Eugene O'Neill was born in New York into an Irish-catholic theatrical family on October 16, 1888. During his early years his mother's addiction to morphine left profound emotional scars on the growing O'Neill.

He started at Princeton University, but left it after a year. In 1909 he married but the marriage ended two years later.

O'Neill went to sea in 1910, but later was forced by the onset of tuberculosis to spend six months in a sanatorium. After recovering he began writing plays. With his third wife he settle in France, then in Sea Island, Georgia, and finally in California. His daughter Oona married Charles Chaplin at the age of eighteen.

In 1936 O'Neill received the Nobel Prize in literature for his dramatic works. But poor health prevented him from attending the Nobel ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden. His remaining creative years were characterized by long periods of illness.

After a failed production of A Moon for the Misbegotten in 1943 he wrote no major new plays. O'Neill became gradually paralyzed. He died on November 27, 1953, in Boston.