Mark O'Brien (poet)

Mark O'Brien
Born(1949-07-31)July 31, 1949
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedJuly 4, 1999(1999-07-04) (aged 49)
Occupations

Mark O'Brien (July 31, 1949 – July 4, 1999) was an American journalist, poet, and advocate for the disabled. He has been the subject of two films: Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien, which won an Academy Award in 1997, and The Sessions in which he was portrayed by John Hawkes, a film that won the audience award in the U.S. Dramatic category at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012.

The Sessions was based on his essay, "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate",[1] which appeared in the Sun magazine in 1990. The sex surrogate was Cheryl Cohen-Greene.[2][1] They remained friends until his death.[3]

  1. ^ a b O'Brien, Mark (May 1990). "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate". The Sun Magazine, issue 174. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  2. ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (2012-01-28). "Sundance 2012: 'The Surrogate': A story of sex and the single guy with polio makes for a hot crowd-pleaser of a movie". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  3. ^ Guthmann, Edward (January 10, 2012). "Surrogate sex partner inspires story, film". SFGate.com. Retrieved 10 March 2014.