Photo: Everett Collection
Ryan O’Neal, one of the brightest stars of ’70s cinema thanks to his starring roles in Love Story, Barry Lyndon, and Paper Moon, has died at the age of 82, according to TMZ.
O’Neal was born into show business, growing up in Los Angeles as the son of screenwriter Charles O’Neal and the actress Patricia Ruth Olga. He got his first big break in 1960 with a guest-starring role on Dobie Gillis, one of the biggest sitcoms of its era. His rugged good looks caught the eyes of not only casting directors, but the millions of women whose eyes were glued to television screens. He quickly rose through the TV ranks from guest star appearances to series regular roles to, finally, the role that transformed him from successful working actor into a legit dreamboat: Rodney Harrington on Peyton Place.
Peyton Place was a ratings phenomenon when it premiered on ABC in 1964, and its young stars (like Mia Farrow!) were quickly cemented in the minds of millions as pinups and matinee idols. A few years later, O’Neal caught the eye of another matinee idol — Robert Evans, who traded acting for a gig running Paramount Pictures — who cast him in Love Story, a movie that made a seismic impact on American culture in the early 1970s. The chemistry between O’Neal and co-star Ali McGraw (who was married to Evans at the time) was off the charts, and O’Neal got the opportunity to prove that he was much more than just a strikingly handsome man; he was able to bring the emotion, too. The weeper made over $100 million at the box office during its lengthy box office run — adjusted for inflation, that would be nearly $850 million in 2023 dollars — and earned a slew of Oscar nominations, including a Best Actor nomination for O’Neal.
Now a legitimate box office superstar and genuine heartthrob, O’Neal spent the ’70s making a series of well-regarded films, including a handful for director Peter Bogdanovich (including What’s Up Doc with Barbra Streisand and Paper Moon, the latter of which won an Academy Award for O’Neal’s young daughter, Tatum). His decision to make Barry Lyndon for director for Stanley Kubrick proved to be a turning point in his career. Kubrick’s meticulous perfectionism resulted in O’Neal being sidelined for nearly a year while the project was filmed, and when the movie was finally released in 1975, the film was both a critical and commercial flop. (Critical perception of the film would eventually come around, but it took decades; the film was ranked 27th in the BBC’s list of the 100 greatest American films, and voted the 45th best movie of all-time in the 2022 Sight & Sound poll.)
It’s fair to say that O’Neal’s career never really recovered from that setback. Drugs, booze, and womanizing followed, as did persistent stories about him physically abusing the women in his life, including Anjelica Huston and his girlfriend of nearly 20 years, Farrah Fawcett. His bad behavior also led to his estrangement from his children, including his Academy Award winning daughter Tatum.
O’Neal was later diagnosed with both leukemia and prostrate cancer, but his cause of death at age 82 is not immediately known.
