O Brien was born in Oxford, Ohio, where his parents, Bill and Judy O Brien were both students at Miami University. He grew up in Brecksville and Lakewood Ohio and graduated from Lakewood High School in 1978. He married Lisa Kirkwood in 1979 and the couple moved to Los Angeles, California in 1982. His first novel, Leaving Las Vegas, is dedicated to her.

O Brien committed suicide by gunshot during the early filming of the film Leaving Las Vegas in 1994. The film was continued as a memoriam to O Brien. Since, two more of his novels have been published Stripper Lessons (Grove Press 1997) and The Assault on Tony s (Grove Press, 1996), a manuscript that had been left unfinished by O Brien at the time of his death and which was then completed by his sister, Erin O Brien. A third unpublished manuscript, titled Better, remains as part of his estate.

O Brien also authored an episode of the children s animated program Rugrats that was titled Toys in the Attic (episode 37). O'Brien left the writing credit for the work to his only known pen name, Carroll Mine. He also had a cameo in the 1970 film Scrooge.

His influences for his book Leaving Las Vegas were inspired by his true to life severe alcoholism.

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