The US actor Ryan O’Neal, star of films such as “Love Story”, “Paper Moon” and “Barry Lyndon”, is dead. His father died “peacefully” today, said son Patrick O’Neal on Instagram on Friday known. He was 82 years old. A cause of death is not yet known.
Ryan O’Neal spoke about having prostate cancer in 2012. He had already been diagnosed with leukemia in 2001. His long-time partner Farrah Fawcett (“Charlie’s Angels”) died of cancer in 2009. He was the father of four children. His eldest child is actress Tatum O’Neal, with whom he filmed the nostalgic tragicomedy “Paper Moon” in 1973. His youngest child from his relationship with Fawcett, son Redmond, was born in 1985.
She feels great sadness, Tatum O’Neal told the magazine People. “I loved him very much and I know he loved me too,” the actress wrote in the statement. She will miss him forever. Patrick O’Neal paid tribute to his father as a Hollywood legend and his “hero”.
O’Neal and his film partner Ali MacGraw became famous overnight in 1970 with “Love Story”. The romance moved millions of moviegoers to tears and was nominated for Oscars in seven categories, including for the two main actors.
At the height of his career, O’Neal starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the screwball comedy “Is What, Doc?” (1972), with daughter Tatum “Paper Moon” (1973) and directed by Stanley Kubrick “Barry Lyndon” (1975). The news of his death was “so sad,” Streisand wrote on Instagram about a shared photo. “He was funny and charming and he will be remembered.”