Ryan O'Neal : An Underrated Actor

An Irish strawberry blond (but with a good jawline).

Is it 1978 again??? What’s with all the fucking Ryan O’Asshole threads lately!!

And he was terrific in So Fine, with Marangela Melotto, Italian Vamp.

From Vanity Fair

Although O’Neal won an Academy Award nomination for Love Story, his career also cooled off to an extent that still puzzles Hollywood insiders. “I never figured it out myself,” says Sue Mengers. “It was hard to cast Ryan—he was too beautiful—and I think a lot of men were jealous of him. Ryan was very cocky, self-confident, very masculine, and gorgeous, and he had every beautiful girl in the world going out with him. It didn’t make him popular with his male contemporaries; he never became pals with the guys who were in the center of things then.”

O’Neal’s legendary truculence was also a problem. “He’s sweet as sugar, and he’s volatile,” says Paul Mazursky, who directed him in the 1996 comedy Faithful. “He’s got some of that Irish stuff in him, and he can blow up a bit. One day he was doing a scene, and I said, ‘Bring it down a little bit,’ and Ryan said, ‘I quit! You can’t say “Bring it down” to me that loud!’ I said, ‘If you quit, I’m going to break your nose.’ He started to cry. He’s sort of a big baby at times, but he’s a good guy, and he’s very talented. He’s had a strange career, but he was a monster star.”

Ryan claims his career never recovered from Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the 19th-century novel Barry Lyndon, although he says he doesn’t understand why.

Ryan was an asshole and jerk, but most Hollywood movie stars/actors are like that and still successful.

Yes, Ryan was always a master thespian.

R6 That was a crappy movie in 1987, when Ryan was basically desperate for any movie role at the point.

I agree he was good at comedy, but I've never seen him in a dramatic role (including Barry Lyndon, The Driver, and Love Story) where I didn't think another actor could have done a lot more with it. For me he leveled off early as a limited dramatic actor, but later found his niche in comedy. I'm not a Beatty fan, but agree O'Neal is better at comedy than Redford. Eastwood is Eastwood: OK within a small range, but his comic acting is painfully every which way but loose.

Forget to add, Ryan was also very good in What's Up, Doc.

omg ryan, u will be forever rememberd for ur horrid snoozy performance in barry lyndon and ruining that movie.

U SUK

I think it's because he looks like he's... simple.

Perhaps he was better than Redford, Eastwood and Beatty, but I don't think he had that level of charisma to match. Who cares if you're a good actor and lack the ability to pick good/memorable parts?

Kids, it’s official- there’s a Ryan O’Neal troll.

Well it can't be Redmond, he's in prison. Is it Griffin or Tatum?

He should have gone back to TV. Brought it full circle and did one of those primetime soaps. I'm sure Aaron Spelling would have cast him as a lead.

Hannah thought Ryan was as good as Charles Boyer and a better fuck.

"Ryan O'Neal : An Underrated Actor"

Not really.

Yeah, he could have done something like Hart to Hart. He did a series called Miss Match with Alicia Silverstone, and then turned up in Bones for a spell.

R11 Ryan was very appealing and charismatic, I don't think that was the problem. He was not offered any good or memorable movies. Sue Mengers said it was a battle for her to find Ryan any roles.

R14 He did a sitcom "Good Sports" with Farrah Fawcett in 1991. But it was a flop and got cancelled.

Ryan had high hopes for this sitcom. Farrah and Ryan relationship went down hill after that.

R10 Ok Tatum.

His “looks” were overrated.

The golden locks flow in the credits for Good Sports. So much hair in one marriage. Had never heard of that show.

R22 Ryan and Farrah interview promoting "Good Sports"

Few are as loathed in town as he....major turd.

He was incredibly beautiful in "What's Up, Doc?" (1972).

Many things were overrated, or correctly appreciated as meh. His looks were not one of these things. He just didn't keep them past 40, IMO.

Wierdly, he was considered a TV actor, since he got his big break on Peyton Place. (night time television soap opera show) I think is "model looks" also affected how hollywood perceived him. No, he wasn't a "great actor" but what he did, he did well. His relationship with the tabloid magazines and starlets didn't help either.

r9, BABS looks cute in that movie

It looks like Ryan is circumcised.

He was extremely good looking, and he had a nice run after "Peyton Place" (where he had been a HUGE star--people always forget how big PP was in the late 60s--it was the most adored dramatic series in the country) with a few extremely popular films: Love Story, What's Up Doc?, and Paper Moon. And he was genuinely good in the latter 9he's not that good in the other two--he's overshadowed by Streisand and Kahn both in WUD and cannot rise to their level).

He's right that Barry Lyndon sunk him, but he's in denial if he doesn't understand why. he could not rise to the level of the role. Barry in the novel is a charming rogue, but he played him simply as a handsome but unlikable blob. It is immediately evident in seeing the film how beautiful it is but how the drama falls apart because of his inadequacies as an actor. And he did not help himself by doing so many bombs like Nickelodeon, The Main Event, and So Fine.

After that, he got into even worse trouble because of his fistfights with his son Griffin, and then both Griffin and Tatum revealed what a monster he was as a father. It began to be hard to separate him out from that, or even see what Farrah saw in him.

He's a truly terrible human being, and he's not a good actor. He was just extraordinarily handsome when he was young. That's all he's ever had.

He was great looking. Thank God, karma took over.

There are any number of actors whose looks outshine their talent. Ryan might be/have been a decent actor - but his looks got in the way of him being taken seriously. Charlize Theron had that same issue - and so she did Monster - so that her beauty would not be the focus. Probably did her career some good...

I was 10 when i saw What's up Doc and Ryan really really pushed my buttons, buttons i didn't know I had.

Nothing was hotter that Ryan 35 years ago, yet something about Ryan just says "tinymeat".

My Mom used to rave about Peyton Place. Any time there was a scandal in our town, Mom threw out Peyton Place. So when it came out on DVD, I bought it to see what the deal was. It was typical soap and you can tell why it was so scandalous in the 60s, but Ryan and Barbara Parkins were just electric on screen. Mia Farrow was also in it, but her character was the good girl and not very exciting.

I think that show he did with Farrah tanked because Ryan should be playing drama and not comedy. Like I said, an Aaron Spelling show from that period would have put him back on top.

R34 Not necessarily — I read that a big part of O’Neal’s popularity with the ladies was due to his “size 14 feet”.

Some interesting tidbits about Ryan O'Neal's career demise:

1974–1980: Barry Lyndon, A Bridge Too Far and The Main Event

O'Neal spent over a year making Barry Lyndon (1975) for Kubrick. The resulting film 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 says his career never recovered from the film's reception.

O'Neal had been originally meant to star in Bogdanovich's flop 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 performed poorly at the US box office but did well in Europe.

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 US 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 from Michelangelo Antonioni, Suffer or Die, but this did not eventuate.

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 about a boxer he managed, The Contender.

