Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal (April 20, 1941 – December 8, 2023) was an American actor. Born in Los Angeles, he trained as an amateur boxer before beginning a career in acting in 1960.
In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place. It was an instant hit and boosted O'Neal's career. He later found success in films, most notably in the romantic drama Love Story (1970), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama; Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972); Paper Moon (1973), which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy; Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), in which he portrayed the title character; Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (1977); and Walter Hill's The Driver (1978).
From 2006 to 2017, he had a recurring role in the Fox television series Bones as Max, the father of the show's eponymous protagonist.
Early life and education O'Neal was born in Los Angeles, on April 20, 1941, the elder son of actress Patricia ( O'Callaghan) and novelist/screenwriter Charles O'Neal. His father was of Irish and English descent, while his mother was of paternal Irish and maternal Jewish ancestry. His only sibling, younger brother, Kevin O'Neal (19452023), was also an actor as well as a screenwriter.
O'Neal attended University High School in Los Angeles, and trained there to become a Golden Gloves boxer. During the late 1950s, his father had a job writing on a television series called Citizen Soldier, and moved the family to Munich, where O'Neal attended Munich American High School.
Career 1960–1969: Television roles
In Germany, O'Neal was struggling at school, so his mother pulled some favors and got him a job as a stand-in on a show being shot in the area, Tales of the Vikings. O'Neal worked on it as an extra and stuntman and became interested in acting. O'Neal returned to the U.S. and tried to make it as an actor. He made his first television appearance guest starring on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis episode "The Hunger Strike" in 1960. He followed this with guest slots on The Untouchables, General Electric Theater, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Laramie, Two Faces West, Westinghouse Playhouse (several episodes), Bachelor Father, My Three Sons, Leave It to Beaver episode "Wally Goes Steady" in 1961, and The Virginian. He was under contract to Universal but they let it lapse. From 1962 to 1963, O'Neal was a regular on NBC's Empire, a modern-day western, where he played "Tal Garrett" in support of Richard Egan. It ran for 33 episodes. In 1963, the series was revived as Redigo, but O'Neal turned down the chance to reprise his role. When the series ended, O'Neal went back to guest-starring on shows such as Perry Mason and Wagon Train.
In 1964 he was cast as Rodney Harrington in the prime time serial drama Peyton Place. O'Neal said he got the role because "the studio was looking for a young Doug McClure". The series was a big success, making national names of its cast, including O'Neal. Several were offered movie roles, including Mia Farrow, Rosemary's Baby (1968), and Barbara Parkins, Valley of the Dolls (1967), and O'Neal was keen to do films. During the series' run O'Neal appeared in a pilot for a proposed series, European Eye (1968). He was also signed to ABC for a recording contract. O'Neal's first lead in a feature came with The Big Bounce (1969), based on an Elmore Leonard novel. In 1969, he appeared in a TV version of Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963).
1970–1980: Film stardom In 1970, O'Neal played an Olympic athlete in The Games. The film had been co-written by Erich Segal, who recommended O'Neal for the lead in the romantic drama Love Story (1970), based on Segal's novel and script. A number of actors had turned down the role including Beau Bridges and Jon Voight before it was offered to O'Neal. His fee was $25,000; he said he had an offer that paid five times as much to appear in a Jerry Lewis film, but O'Neal knew that Love Story was the better prospect and selected that instead. Paramount Pictures studio head, Robert Evans, who was married to the film's female lead, Ali MacGraw, said they tested 14 other actors but no one compared to O'Neal; he said the part was "a Cary Grant role – a handsome leading man with lots of emotion." "I hope the young people like it", O'Neal said before the film came out. "I don't want to go back to TV. I don't want to go back to those NAB conventions." Love Story turned out to be a box office phenomenon, making O'Neal a star and earning him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, although O'Neal was bitter that he was never given a percentage of the profits, unlike co-star Ali MacGraw.
In between the film's production and release, O'Neal appeared in a TV movie written by Eric Ambler, Love Hate Love (1971), which received good ratings. He also made a Western, Wild Rovers (1971) with William Holden for director Blake Edwards. Wild Rovers, badly cut by MGM, was considerably less popular than Love Story. O'Neal was going to make another film for MGM, Deadly Honeymoon (1974), from a novel by Lawrence Block. However, O'Neal pulled out. Peter Bogdanovich later said MGM head Jim Aubrey was "cruel" to O'Neal.
