The US actor Ryan O’Neal, who became world famous with the romantic drama “Love Story”, is dead. The actor, also known for his decades-long relationship with actress Farrah Fawcett, died on Friday at the age of 82, said his son Patrick O’Neal . “My father passed away peacefully today with his loving team by his side, supporting him and loving him as he would love us,” Patrick O’Neal, himself a Los Angeles sportscaster, wrote on Instagram.
The actor’s daughter, Tatum O’Neal (60), told People magazine that she felt great sadness. “I loved him very much and I know he loved me too,” the actress (“Paper Moon”) wrote in the statement.
The cause of death was not disclosed. Ryan O’Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, having been diagnosed with chronic leukemia for the first time a decade earlier.
Ryan O’Neal had his big break with “Love Story” in 1970
The father of four had three children from two marriages. 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.
The former amateur boxer had his big breakthrough in 1970 with “Love Story” and was nominated for an Oscar. Two years later he appeared alongside Barbra Streisand in the comedy “Is What, Doc?” by director Peter Bogdanovich. In 1973, he appeared in Bogdanovich’s hit film Paper Moon and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
In 1975, the Los Angeles-born actor played the lead role in the historical film “Barry Lyndon” under legendary director Stanley Kubrick. Between 2005 and 2017 he appeared in the series “Bones”. He also appeared in “Desperate Housewives”.
O’Neal has been married twice and divorced twice. At the end of the 1970s he began a relationship with fellow actress Fawcett (“Charlie’s Angels”). The liaison ended in 1997 after Fawcett reportedly caught O’Neal with another actress. The two got back together in 2001 and stayed that way until Fawcett’s death in 2009.