A 1980 profile of O'Neal described him:

“Unlike most stars of the post-Hoffman era he is very handsome, especially when moustached: he has blond curly hair and a toothpaste smile: he seems to lead an interesting life. What is on screen is, er, less interesting, but still agreeable. Maybe he would really come on if he had the apprenticeship of the stars of the 30s: for he is, to underline the point, a throwback to that era. There are no nervous tics, solemnity is at bag; his is an easy, genial presence, and thank heaven for it!

1981–1987: Decline as star

O'Neal was looking to follow it as the lead 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 says Burton told him during filming he was "five years away from winning acceptance as a serious actor. On the other hand, 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.

O'Neal said too many of the roles he had played were "off the beaten path for me". In particular he regretted doing The Thief Who Came to Dinner, A Bridge Too Far, The Driver, So Fine, Partners and Green Ice. He blamed this in part on having to pay alimony and child support. He also said agent Sue Mengers encouraged him to constantly work.

"If I could get a good director to choose me for a picture, I was okay," he said. "But they stopped calling me in the mid-70s... I made a whole bunch of pictures that didn't make any money and people lost interest in me... Directors take me reluctantly. I feel I'm lucky to be here in the first place and they know it too. I'm a glamour boy, a Hollywood product. I have a TV background and they can point to the silly movies I've made."

O'Neal tried something different playing a gambler in Fever Pitch (1985), the last movie for Richard Brooks. Even less conventional was Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987) for director Norman Mailer. Both movies flopped at the box office and received poor reviews.

1988–2003: Supporting actor and TV star

O'Neal had a support part in a Liza Minnelli TV special Sam Found Out: A Triple Play (1988), and also supported in the romantic comedy Chances Are (1989).

He returned to TV opposite his then-partner Farrah Fawcett in Small Sacrifices (1989).

He and Fawcett made a short-lived CBS series Good Sports (1991) which lasted 15 episodes.

O'Neal co starred with Katharine Hepburn in the TV movie The Man Upstairs (1992) and had a cameo in Fawcett's Man of the House (1995).

He had a good role in Faithful (1996) with Cher. It was directed by Paul Mazursky who later said of O'Neal:

He's sweet as sugar, and he's volatile. He's got some of that Irish stuff in him, and he can blow up a bit. One day he was doing a scene, and I said, 'Bring it down a little bit,' and Ryan said, 'I quit! You can't say “Bring it down” to me that loud!' I said, 'If you quit, I'm going to break your nose.' He started to cry. He's sort of a big baby at times, but he's a good guy, and he's very talented. He's had a strange career, but he was a monster star.

R30 "After that, he got into even worse trouble because of his fistfights with his son Griffin, and then both Griffin and Tatum revealed what a monster he was as a father. It began to be hard to separate him out from that, or even see what Farrah saw in him."

Not really, Tatum didn't talk about her father or the family dysfunction until late 1990s and I doubt Ryan's fistfight with his son Griffin in 1983 had a major impact on Ryan's career, his movies were already flopping one after another since the late 1976 and no one was offering him good roles since then. Ryan's bad reputation as a father hadn't totally surfaced until Tatum's book in 2004.

The Champ - 1979

"Robert Redford turned down the lead role.Ryan O'Neal signed to play the lead, but he wanted his son Griffin to play his co-star. The director refused, claiming Griffin was too old, so O'Neal pulled out of the film. The filmmakers conducted a six-month talent search with thousands of applicants to cast the role of T.J.; Ricky Schroder was chosen immediately after his audition."

The movie flopped, I wonder if it would have been better with Ryan O'Neal and his son Griffin in it?! Ryan talked about this in his book, saying he was livid when they refused to cast Griffin in the movie after their initial promise and he pulled out of the film because of it. He also described Griffin's mature reaction to the whole thing, saying Griffin was the one comforting him saying "It's okay dad" or something like that.

Nah he was a movie star, not an actor, though one can be both.

TMI, though it does show he was a blah actor whose career surely continued by him being such a fine piece of ass.

It was a BIG deal when Mia got her Sassoon cut, r35.

Dear Mia,

I am writing to you both as a friend and as an employer.

When you came into my office Friday, after cutting your hair, you expected me to be angry with you. I did not show anger, because that seemed pointless; and I didn’t really feel anger, because the potential damage was more to you than to me or to the series or to the studio. And that is what I am writing about to you.

It so happens, Mia, that we are able to accomodate the storyline to your action. But it might very well have happened that we could not. In that case, you would have injured all those who depend upon this series. That is something to consider. You have a legal contract with us and a moral contract with all those who work with you. And you have a conscience which tells you both must be kept.

But going beyond that, Mia, and in keeping with my very own feeling for you, I must ask you to consider carefully the effect upon your career should people begin to feel that your impulsiveness can impair productions. This industry, as you know, rightly requires strict disciplines. The strange thing is that you not only are usually very professional but you do have a strong inner discipline on which you can draw. If you fail to draw upon it, as you can, naturally outer disciplines will be imposed, and I would deeply regret that.

I have not lost any of my feeling or regard for you, and I hope that is of some consequence to you. As I said in the office, you are a uniquely beautiful girl-and-woman, and I am not thinking of the way you look but the way you are. I wish that you realize how gifted you have been, how fortunate you are, how fortunate you can remain.

You have in this company and at this studio several people who have deep and good feelings for and about you. You know who they are. Counsel with them, Mia, and keep faith with them.

(Signed, ‘Paul Monash’)

Did Babs get to tap that when it was young and pretty?

R46 Yes

From Sue Mengers biography book "Can I go now":

During the rush job on the script, Sue called Bogdanovich and urged him to cast Ryan O’Neal as the male lead, the befuddled geologist Howard Bannister. Bogdanovich dismissed the idea, but Sue wouldn’t relent. “Just go see Love Story, would you?” she begged. Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd finally went to see Love Story at a theater in Westwood, where they laughed all the way through it—though Bogdanovich did see some spark in O’Neal.

“Have lunch with him,” Sue urged him. “Barbra really would like it if you used him in the picture.” Bogdanovich remembered: “Barbra was having a thing with Ryan at the time. So I had lunch with Ryan, who in those days was very funny in life. He had a wise-ass kind of thing, and he was self-deprecating and charming. I liked him. I said, ‘If you do this, I’m going to make fun of you. You have to shorten your hair and we will put you in a seersucker suit and glasses. You’re really going to be square.’ He loved the idea. So I said, ‘Oh, fuck it.’ So we got Ryan.”

O’Neal had never done a comedy before and was slightly apprehensive about the challenge. “Barbra was funny,” the actor recalled. “Every other thing out of her mouth was hysterical. I had this tan—that’s what I brought to the picture!” Shortly before filming began, Ryan O’Neal met Cary Grant on a yacht party. Since Grant had starred with Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, the film that was the taking-off point for What’s Up, Doc?, O’Neal asked Grant for any advice. “Have a good tan,” Grant replied. “That way you don’t have to come in to make-up so early. You get an extra hour to sleep.”

“Barbra is great,” observed O’Neal. “But she’s a strong woman.” O’Neal, who at the time was still married to actress Leigh Taylor-Young, called Sue and complained, “‘Listen—we’re too close. There has to be breathing room.’ She said, ‘You have three more weeks to go. Stand up. Be a man. Treat her well.’ That was my responsibility, so that’s what I did.”

