Ryan O’Neal, who became an instant movie star in the hit film “Love Story,” the highest-grossing movie of 1970, but who was later known as much for his personal life and health problems as for his acting in his later career, died on Friday. He was 82.
His son Patrick O’Neal confirmed the death in a post on Instagram. It did not give the cause or say where he died.
Mr. O’Neal was a familiar face on both big and small screens for a half-century. But he was never as famous as he was in the immediate aftermath of “Love Story.”
He was 29 years old and had spent a decade on television but had made only two other movies when he was chosen to star in Arthur Hiller’s sentimental romance, written by Erich Segal (who turned his screenplay into a best-selling novel). His performance as Oliver Barrett IV, a wealthy, golden-haired Harvard hockey player married to a dying woman played by Ali MacGraw, garnered him the only Academy Award nomination of his career. » | Aljean Harmetz | Friday, December 8, 2023
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How very sad! I was a student in London when Love Story premiered here in the UK. I remember driving to a cinema in Leicester Square to watch the film. It was a devastatingly beautiful film! I left the cinema star-struck! The first thing I did the following Monday morning was go to a bookshop to buy the book. I believe I have it here to this very day.
Ryan O'Neal was devastatingly handsome in the film; in fact, he was probably my very first crush! After watching that truly wonderful film, I started being unsettled about my sexual orientation. (I was not out at that time.)
Ryan o'Neal was my dream-lover. The All-American college-boy.
A wonderful era has ended. – © Mark Alexander