Director Nic Roeg wanted O'Neal to appear opposite Julie Christie in an adaptation of Out of Africa that was never made. Instead, O'Neal starred in the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972) for Bogdanovich and opposite Barbra Streisand. The film was the third-highest-grossing film of 1972 and led to his receiving an offer to star in a movie for Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon. While that film was in pre-production, O'Neal played a jewel thief in The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1972) opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Warren Oates. Then he was reunited with Bogdanovich for Paper Moon (1973) in which he starred opposite his daughter Tatum O'Neal. His performance in the film earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and he was voted by exhibitors as the second-most-popular star of 1973 in the United States, behind Clint Eastwood.
O'Neal spent over a year making Barry Lyndon (1975) for Kubrick. The resulting film, despite being nominated for seven Academy Awards, was considered a commercial disappointment and had a mixed critical reception; it won O'Neal a Harvard Lampoon Award for the Worst Actor of 1975. Reflecting in 1985, O'Neal said the film was "all right but he [Kubrick] completely changed the picture during the year he spent editing it". The film's reputation has risen in recent years but O'Neal said his career never recovered from the film's reception.
O'Neal had been originally meant to star in Bogdanovich's musical At Long Last Love but was replaced by Burt Reynolds. However he made the screwball comedy Nickelodeon (1976) with Reynolds, Bogdanovich and Tatum O'Neal, for a fee of $750,000. The film flopped at the box office. O'Neal followed this with a small role in the all-star war film A Bridge Too Far (1977), playing General James Gavin. O'Neal's performance as a hardened general was much criticised, although O'Neal was only a year older than Gavin at the time of the events in the film. "Can I help it if I photograph like I'm 16 and they gave me a helmet that was too big for my head?" he later said. "At least I did my own parachute jump." The film was the 6th most popular movie of 1977.
O'Neal initially turned down a reported $3 million to star in Oliver's Story (1978), a sequel to Love Story. Instead he appeared in the car-chase film The Driver (1978), directed by Walter Hill, who had written The Thief Who Came to Dinner. This was a box office disappointment in the U.S. but, like A Bridge Too Far, did better overseas. Hill later said he "was so pleased with Ryan in the movie and I was very disappointed that people didn't particularly give him any credit for what he did. To me, he's the best he's ever been. I cannot imagine another actor." O'Neal was meant to follow this with The Champ (1979), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, but decided to pull out after Zeffirelli refused to cast O'Neal's son Griffin opposite him. Instead he agreed to make Oliver's Story after all once the script was rewritten. However the film was a flop at the box office.
"What I have to do now, seriously, is win a few hearts as an actor," he said in 1978. "The way Cary Grant did. I know I've got a lot of winning to do. But I'm young enough. I'll get there..." Around this time, O'Neal was meant to star in The Bodyguard, from a Lawrence Kasdan script, opposite Diana Ross for director John Boorman. However the film fell over when Ross pulled out, and it would not be made until 1992, with Kevin Costner in O'Neal's old role. There was some talk he would appear in a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, Suffer or Die, but this did not happen.
O'Neal instead played a boxer in a comedy, The Main Event, reuniting him with Streisand. He received a fee of $1 million plus a percentage of the profits. The Main Event was a sizeable hit at the box office. Also in 1979, he produced a documentary, The Contender, about a boxer he managed.
A 1980 profile of O'Neal described him:
1981–1987: Career fluctuations O'Neal was looking next to act in the lead role in the film version of The Thorn Birds to be directed by Arthur Hiller, but the book ended up being adapted as a miniseries. Instead O'Neal made a British-financed thriller, Green Ice (1981), for the most money he had ever received up front. The movie had a troublesome production (the original director quit during filming) and flopped at the box office. He had a cameo in Circle of Two, a film his daughter made with Richard Burton. O'Neal said Burton told him during filming he was "five years away from winning acceptance as a serious actor". "On the other hand", O'Neal added, "my agent, Sue Mengers says I'm right on the threshold. Split the difference, that's two and a half years. One good picture, that's all I need...."
However, in the early 1980s he focused on comedies. He received $2 million for the lead in So Fine. This was followed by Partners (1982), a farce written by Francis Veber in which O'Neal played a straight cop who goes undercover as one half of a gay couple. He then played a film director loosely based on Peter Bogdanovich in Irreconcilable Differences (1984); he received no upfront fee but got a percentage of the profits. It was a minor box office success. A 1984 profile called him "the Billy Martin of Hollywood, whether it's his love affair with Farrah Fawcett ... his precocious actor daughter Tatum or fisticuffs with his son Griffin. He just can't seem to stay out of the news." O'Neal said he felt more like Rocky Marciano, "wondering why guys are always picking fights with me. If I'm in a good picture, they'll like me. If I'm not they'll hate me. Hey I'm mad too when I don't make good pictures."