Wonderful

"Ryan O'Neal : An Underrated Actor"

No, not really. Ryan was and is a very limited actor, but in the right role he can be very good. He did just great in movies considering his Peyton Place background. The only reason Redford, Eastwood and Beatty's career lasted past the mid-70s is because they were involved in directing and producing. Ryan was not interested, and his career took a natural and normal course. Expecting more is just not realistic. The end.

What is up with the Ryan O'Neal cyberstalker lately?

ENOUGH!

I think the Aspie Pop Cataloguing Thread Thief got a hold of one Ryan O'Neal article and has been MANICALLY SPAMMING REDUNDANT RYAN O'NEAL THREADS ever since.

F & F PLEASE

R47 I remember as kid thinking it was weird that a nerd had such a hot body and tan, looking like a surfer. I also didn't buy that such a hot guy would be with Madeline Kahn. I was a kid tho.

R50 don't be such an asshole. There's a million threads here. Just ignore the Ryan threads. We enjoy talking and reminiscing about him. Find a porn thread and relieve your tension!!!!!

Barbra's version of You're the Top is smashing.

Ryan underrated? Nope. Pretty boy with an attitude- ok if cast just so.

Peter Bogdanovich on Ryan O'Neal:

"Ryan O’Neal was superb in Paper Moon. “Ryan has to be directed,” said Bogdanovich, “but the thing he brought to Paper Moon was the cackle. That was the best performance, I think, of his career. He really identified with the guy, because the guy was a prick, and Ryan can be a bit of a prick.”

More from Sue Mengers's book:

At other times, Sue was simply aware that the studio wanted a particular star so desperately that it was willing to pay the price. For United Artists’ A Bridge Too Far in 1977, she got Ryan O’Neal $1 million for five days’ work. The schedule stretched to seven, so the producer took an expensive watch off his wrist and handed it to O’Neal as payment for the extra two days.

“I didn’t tell Sue,” said O’Neal. “She would have wanted part of the watch.” A Bridge Too Far, top-heavy with million-dollar star salaries, seemed not to have a chance of recouping its $25 million cost, especially when greeted with weak reviews; fortunately, the box-office response in Europe was far healthier than in the United States.

O’Neal did not want to reprise his role as Oliver Barrett IV in Oliver’s Story, Paramount’s sequel to Love Story, and repeatedly turned down the script—until roughly a week before filming was set to begin in Boston and New York. The real inducement was the reported $3 million, plus a percentage of profits, that Sue negotiated for him.

This time it turned out to be Paramount’s folly: when Oliver’s Story was released in December 1978, it was greeted with poor reviews and disappointing attendance. O’Neal was the subject of widespread criticism for the size of his salary, and it was felt that he hadn’t been worth it—but Sue, ever loyal, disagreed, always falling back on the question, Why should the producers make all the money?

When Stanley Jaffe was casting his comedy about a kids’ baseball team, The Bad News Bears, he phoned O’Neal to say he wanted to cast Tatum in the starring role, even though she had never played baseball. Several years earlier, O’Neal had gotten in a scuffle with Jaffe at a Hollywood party, and Tatum had kicked the producer in the knee.

Jaffe was willing to let bygones be bygones, but O’Neal decided to have a little fun with him, and when Sue got an offer to engage Tatum for $150,000, O’Neal turned it down. Sue went back repeatedly to Jaffe, who agreed to raise Tatum’s salary, but O’Neal kept refusing until the amount was $450,000 plus ten points of the gross after breakeven. O’Neal then remarked to his daughter, “Now I think I have to buy you a glove.”

In the meantime, Michael Black read a script by Gail Parent and Andrew Smith called The Main Event, Sue knew the script was second-rate, but she thought it might turn out to be a commercial hit for Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. Sue had failed to get anywhere with The Bodyguard, and O’Neal had suffered three box-office disappointments in a row with Barry Lyndon, A Bridge Too Far, and Oliver’s Story.

The part of the prizefighter appealed to O’Neal, who was a boxing aficionado with a twice-broken nose to prove it, and when Streisand said she wouldn’t do the film unless he did, O’Neal came around.

Ryan O'Neal is many things. Underrated isn't one of them. In his day he was attractive, and looked great on film. But he's always been a limited actor.

He's rated correctly.

During the film’s preproduction phase, however, O’Neal began to get nervous. During the shooting of What’s Up, Doc?, Peter Bogdanovich had been in complete command, down to acting out scenes for the two stars. On The Main Event, Streisand seemed to have total control over director Howard Zieff, taking over the wardrobe tests and many other facets of preproduction.

“It’s all corny and silly,” remembered O’Neal, “and I’m watching it, and I don’t like it. So one night on the phone, I said to Sue, ‘Have you seen the wardrobe she wants to wear? You’ve got to talk to her, but don’t tell her I told you.’”

The Main Event was released in the summer of 1979 with the biggest opening-weekend gross of any film that year. It was a flimsy and mechanical comedy with a cheesy title song, yet it grossed over $40 million on an $8 million budget. Streisand didn’t care for the end result, but Jon Peters, who was heavily involved in its production, loved it.

For some time Sue had been looking for a vehicle for Diana Ross and Ryan O’Neal, who were having a romance. Ross had been represented by Sue for a few years, but her film career had not fulfilled the promise of Lady Sings the Blues. Ross had most recently starred in the disappointing film version of The Wiz, directed by Sidney Lumet—a project that Sue had never been terribly excited about—and needed a hit. Universal had trouble booking The Wiz into a number of theaters in the American South, and although many of the studio heads loved the idea of an interracial love story, they were reluctant to go near it.

In the late 1970s, Frank Price, chairman and CEO of Columbia, had developed a comedy called Used Cars, and felt Ryan O’Neal would be perfect for the lead. But Sue rejected the idea. Price felt that her prejudice against the project stemmed from the fact that director Robert Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale, who also collaborated on the script, were relatively new filmmakers.

“I think Sue could only be persuaded by accepted industry opinion and a ‘name’ director. I think it would have worked had Ryan done the movie, and that would have given his career a needed boost. Had it missed, Sue could have explained that Ryan did it to encourage talented young filmmakers and never expected a big hit. But I think the kind of judgment required—judging the material and the potential of a no-name director, was foreign to her.” Used Cars was eventually made with Kurt Russell in the lead, and had a middling reception in 1980.

The Main Event had restored Ryan O’Neal to box-office favor, but that proved to be only temporary. Jeffrey Lane remembered attending a party at Alana Stewart’s house around this time; O’Neal was in another room, and Sue said to those in her immediate group, “Ryan’s as cold as ice.” She had been having trouble finding a quality script for him, and in 1981 O’Neal had starred in a weak comedy, So Fine.

for Warner Bros. When the film was being readied for autumn release, the studio’s chairman of the board and co-chief executive officer, Robert Daly, received an urgent call from someone in the Warner Bros. publicity department saying that O’Neal’s agent had refused to allow his appearance on The Tonight Show to promote the movie. Daly called Sue, who reiterated that O’Neal would not take part in the program.

