He was one of the greats of Hollywood…
American actor Ryan O’Neal (“Love Story”) has died at the age of 82.
It was the hardest thing he ever had to say, wrote O’Neal’s son Patrick (56), as TMZ reports. “My father passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side, supporting him and loving him as he loved us.” He added that his father had always been his hero.
The cause of death is not yet known. In 2001, the Hollywood actor was diagnosed with chronic leukemia and in 2012 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Together with Ali MacGraw, Ryan O’Neal thrilled millions of viewers in 1970 with the film “Love Story”. He plays an elite Harvard student, she a young working-class woman
In the 1970s, O’Neal was one of the most successful Hollywood stars with “Is What, Doc?”, “Paper Moon” and “Barry Lyndon”. He was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in 1970 for his role in “Love Story.” The American Film Institute ranks the film among the ten most romantic of all time.
In February 2021, O’Neal received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Film partner Barbra Streisand (81) mourns her colleague on “X” (formerly Twitter): “He was funny and charming – and he will be remembered,” writes the acting icon.
Ryan O’Neal in the 1978 crime film “The Driver”, in which he played a getaway car driver
In 1972, Ryan O’Neal starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the comedy “Anything, Doc?”
The actor with his daughter Tatum (then 10) in the film “Paper Moon” (1973), a tragicomic road movie. In 1986 she married tennis star John McEnroe and has three children with him
“Hollywood has completely forgotten me,” the actor told BILD this year.
But he doesn’t feel hatred for that. “I led a great life, met a lot of interesting people and also made a bit of money.”
In the summer, a BILD reporter happened to meet the 70s icon on the beach in Malibu, where O’Neal lived in a dream villa with his three dogs. He reported at the time that he was enjoying his life as a pensioner. “I spend many hours on the beach, walking, watching the dolphins.”