Ryan O’Neal, 70s Hollywood icon, dies at 82

Ryan O’Neal, the Hollywood leading man best known for starring in Love Story and Paper Moon in the 1970s, has died at 82.

On Friday (December 8), O’Neal’s son Patrick confirmed the news in a series of Instagram posts, sharing that his father died “with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us”.

Patrick O’Neal described his father as “my hero”, adding, “I looked up to him and he was always bigger than life”.

Ryan and Tatum O’Neal in ‘Paper Moon’ in 1973. CREDIT: Paramount Pictures

O’Neal, who is considered one of the stars of the New Hollywood era of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, first rose to prominence on the US soap opera Peyton Place, playing the character of Rodney Harrigton between 1964 and 1969.

He soon moved into film acting, starring in the romantic drama Love Story in 1970 opposite Ali MacGraw, for which he was nominated for his only Academy Award for Best Actor.

Some of his most acclaimed work came alongside director Peter Bogdanovich, in the 1972 comedy What’s Up, Doc? and 1973 road movie Paper Moon, in which he starred with his real life daughter Tatum O’Neal, who became the youngest ever Oscar winner for the film, winning Best Supporting Actress.

Ryan O’Neal went on to star in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975), Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978).

O’Neal received a diagnosis of chronic leukaemia in 2001 and later of prostate cancer in 2012.

He had marriages to the actresses Joanna Moore and Peyton Place co-star Leigh Taylor-Young, before starting a long-term relationship with Farrah Fawcett until her death in 2009.

In addition to Tatum and Patrick, O’Neal had two more children, Griffin and Redmond.

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