When Daly asked why not, Sue said, contemptuously, “Would Cary Grant go on The Tonight Show?” Daly assured her that if he had Cary Grant, he wouldn’t be calling her, and that Warner Bros. hoped to make many pictures with O’Neal and that she was making a tactical error by being so obstinate. But Sue held firm: no Tonight Show for O’Neal.

O’Neal still commanded a good salary and above-the-title billing, but So Fine went nowhere, and O’Neal clashed with Sue over his next project, Partners, a comedy in which he played a cop who goes undercover to solve a series of murders of gay men in Los Angeles. The movie featured a forced, abrasive script by Francis Veber. The picture was originally set to star James Caan, but when Paramount rejected his brother as coproducer, Caan walked out, and Sue pressed O’Neal to replace him.

“It never felt good, that picture,” said O’Neal. “But she told me to do it. She lived a high life, and she’s got to bring commissions into the agency.

Don't you just LURV the O'Neals!? I know I sure do. So happy we finally get to chat about them!

Once, in the 1980s, she was desperately looking for a project for Ryan O’Neal, and she was forced to appeal to ICM’s television department for help. A junior television agent had a script that seemed exactly what she was looking for. Lou Pitt asked if he might help the young agent with the pitch, because he knew how Sue could be if she was in one of her moods. The young agent wanted to do it himself, and when he transmitted the offer, Sue snapped, “I wouldn’t have my client do that!”—making her young colleague feel insignificant. “It was hurtful, and it was wrong, and I told her that,” said Pitt.

She pressed Sid Sheinberg at Universal on a daily basis to cast Ryan O’Neal as Bugsy Siegel in the movie about the gangster that the studio was preparing. (It was a picture that had been in development for years; Peter Bogdanovich had been set to direct it in 1976.)

“It was absurd,” recalled Sheinberg. “Bugsy was dark haired, very ‘Jewish’ looking, and Ryan O’Neal oozes Irishness.” The film was eventually made with Warren Beatty, much to Sue’s everlasting regret.

The most attractive and glamorous women in Hollywood and New York continued to pass through Sue’s living room. In the early 1980s, one of the era’s most notable pop icons became a client of Sue’s. Farrah Fawcett, the new woman in Ryan O’Neal’s life, was eager to parlay her television stardom into movie success.

Until now, her big-screen films had failed, but in 1981 she drew strong reviews for her performance in a high-quality made-for-television movie, Murder in Texas, based on the best-selling Thomas Thompson book Blood and Money.

Sue advised her in this transition to better material: in 1983, Fawcett took over the demanding leading role in the hit off-Broadway play Extremities. Praise for her performance as a would-be rape victim who turns the tables on her attacker made it far easier for her to be taken seriously as an actress.

By 1984, Fawcett had received an Emmy nomination for her performance as an abused wife in the TV-movie The Burning Bed. It was a transition not unlike the one Sue had helped Ann-Margret pull off in Carnal Knowledge—which she continued to point to as one of her proudest achievements as an agent.

Starting at 5:06, Sue Mengers wanted Ryan O'Neal to play Michael Corleone in the Godfather!!!

"So Fine" wasn't

[quote]It was a transition not unlike the one Sue had helped Ann-Margret pull off in Carnal Knowledge—which she continued to point to as one of her proudest achievements as an agent.

Sue Mengers had nothing to do with Ann-Margret. That was all Alan Carr.

From R37 "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."

He's insane.

Just who are these DLers who post ancient show biz minutia from old books?

R66

From Vanity Fair:

Her renowned parties in her agenting days were held at her previous house, a Bel Air mansion designed as a French château and formerly owned by Zsa Zsa Gabor. Those parties were all about business and networking. “My talent is casting—knowing who to ask and where to sit them,” Sue explained. Lauren Hutton met the writer-director Paul Schrader at one of the dinners and got American Gigolo. Mike Nichols met Ann-Margret at another, and he cast her in Carnal Knowledge.

R68 Like 99% of actors!

Here's a "What's Up, Doc?" movie poster for Spanish language distribution. I recall another poster for the film at Spencer's Gifts, but that one had Barbra standing behind him, he was wearing those thick eyeglasses, and his pajama bottoms were loose around his waist, exposing a good couple of inches of his red/brown pubic hair. I was a teenager at the time and I had a great time recalling the image on that poster every now and then (like every night for several weeks). Does anyone else remember this?

I think Ryan depended too much on Sue Mengers' judgement and suggestions and let her egotistical big talk get into his head, which did him more harm than good in the long run.

He was busy kissing the asses of Sue Mengers and subsequently Barbra Stresiand as if they were the only dominant powerful figures in the industry who could get him work.

Globally, she sounds like a shit agent control freak who limited many careers.

R74 Agree, She didn't allow her clients to take chances, like turning down a project because the director/writer is unknown but pressing her client to do crappy movies for the money (like Partners) R60

Also from R60 "the studio’s chairman of the board and co-chief executive officer, Robert Daly, received an urgent call from someone in the Warner Bros. publicity department saying that O’Neal’s agent had refused to allow his appearance on The Tonight Show to promote the movie. Daly called Sue, who reiterated that O’Neal would not take part in the program. When Daly asked why not, Sue said, contemptuously, “Would Cary Grant go on The Tonight Show?” Daly assured her that if he had Cary Grant, he wouldn’t be calling her, and that Warner Bros. hoped to make many pictures with O’Neal and that she was making a tactical error by being so obstinate. But Sue held firm: no Tonight Show for O’Neal."

WTF?! As if at this point of his career, Ryan had the luxury to act like this and refuse promoting his movies even if they were crap and burning more bridges with the producers who could have saved his dead career.

WHY all of these regurgitated posts from books already posted on other threads????

I think "The Main Event" was a commercial success but it didn't do much to his career.

I never had the desire to watch The Main Event because I thought it had an ugly poster. Something about it makes me uncomfortable, I can't put my finger on why!

R78 Probably Barbra's butt!

Despite his performance, Barry Lyndon is the film of his that will last forever. Already has been rehabilitated as a classic.

Barbara was a huge art deco collector. The deco graphism is dated for 1979, however, and I don't think they posed together. Also Babs disco shorts.

Ryan O'Neal on Making "Barry Lyndon"

The equally blah Marisa Berenson lucked into 3 iconic movies: Death in Venice, Cabaret and Barry Lyndon, all early in her career.

Cybill Shepherd on Ryan O'Neal:

During the hiatus I made a film called Chances .The producer was a pal of Ryan O’Neal and lobbied for him to play the family friend who’s really been in love with my character all along. Considering our history, Ryan was the last person I wanted to work with. “Casting him is a great way to ruin this movie,” I warned. But everybody else kept turning down the role, so we got him by default (Turned out I was wrong. He was terrific.)

I had avoided a love scene with him in real life, but I couldn’t stop my nervous laughter when I had to kiss him on-camera. The director, Emile Ardolino, took me aside and whispered, "Could you please stop giggling?" It’s upsetting Ryan.” Not an unreasonable request, and I stopped laughing by thinking of deaths in the family and biting my upper lip.

