Ryan O’Neal, star of ‘Love Story,’ ‘Paper Moon,’ ‘Peyton Place’ and ‘Barry Lyndon,’ passes away at 82 (Image Credit: Pinterest)
Los Angeles: Veteran Hollywood actor Ryan O’Neal, who transitioned from a TV soap opera to an Oscar-nominated role in “Love Story” and delivered a wry performance opposite his charismatic 9-year-old daughter Tatum in “Paper Moon,” passed away on Friday as confirmed by his son.
“My dad peacefully departed today, surrounded by his loving team who supported and cared for him as he did for us,” Patrick O’Neal, a Los Angeles sportscaster, shared on Instagram.
No specific cause of death was disclosed. O’Neal had been battling prostate cancer since 2012, a decade following his initial diagnosis of chronic leukemia. He was 82.
During the 1970s, O’Neal rose to become one of the leading movie stars worldwide, collaborating across various genres with esteemed directors of that time including Peter Bogdanovich in “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up, Doc?” and Stanley Kubrick in “Barry Lyndon.” O’Neal continued an active television acting career into his 70s in the 2010s, making appearances on “Bones” and “Desperate Housewives,” while his enduring relationship with Farrah Fawcett and his tumultuous family life kept him in the media spotlight.
Twice divorced, O’Neal shared a nearly 30-year romantic partnership with Fawcett. They had a son, Redmond, born in 1985. Despite parting ways in 1997, they reconciled a few years later. He stood by Fawcett’s side throughout her battle with cancer until her passing in 2009 at the age of 62.
With his first spouse, Joanna Moore, O’Neal had Griffin O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal, his co-star in the 1973 movie “Paper Moon,” for which she received an Oscar for best supporting actress. He fathered a son, Patrick, with his second wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.
O’Neal earned an Oscar nomination for best actor for his role in the 1970 tear-jerker drama “Love Story,” alongside Ali MacGraw, portraying a young couple who fall in love, marry, and later discover her terminal illness. The movie includes the famous, though often parodied, line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” O’Neal did minor roles and stunt work before landing a lead role on the prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place” (1964-69), which also launched the career of Mia Farrow.
Subsequently, O’Neal transitioned to the big screen with 1969’s “The Big Bounce,” where his then-wife, Taylor-Young, co-starred. However, it was “Love Story” that elevated him to stardom.
Following the success of “Love Story,” O’Neal was considered for numerous major leading roles in Hollywood. Paramount even lobbied for him to portray Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” before Al Pacino secured the role at the insistence of director Francis Ford Coppola.
Bogdanovich then cast him as a bumbling professor opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1972 comedic film “What’s Up, Doc?” and later in the Depression-era con artist comedy “Paper Moon.” In the latter, O’Neal portrayed an unscrupulous Bible salesman preying on widows identified from obituary notices. His real-life daughter, Tatum, portrayed a street-smart, cigarette-smoking orphan in need of his assistance — ultimately playing a role in his redemption. Despite critical acclaim for both actors, the young girl’s remarkable performance overshadowed her father’s, making her the youngest individual in history to clinch a competitive Academy Award at the age of 10 in 1974.
O’Neal’s next significant film was Kubrick’s 18th century epic “Barry Lyndon,” casting him as a destitute Irish rogue traversing Europe while impersonating an aristocrat.
He subsequently reunited with Tatum in Bogdanovich’s early Hollywood comedy “Nickelodeon” (1976). Unfortunately, the film failed to resonate, leading to no further collaborations between them. A venture to capitalize on his “Love Story” character, Oliver Barrett, with the sequel “Oliver’s Story” (1978) similarly met with disappointment.
As Tatum matured, the father-daughter relationship waned, with O’Neal learning of her marriage to tennis great John McEnroe through a belated telegram, as detailed in a 2012 book he authored about his bond with Fawcett.
O’Neal’s career further declined in the 1980s with the emerald heist drama “Green Ice” (1981) and the 1984 comedy “Irreconcilable Differences,” where he portrayed a busy husband in a discontented marriage whose 9-year-old daughter, portrayed by Drew Barrymore, seeks emancipation.
The 1980s also marked a tumultuous period in O’Neal’s personal life. His son Griffin encountered numerous brushes with the law, including a 1986 boating accident that resulted in the death of Gian-Carlo Coppola, 23, son of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola in Maryland. Griffin O’Neal was convicted for negligently and recklessly operating a boat, received a community service sentence, and subsequently served a brief incarceration as a consequence.
As his Hollywood stature waned, O’Neal began featuring in TV movies and eventually returned to series television alongside then-partner Fawcett in the 1991 sitcom “Good Sports,” although the show concluded after one season due to their acknowledged strain on their relationship.
O’Neal embraced more character roles with the 1989 film “Chances Are.” This marked the start of his second career as a character actor, portraying a husband who engages a hitman to eliminate his spouse in “Faithful” (1996) and a mysterious tycoon in the blackmail comedy “Zero Effect” (1998).
By this time, his relationship with Fawcett had concluded, although they remained close and eventually reignited their romance in the 2000s. Nonetheless, the volatile dynamics within the O’Neal family that had previously strained their relationship persisted.
In 2007, O’Neal was detained for an alleged assault and firing a weapon during an altercation with Griffin, although charges were never pursued. Their son Redmond encountered repeated arrests, incarcerations, and several years of court-mandated rehabilitation.
Son of screenwriter Charles O’Neal and actress Patricia Callaghan O’Neal, Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal was born on April 20, 1941. O’Neal spent time as a lifeguard and a novice boxer before discovering his vocation as a performer.