Ryan O’Neal, ‘Love Story’ and ‘Barry Lyndon’ Star, Dies at 82

One of the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s greatest stars has died. Ryan O’Neal, finest often called the star of the large ’70s hit Love Story, handed away on Friday. He was 82 years previous.

His loss of life was revealed by his son Patrick on his Instagram account.

“This is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to say,” Patrick O’Neal wrote, “My father Ryan O’Neal has always been my hero. I looked up to him and he was always bigger than life.”

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Born Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal in Los Angeles in 1941, his breakthrough got here on tv within the mid-Nineteen Sixties, when he was solid as Rodney Harrington on the nighttime cleaning soap opera Peyton (*82*). O’Neal appeared on the present from 1964 by means of 1969, starring in lots of of episodes.

After Peyton (*82*), O’Neal transitioned to motion pictures, and in a short time discovered main success in 1970’s Love Story, a tragic romance wherein he starred reverse Ali MacGraw. The movie grew to become the #1 box-office hit of the yr, and stays one of many greatest motion pictures of all time when adjusted for inflation. The movie’s most well-known line — “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” — stays part of the cultural lexicon to at the present time. O’Neal was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for the movie. (He misplaced to George C. Scott for Patton.)

A string of hits adopted as O’Neal grew to become one of many greatest stars of the “New Hollywood” period. He performed a dweeby musicologist reverse Barbra Streisand in Peter Bogdanovich’s screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc?, the most effective rom-coms of any period. Then he reteamed with Bogdanovich, and his real-life daughter Tatum O’Neal in for the black-and-white dramedy Paper Moon. (The youthful O’Neal wound up profitable an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work within the movie.) In 1975, he performed the title function in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Although not a smash in its day, the film has come to be thought of certainly one of Kubrick’s best works.

O’Neal’s most underrated film could be The Driver, Walter Hill’s terse crime flick a couple of getaway driver who will get in over his head. Although it flopped in theaters and stays pretty obscure at the moment, the film stays a cult favourite, and may be very well-liked amongst trendy administrators. It closely influenced Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver.

The late ’70s and into the early ’80s have been definitely the height for O’Neal however he labored in movie and tv for a few years. And his finest performances got here in sone of the most important hits of his period, guaranteeing he shall be remembered for a few years to come back.

“He is a Hollywood legend. Full stop,” Patrick O’Neal wrote of his father.