A tip of the cap to the publicist of Mr. O'Neal's for really earning their paycheck. I haven't thought of this abusive piece of shit for the last 30 years, and now all of a sudden -- another fucking thread about Ryan O'Neal. This is chicanery. CHICANERY!

Excuse the typos. I just took a massive drag on a strain of sativa I'm not familiar with.

if it weren't for his cock and charm, he would be bagging groceries at Gucci...…

WORST ACTOR IN HWOOOD

He should have wound up a walker in Palm Beach.

I think Tatum and Griffin are posting in this thread.

R84 "I was wrong, he was terrific". That summed up Ryan O"Neal, often mocked but capable of being really good.

Joanna was no Mother of the Year.

This thread is about Ryan O'Neal as an Actor, Not about his parenting skills and family dysfunction. There are other threads about his personal life.

Enough Bashing, you're treating him as if he was Hitler. The rest of Hollywood actors/actresses are No angels themselves, most of them are narcissists.

R92, that's true, but at least I could act!!!

Can we create a new Ryan Oneal Thread just about the bandage on his nose ?

I would like a thread to discuss his late mid-century scandinavian furniture collection.

R94 Ryan had skin cancer, He was undergoing treatment for it, that is the reason of bandage on his nose.

Can we do a thread about So Fine? Needs to be a thread about So Fine!

An underrated classic.

Wild Rovers with William Holden was a pretty good movie.

😮😮😮😮

R97 It was Not that bad, It was a good light comedy movie. Hilarious actually.

Peyton Place: Ryan O'Neal & Barbara Parkins

Ryan, mein Schatz, brachte mir die schelmischen Wege der Kobolde bei.

Online comment About Ryan's career:

Peyton Place was a very big MOVIE in addition to a book, that's why it was made into a TV show. It put Ryan O'Neal on the map, and he was excellent in it. Love Story made him a movie star and there were a few good movies after that. He was always a star in the movie magazines for domestic drama real and made-up.

O'Neal was an okay actor and especially good in light comedy. I never saw him as classically handsome, he was like a big Irish kid with a crooked nose. Ryan has tons of on screen sex appeal though. He did TV talk shows, even game shows, and was witty and fun.

Best movies: Paper Moon, What's up Doc, Barry Lyndon, Irreconcilable Differences, The Driver, Love Story...I am one of the few that liked Nickelodeon. Interesting note- in A Bridge Too Far there's a scene with O'Neal and Robert Redford. It's shot outdoors, IN CLOSE-UP, they're in the same shot for a split second.

and? what?

Tip O'Neill: An Underrated Speaker

Ryan said in Filmworker documentary that Stanley Kubrick made them repeat the beating scene 30 times.

Imagine if Kubrick bullied O'Neal like he did Shelley Duvall. Maybe he would have given a better performance.

Barry Lyndon is now considered a masterpiece.

Ryan O'Neal having 3 classics (Love Story, Paper Moon and Barry Lyndon) is Not bad for an actor.

He was really hot in his day.

[quote]Barry Lyndon is now considered a masterpiece.

Don't be ridiculous.

[quote]I never had the desire to watch The Main Event because I thought it had an ugly poster. Something about it makes me uncomfortable, I can't put my finger on why!

Blasphemous, that's a Scavullo shot!

R111 stays are always ridiculous in their stanning. That's why i chose the word iconic for Marisa Berenson's lucky break of Barry Lyndon. A movie which is "iconic" for its successful and innovative cinematography, yet is not in general a masterpiece.

Our Ryan O'Neal stan has the same dead effect and tunnel vision of our recent Madame X stan.

I love "Barry Lyndon," and Ryan in it. I think Marisa Berenson was perfect in her role as well. What can I say, works for me.

R109 Four! Don't forget "Paper Moon," the best one of all.

Oops, R116 here, I meant "What's Up Doc," a classic in its own way. I knew one was missing.

You may like whatever you like but that doesn't = "Barry Lyndon is considered a masterpiece."

His son Griffin/Griffith (I've seen it both ways here) is correct in his assessment. Patrick sucks up in desperation. Tatum sucks up in desperation, Redmond got over it a long time ago and just says 'fuck it' on the regular and has no impulse control - an inherited trait.

Ryan gambled with his career both on and off screen and lost. Any 'associations' he may have been able to make were ruined by poor impulse control. Kubrick liked him and he blew it with the daughter.

Farrah/Farah was another one with narcissistic personality disorder and they enabled each other. Their relationship was toxic and they both suffered. She allowed too much control of a career she just took for granted until it was too late. Perhaps she grew tired of the mirror....she's dead now and it doesn't matter.

No one who associated with him came out unscathed.

Thank you, Ryan O'Neal troll, for giving me these unwanted, unnecessary and all too obvious lessons. Even the pieces you posted, such as the Vanity Fair article, has him coming off as a complete asshole. I admit to reading just about all you've posted in some kind of morbid fascination I don't typically indulge. I will not mourn any of them.

"Interesting note- in A Bridge Too Far there's a scene with O'Neal and Robert Redford. It's shot outdoors, IN CLOSE-UP, they're in the same shot for a split second"

It was a poor choice and very awkward. Then I realized that tiny Redford must have demanded it - Ryan is taller and bulkier (in a good way).

r120 can recap what this referring to? Did they not get along or something?

I'm enjoying all this attention of Ryan O'Neal and his career and his family, am I the only one? Far more entertaining than the Kardashian family.

Dead affect stanning gives me the creeps. Its like when you pass a mentally ill person walking down the sidewalk, and she or he is oblivious to the reality.

R121, Robert Redford is as vain as any other movie star, though he somehow has a reputation for not being vain and self-interested. In 1975, O'Neal was as big as Redford - they were rivals - and Redford had a thing about his being on the short side. Therefore, I believe he was self conscious about being in a scene (there were two) with O'Neal. BOTH scenes were shot in close-up.

Odd that no one has mentioned that Ryan O'Neal was in the running, high on the list, to play opposite Streisand in The Way We Were. Redford was stalling because he wanted the script to focus more on his character. O'Neal in the role would have been disastrous - I'd be laughing all through the entire movie.

I hated The Way We Were and I don't know why. I think it was the NOT believable coupling of Redford and Streisand. I always thought she was so ugly. How she became a movie star is beyond comprehension. In fact, I think she's completely over rated across the board!!!! Acting, Directing, and SINGING!!!!

Because the were 40 year old actors playing Cornell students? It was particularly ridiculous with Redford.

Streisand was 30, Redford was 36.

Ah OK. Redford looked 40 with that chewed up skin of his. Handsome, though. Babs didn't look like a middle class jew from NY. She looked like Babs from Hollywood.

R128 It was funny how a supposedly awkward girl transitioned so easily into the Hollywood smart set.

With those wigs, R128? The awkwardness, R129, was supposed to be because she was "so young." Redford's hair, or should I say bleach, started to go nuts with this movie, and got worse as he got older, always too much.

Some paying DL person should spin this off into a Robert Redford or The Way We Were thread. Redford is ripe for a bitchy take down, and The Way We Were is a favorite obsession - good and bad - for many.

