Ryan O’Neal, Oscar-nominated actor of ‘Love Story,’ dead at 82
Ryan O’Neal, the heartthrob actor who went 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,” died Friday, his son said.“My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us,” Patrick O’Neal, a Los Angeles sportscaster, posted on Instagram.Attempts to reach O’Neal representatives were not immediately successful.He did not give a cause. Ryan O’Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, a decade after he was first diagnosed with chronic leukemia.
He was 82.“My father, Ryan O’Neal, has always been my hero,” Patrick O’Neal wrote, adding, “He is a Hollywood legend. Full stop.”O’Neal was among the biggest movie stars in the world in the 1970s, who worked with many of the era’s most celebrated directors including Peter Bogdanovich on “Paper Moon” and Stanley Kubrick on “Barry Lyndon.
He often used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy or sinister backgrounds behind their clean-cut images.O’Neal maintained a steady television acting career into his 70s in the 2010s, appearing for stints on “Bones” and “Desperate Housewives,” but his longtime relationship with Farrah Fawcett and his tumultuous family life kept him in news.Twice divorced, O’Neal was romantically involved with Fawcett for nearly 30 years, and they had a son, Redmond, born in 1985. The couple split in 1997, but reunited a few years later.
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