a break out move in Dave's career his association with these specialty shorts would indeed be it; which, in a way, would make Pete Smith his John Ford. After a failed TV pilot, Meet the O' Briens, Dave would continue as a screenwriter; ending on a high note as one of the production heads on the Red Skelton television production team.
   One wishes that Dave had taken time to write his memoirs, it's people like this that have the most interesting tales to share, and are willing to do so.
  Unfortunately, the role that he will probably be best remembered for is that of the manic pot head screaming and laughing wildly, through billowing white marijuana smoke, for his equally fried piano playing girlfriend to play it, "Faster! Play it faster!" in the cult classic Reefer Madness (1936).
  Ironically, our hero would die November 8, 1969 of a heart attack on his schooner, appropriately named "White Cloud." Anchoring off the coast of Santa Catalina Island right after winning a big race from Marina del Rey. His final words were, "This is the happiest day of my life." https://wordpress.com/post/silverscreencowboyz.wordpress.com/23