Interesting:

Hubbell was a deadbeat dad who they tried to make iook like he was some romantic hero. Pass!

Nickelodeon - 1976

Peter Bogdanovich reminisced about the movie in 2004:

"The previews were edgy and the studio wanted me to take most of the drama out, play it more comedy and turn it more into a What's Up Doc?, which it really wasn't. So that threw it off and it got fucked up. Again, the picture came out not at all the way I wanted. I tried to recut that one and I couldn't get back to it.There's about five minutes I'd like to put back that really makes a difference, some heavy stuff where you find out that Ryan O'Neal has an affair with Stella Stevens, it becomes very clear, and you see that John Ritter knows it, all that stuff. It was just much heavier and darker. So the picture got screwed up and that's why I took three years off and went away."

R111 I'm not being ridiculous, Barry Lyndon is now considered an underrated masterpiece.

From 2016:

"Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece Barry Lyndon returns to cinemas from 29 July, Enjoy a new take on the stunning epic drama with the film’s first new trailer in 40 years."

R117 Yes, Forget to add "What's Up Doc?", I don't know if it can be considered a "classic" though.

R119 You're welcome!

I agree with your assessment "Ryan gambled with his career both on and off screen and lost. Any 'associations' he may have been able to make were ruined by poor impulse control."

R130 Interesting read. I had no idea Redford has been a bit of a mess at times. He certainly has stayed relatively private. Whereas good old Ryan put it all out there. Team Ryan!

Ryan O'Neal would have captured the selfishness of Hubble better than the waspy and white bread Redford.

R136, that's only because Redford is not a womanizer, the tabloids require that.

Ryan would have been awful in The Way We Were because not icy enough. I can't see Streisand pretending to have unrequited love for him, or letting him treat her as badly as Redford did, especially after What's up Doc. Neither are great actors, but Redford just played him as his cool self and captured the character. Ryan is hot, Redford is cold.

So what was the reason she was attracted to him? If he was that cold and icy wouldn't have been a turn off?

He was the beautiful prize and she had a schoolgirl crush. Plus a man wrote the story ;)

Good point!

Male Shiksa. He was the golden boy WASP and Babs was the big-nosed socialist jew on an Ivy league campus.

Deadbeat dad deadbeat dad!

I think Ryan would have been great in the Way we were movie.

Laurents wrote the role with him in mind actually.

Well, we'll never know if Ryan could have stretched to play Hubbell. Who knows, maybe? He probably didn't want to play another Ivy League WASP marrying down. He was sort of cold in Barry Lyndon, when he wasn't beating the shit out of people.

I did think Redford was pretty perfect. It was always astounding to me when we learn at the end of TWWW that Hubbell apparently hasn't seen his daughter in years, and doesn't seem too worried about it. Is that really how divorces and long-distance co-parenting worked back in the day? Or just the final touch of iciness.

I remember for a while there was talk of a sequel, Bob and Babs reuniting to deal with the daughter, who had turned into an out-of-control hippy or something.

Those deleted scenes were interesting, thanks. I agree with Barbra, they would have added more clarity. The characters' motives do get a little unclear toward the end.

Well, Ryan O'Neal troll, you win. I'm going to watch Barry Lyndon AND So Fine this weekend.

R148 Hahaaaaa, I hope you will enjoy them.

I love all of you. Ryan O'Neal brought us all together! 😍

Out of the blue, I know. Who is the man with "Joanna" in R91?

Ryan didn't accompany Tats to the Oscars because he was in England filming Barry Lyndon. Oh and because he was jealous.

R152 Get over it, Tatum.

you can relieve your tension and continue Ryan's bashing in this thread

I'm thinking "Paper Moon" tonight for me.

"He probably didn't want to play another Ivy League WASP marrying down"

Puleeeze. Ryan would do anything if Streisand asked him, even then.

The deleted bed scene where Babs feeds Redford with a PLASTIC spoon during World War 2. Right. So much for anything realistic.

No one has ever called him "Griffith" O'Neal R119

r154 A bottle of red wine and Paper Moon. You'll love it!

Ryan's mom was Jewish so he's Jewish too. Ashkenazi.

Why does this thread have lines through it now???? I don't understand the workings of DL and they suck at explaining this stuff!

AND WHILE I'M AT IT--- WHAT IS W/W AND WHAT IS F/F I don't get it. and I can't find an explanation anywhere?

R159 "Why does this thread have lines through it now???"

Someone is apparently pissed off about a positive Ryan O'Neal thread.

R159, OP has been marked as a troll. Soon you'll see a read tag.

I am confused. I thought a troll was somebody who was a troublemaker or abusive to other posters. The OP just likes creating Ryan O'Neal and family centered threads that some of us really enjoy.

I, too, am enjoying the deep dive into O’Neal World. Why not? Curious about the John McEnroe/Patty Smythe marriage. I think I’ve read that at least some of Tatum’s kids don’t like her. Always thought she lucked out massively hooking up with Mac, at least from a standpoint of money and celeb status.

R164, I am so in to their dysfunctional dynasty I hope Ryan Murphy does a mini series about them, LOL.

Patty Smythe must have a few books in her spilling family secrets if she and John ever broke up.

R163 R164 R165 Thanks.

I don't know what's the problem in Ryan O'Neal threads. People are treating him as if he was some sort of murderer or criminal! It's okay to have negative threads about Ryan O'Neal to bash him But not a neutral positive one.

He was an actor first and foremost, I'm not going to judge him for his personal life. If we are going by this, there won't be any celebrities we can talk about.

Ryan O'Neal with Roman Polanski.

I wish they did a movie together. It would have been an interesting one.

There was another thread, which I can’t find, inviting suggestions for the next “Feud” TV series. Well, I’ve got it – Ryan and Tatum, of course! I think this is the colorful, expansive feud we’ve been looking for!

R167 That certainly is a lovely photo with the candlelight. I wonder if Stanley Kubrick took it, heh.

R169 It is by Pierre Boulat.

Ryan O'Neal Talking about his costars and movies - 2019

Next year will mark 50 years since “Love Story” swept the nation, drawing sobs from sold-out theaters and Oscar nominations for the lead actor and his costar MacGraw.

For O’Neal, the film’s thematic overlaps now seem prophetic: daddy issues and tragic illness.

“I don’t know what makes good movies, I don’t know,” O’Neal says now. “I did have a big crush on her so maybe there was some chemistry.”At the time, MacGraw was married to Robert Evans, then-head of Paramount, the studio that made “Love Story.” O’Neal pretends to spit over his shoulder in disgust at the mention of Evans’ name.

“It saved me that she was married,” he says. “I would’ve fallen deeper in love with her except for her taste in men.”

And what stories. He tells of strolling the Fox lot with Mia Farrow when she spotted future husband Frank Sinatra for the very first time.

“I had a crush on Mia too…she was so smart,” O’Neal says.

Working with Streisand on two movies, he says, helped teach him timing, which he considers an actor’s best tool.

There were long days on set with director Stanley Kubrick on “Barry Lyndon,” a film that was derided at the time but has gained respect over the years.

