In 1874 O'Neill joined Richard M. Hooley's company, and the following year toured San Francisco, Virginia City and Sacramento. He then headed back east to join the Union Square Company. James O'Neill can be said to have been an actor with great sex appeal, inclined to coast on his charm, and often wasteful of his talent. Inevitably, James tended to attract women and scandal. He began to acquire a somewhat rakish reputation when an actress named Louise Hawthorne was said to have killed herself over him in 1876.