“We shot so many takes. …I don’t know what [Kubrick] was aiming at, maybe just to tire us, to see what comes out of fatigue.”

On the set of “A Bridge Too Far,” he remembers tossing a baseball with Robert Redford between takes, just two sun-lacquered California boys having a catch.

“He could really throw. He’s a stud.”

Were there roles he didn’t take?

“Rambo,” O’Neal says, and smiles at the thought. “Hard to imagine me, in the long hair, with all the guns. Sly did a terrific job, of course.”

“He could really throw. He’s a stud.”

Love how Ryan gives stick up the ass Redford a compliment. lol

R172 Some were asking in this thread about Ryan and Redford relationship during "A Bridge Too Far" filming. I think Ryan gave us an idea in R171.

I find it difficult to believe that Redford would have ever given THAT much thought about Ryan O'Neal. Regardless of talent and looks, one was a superstar and the other was... not.

R174 Ryan O'Neal was a huge superstar in the 1970s and in the same league as Redford. Ryan was even a better actor than icy Robert Redford.

Of course, Robert Redford later found his way and success in movie directing and then Sundance film festival.

If you say so

With Ryan O'Neal's bossy Behavior it's surprising to me he never got behind the scenes so he could tell other people what to do. Meanwhile in the movie Irreconcilable Differences he was quite convincing as a screenwriter and producer.

We could do a whole thread on just that one movie alone. His relationship with Peter bogdanovich who he loosely played in the movie, was it considered a betrayal to his friend?

Also he clearly hates Robert Evans but has maintained a great friendship with Ali MacGraw. I wonder if they ever run into each other.

R117 I Love that movie "Irreconcilable Differences". It deserved more attention/success than it got.

Ryan O'Neal had a string of bad luck back to back, career wise, since the mid 1970s.

It was my favorite film of his.

R174 He absolutely was Redford's equal.

I just finished watching "Paper Moon" yet again, with this thread in mind. Ryan was wonderful. I like him much better than Redford.

R180 Absolutely.

It's ridiculous how people want to minimize his stardom and take away his success as an actor back in the day because they just hate the man. And of course, after his death, all will be forgotten and it will be cool to like him and his movies again. I don't know why it's hard to celebrate people's work and give them their credit while they are still alive.

The general belief that Ryan O'Neal was a bad actor is just wrong. Not great but certainly a very good actor, also he had a charm that even in his most crappy movies, I still enjoyed and waited for his scenes. and of course, in his good movies, he was just wonderful.

Yes, R174/R176, what R175 said is absolutely accurate. You may be very young and not get that, but it's true. O'Neal was Redford's star and acting equal in 1977. More -

I find Robert Redford totally sexless. In love scenes he's either brutal or squeamish. He's smug and emotionless off screen too, as if he's afraid to let himself go.

Ryan isn't as good looking as Redford, but he was fun and easy going (in public), someone you think you'd want to hang out with or date (as I've heard women say). Ryan was sexy in a way Redford was not. I could see Robert being envious that O'Neal's was so easy with himself, and how he attracted women.

R183 This.

Redford's acting was icy and emotionless. I'm sure Redford was aware of this, that's why he took a different path later with movie directing.

Ryan was more lively, animated and funny. Though, I highly respect and love Robert Redford but Ryan was more handsome and a better actor.

For all his faults, Ryan clearly has a great sense of humor, which comes across in all his films.

R184 here, more accurately, Ryan was more "attractive" and and a better actor than Redford.

Agree R184/R185, though I don't think that's why he went into directing. Important people in the biz were falling all over themselves to compliment Redford's acting trying to get him for their films when he was a 1970s superstar, ice or not.

Redford spoofed his icy seriousness in a dreadful little bomb called The Hot Rock (1971). This was when he was a star, not a superstar (that means before The Way We Were). Redford was the humorless constipated ex-con, George Segal was the fun one. Redford had the matinee idol looks, but Segal had more sex appeal, and more appeal of any kind.

I actually tried to watch The Hot Rock for some reason a few weeks ago, out of curiosity I suppose.... I don't remember a damn thing about it! It was much more boring than I was prepared for!

R188 I watched most of Robert Redford movies but never seen or heard about this one!

I think the icy thing was to come across more manly. Since, essentially he was a "theater queer" and he knew it. Paul Newman once had a bubble personality in his early days, and turned into a grumpy old curmudgeon.

Ryan was an addict. I am not sure about Butch and Sundance.

Paul Newman was a functioning alcoholic, R191. This shouldn't be news to you.

Redford was a borderline alcoholic and pill popper early on in his career where it was a problem. Still drank a lot through his success in the 70s. This is from an authorized biography by Michael Feeney Callan.

Btw, R190, Redford's icy thing was on and off stage/screen. It wasn't a mask he deliberately put on to appear macho, then took off when it suited him.

Their addictions were new to me I had no idea because they weren't publicized heavily. And also they pretty much behaved themselves publicly as far as I know

R193 I don't think he and Newman were putting up appearances, but they chose to turn down their personalities as they aged. So, they came accross as dour and full of disdain for everyone and everything.

Maybe that's just aging.

And r191 I did not know Newman was an alcoholic, but not surprised.

Redford wasn't icy in Legal Eagles.

Ryan O'Neal Talks About Stanley Kubrick and Barry Lyndon.

Right, R196. He had to to convince the audience that women 20 and 25 years younger were interested in him. Loosening up was a requirement.

Well , it worked!

Ryan O'Neal on Irreconcilable Differences:

Irreconcilable Differences was inspired by the divorce between director Peter Bogdanovich and his first wife, producer Polly Platt, after he left her for actress Cybill Shepherd.

"I love the movie," said Ryan O'Neal. "So I did it for no salary, just points. It was made for under $6 million, so they didn't have the money to pay us. Still, I think it's some of my best work. Maybe I should work like that more often."

Drew Barrymore in Irreconcilable Differences

I read the script before it was made and it was written with a boy in the lead and Henry Thomas rumored.

Off topic, but apparently, there were rumors about Ryan's first wife Joanna Moore and Lee Majors back in the 1960s

Those are MOVIE MAGAZINES, R203, R204, therefore not reliable in the slightest.

R205 I know, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Ryan once said that he and Lee Majors were very close friends in the 1960s but they fought constantly over girls and that's what ended their friendship (long before Farrah)

Watched Barry Lyndon today and quite liked it. I'm not sure why I put it off for so long, probably due to the length. It didn't feel long at all.

R207 Glad you liked it.

Underrated film actress.

R209 Yes, She's pretty much underrated as well.

HA HAAAAA HA HA HA, um, not really, R209. I'm being very nice in how I said it.

Tatum and Ryan were both advocating for her inclusion. Along with a lot of Alana Stewart.

I love Alana Stewart!

Why?

She was married to famous men, has been around Hollywood forever, knows a million stories, and looks incredible in her early 70s!

She also could be a vocal double for Jaclyn Smith, they sound eerily alike

I actually think Ryan's very good in [italic]Barry Lyndon[/italic], which has the only moment in Kubrick's entire body of work that I find genuinely moving (the death of the little boy)-- largely due to O'Neal's work in that scene.

Kubrick is not an actor's director. He subjected them to behavior that I consider abusive. [italic]Barry Lyndon[/italic] is the most beautifully shot film ever, but it has scenes that required 30 takes, 70 takes even, with the director not communicating to his actors what he wanted from them.

R217 I agree, Stanley was very hard on the actors.

Ryan talks about Stanley in his book:

"Stanley’s directorial method was to film a scene fifty times or more. He never explained why after, say, forty-one takes the next do over was needed.

I once said to him after repeating a scene so many times I’d forgotten my name as well as my lines, “Stanley, you act my part in the scene. I’ll watch and then imitate you.” I was sincere. He thought I was trying to be funny and perceived it as insolence.

My best guess is that he wanted to fatigue the actors and see what became of their performance when they were exhausted. In spite of being one of those worn-down actors, Stanley and I shared a mutual respect.

Stanley was less extravagant as a producer. He would continually review the schedule and the budget for Barry Lyndon , the two documents that Stanley the director often ignored.

But in his role as producer, Stanley was acutely aware of costs. He’d count the rolls of toilet paper and ration them; only so many would be available per day."

R217 Yes that scene was heartbreaking, Ryan can convey a certain sort of tenderness.

Wow, this worshipfuil attitude toward "Barry Lyndon"--I don't get it AT ALL. Beautiful to look at, but DOA, and Ryan O'Neal was SO miscast--his accent came and went. But it's like the miscasting of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining." Kubrick freaks are quick to tell you: "That was the POINT!" Yeah, well...sure, Jan.

Known as the biggest scumbag in town....

He has charm and star quality in all his earlier films. I love What’s Up Doc? O Neal has great timing in that movie. I love how his beautiful looks contrast with Streisand’s strong features. They had great chemistry.

The Main Event is silly, but again, O Neal has a light touch and his performance lets the audience in on the joke. I think this was the film that introduced the aerobics craze. It featured that Gilda woman, who held classes in Hollywood. I think Jane Fonda was busted for ripping her off. It’s a fun film if you are feeling low and want a little late 70’s silliness in your life.

"I think this was the film (The Main Event) that introduced the aerobics craze"

You think a lot, don't you. The Main Event CAPITALIZED on the aerobics craze, it didn't introduce it.

I’m convinced The Main Event was made mostly so Barbra could show off her newly toned butt from the workouts she was doing at the time.

The Main Event was made because it completed Streisand's three movie deal with the First Artists, a production company she, Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier formed in 1969. Jon Peters produced, and his interests were reflected.

Streisand's butt, horrible red perm, boxing as subject matter - all because of Jon Peters. I read at the time that Ryan O'Neal was in a bad way and Streisand asked him to do the role which he accepted eagerly. The movie was simpleminded stuff, but it was Ryan's second to last hit. Five years later, Irreconcilable Differences, was the last.

[quote]First Artists, a production company she, Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier formed in 1969.

HELLLLOOOOO! Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman.

McQueen and Hoffman joined later, R226. The company was FORMED by Streisand, Poitier and Newman in 1969 as I said.

At one time he had to go into hiding as so many ex girl and boy friends wanted to take a butcher knife to him that he hid in a friends attic for 2 years.....

Underrated janitor.

interesting photo of Ryan O'Neal, Clint Eastwood and Doug McClure at a celebrity baseball game - 1967.

What's so interesting?

Doug McClure and Ryan O'Neal were red headed lookalikes - so much so that Ryan made jokes about it.

R232 Yeah, they look alike, but Ryan was more attractive.

Doug McClure on the Virginian was an early TV crush of mine. He epitomized that whole “once upon a Time in Hollywood” milieu.

Off-topic, was just reading up on McClure. He had five wives.

Didn't know that Ryan dated Goldie Hawn .

Everybody wanted him. Does a good fuck constitute a date?

Ryan O'Neal & Mia Farrow in Peyton Place

R236, that photo is from the Stars for McGovern presidential campaign even in 1972. They were two of the stars, not dating.

R239 Yeah but They appeared to be so comfortable with each other. I think it's not far fetched that they were dating/ fucking or whatever you call it, at that time.

Ryan is the touchy feely type, R240. There are many pics of him hugging and touching women like this. Goldie was recently married to Gus Trikonis when those pics were taken.

Ryan's star shirt is kind of fun.

I often wonder where celebrity clothing from old pap shots ends up.

R242 A photo of the same shirt/outfit in color.

Ryan O'Neal vs. Joe Frazier : The Mike Douglas Show, late 1960's

I Love the Driver movie.

Known as one of the most ugly mean old Casanovas in town,,,,,,,hated by most people who have gotten to know him, even his kids spit on him...

Did you mean ugly in the southern vernacular sense of 'unpleasant'? Because in his prime Ryan was anything but ugly. (Yes, he eventually got fat and old.)

R247 This poster is acting so bitter that he/she's constantly posting degrading negative posts about Ryan in the thread. Maybe that person got dumped by Ryan in his prime or something.

Barbra LOVES Ryan. Love Love Loves him.

R249 Ryan was on his best behavior with Barbra.

I actually liked and enjoyed Oliver's story more than Love story!

It's not a great film but Not as bad as people say.

You just like the shower scene, R251 ;)

R252 LOL, No

Maybe she can give Tatum a job in her mall, as a favor to Ryan.

R254 LMAO

Ryan O'Neal's acting in Barry Lyndon was Great. I don't know why he took such a bad rap for it. People said he was cold, but that's how Barry Lyndon's character was Or that's how Kubrick wanted Barry to be.

I understand why the movie wasn't a commercial success at the time. The film is long and slow for the cinema audience. However, years later, The movie is reevaluated and appreciated as a classic now.

R256 I loved it too. The scene where he collapses in tears in the arms of the Irishman he's supposed to be spying on is good as well.

R257 Yes, here's the scene

I very much enjoyed this movie and Ryan's acting in it.

[qoute]The movie is reevaluated and appreciated as a classic now.

Once again, the movie is appreciated as a classic now by Kubrick fanatics only, not the mainstream. That's it.

Well maybe not mainstream, but still, good movie. One of the things it’s appreciated for is the technical innovation developed to use authentic candlelight in the scenes.

Off topic, But anyone knows if his brother Kevin is still alive?!

I've met Kevin Years ago, he was a nice guy and obviously struggling with some health issue at the time. Didn't know he was Ryan O'Neal's brother until my friend told me.

That’s kind of a sweet picture of Ryan and Kevin. Were there any other siblings?

R262 Were there any other siblings?

No, Kevin is his only brother.

[quote]Well maybe not mainstream, but still, good movie. One of the things it’s appreciated for is the technical innovation developed to use authentic candlelight in the scenes.

So innovating all movies are lit that way now.

He wouldn't have got no where if he dint fuk good...

Just ask barbs...or diana,,,,,or farah…..

R265, that's not what the women raved about...

Ryan O'Neal actually gave a criminally understated and underrated comedic performance in the film CHANCES ARE with Robert Downey, Jr and Cybill Shepherd.

It would have been fun if he guest starred on Chuck's Cherubs.