Ryan O’Neal has died

Link below.

Good.

Sad. I drooled over him in "Paper Moon."

No, not Rodney Harrington.

My reaction...

R5 You're terrible, Muriel.

Sad? He was a rotten, abusive father…not that sad!

Redford, Beatty, Nicholson, Hackman and Elliott Gould are the only big male actors from the 70s still alive.

Fuck you, R8!

Clint Eastwood is still around.

Pacino too

Donald Sutherland is still here.

He was a shit father but...he was handsome when younger.

He owned a bunch of property in Malibu, didn’t he? I bet Tatum and Griffin are going to drag Patrick through the courts.

I’m still here

Oh, dear! I forgot a lot of big 70s actors, including DeNiro, Pacino, Eastwood, Michael Caine and Hoffman.

Actually, most of the big actors of the 70s are still living. That goes for most of the big 70s actresses, as well. They did a lot of drugs, but they're still here.

Yet some counterparts from the previous generation died in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. Tyrone Power, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Bogart, etc. Better medical care, of course, but I suspect alcohol and cigarettes were far more dangerous than whatever the Beattys and Nicholsons dabbled in.

This will surely drive Redmond to stab again.

This is sad but I'll admit I laughed my ass off at r5

Ryan could be good on-screen, in drama or light comedy. Alternately a charmer or shitheel off-screen. In his later years, his interviews and reality shows with Farrah and Tatum made me despise him.

Bruce Dern and Robert Duvall here, just checking in.

Still here!

Who will be the Michael Jackson to his Farrah Fawcett?

[quote] I suspect alcohol and cigarettes were far more dangerous than whatever the Beattys and Nicholsons dabbled in.

I'm pretty sure the Beattys and Nicholsons dabbled in their fair share alcohol and cigarettes.

God, I hope Gene Hackman never dies. The best actor that generation produced. The rest I can take or leave mostly, though I have soft spots for Pacino and Nicholson at their best as performers and I’ve liked a number of Eastwood’s directed movies.

Richard Dreyfuss says hello.

Great line from Ryan's son, Patrick:

"Ryan never bragged, but he has bragging rights in Heaven. Especially when it comes to Farrah. Everyone had the poster, he had the real McCoy. And now they meet again."

A sad day.

Ryan O'Neal was a big goddamn deal way back when.

Loved him and Mia Farrow in "Peyton Place," one of the best TV shows ever.

RIP

Patrick is an asshole.

I’ve never forgotten this.

Susan Dey is distraught over the news. She may not be able to release a statement just yet.

R27 I mean I guess if me a favor was concerned to hell sure he can smack her around some more

If I meant that other lady who died Farrah fawcett not me a pharaoh or me a favor

Griffin O'Neal described the relationship between Ryan and Farrah as 'bombastic.'

The front page of the NYTimes has this headline:

"Ryan O’Neal, Who Became a Star With ‘Love Story,’ Dies at 82. He was a familiar face onscreen even before his breakout performance in the 1970 blockbuster. But his acting was overshadowed by personal problems."

Why do that? He had a successful acting career .....and a fucked up private life, as do many actors (as well as the people next door). So what?

Ryan O'Neal and Marisa Berenson in the movie, "Barry Lyndon:"

[quote] I'm still here -- Bruce Dern

They said "big male actors", Bruce.

Ryan O'Neal and Mia Farrow in "Peyton Place...

R37 Define "big".

Literally not you, Joel!

Many years ago, when Howard was still on terrestrial radio, he was interviewing John McEnroe. He was trying to get McEnroe to describe what it was like going over to his FIL's for dinner when Ryan and Farah were together, in Howard's then inimitable style.

So were they both drunk when they got there? Did they make it to dessert without the blow being brought out? How long after you got there did the fisticuffs first occur?

R35 I agree. That should never be in the opening paragraph.

He was so hot when he was young.

He had a hot ass but he couldn't live forever!

I loved him with that little mustache in "Paper Moon" too.

RIP

You marys need to get over the opening paragraph. That's the legacy he left behind and the only one to blame for that is him and his own actions.

[quote]Why do that? He had a successful acting career .....and a fucked up private life, as do many actors (as well as the people next door). So what?

Sometimes I get annoyed when people try to clean up a messy life with an obituary. If someone was an asshole, say it.

Good. He was an awful human being.

What was his natural hair color as a teen?

Handsome man, semi-decent actor, but pretty despicable overall.

I wonder if Tatum will spiral or feel liberated.

.[quote]That's the legacy he left behind

No, the legacy he left behind is on the screen.

[quote]That's the legacy he left behind

No, the legacy he left behind is on the screen.

In this case even TheDailyMail has more class than the NYTimes, see their front page headline:

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Ryan O'Neal dies at 82: The Paper Moon and Love Story actor who was with Farrah Fawcett for decades looked frail in a wheelchair in final images taken one month before his shock passing

"Hollywood actor Ryan O'Neal has died at the age of 82. His son Patrick shared the sad news on social media on Friday afternoon. 'So this is the toughest thing I've ever had to say but here we go,' he began. 'My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us.' O'Neal was best known for his movies in the 1970s which included Paper Moon, which he starred in with his daughter Tatum O'Neal. He also worked with some of the top female stars of the day like Barbra Streisand on What's Up, Doc, and The Main Event, and Marisa Berenson on Barry Lyndon. Ryan was nominated in 1970 for a Best Actor Oscar for his blockbuster film Love Story with Ali MacGraw."

[quote]Ryan O'Neal dies at 82: The Paper Moon and Love Story actor who was with Farrah Fawcett for decades looked frail in a wheelchair in final images taken one month before his shock passing

Do "looked frail in a wheelchair" and "shock passing" really belong in the same headline?

He appeared in a surprisingly small number of good movies.

True, R58. But Peyton Place was a phenomenon when it was originally on (so popular that at one point it aired three times a week!), Love Story was a smash, Paper Moon was a hit and Academy Award nominee (and his daughter and costar was the youngest person ever to win a competitive Oscar), What's Up, Doc was another critical and financial hit, and Barry Lyndon wasn't a hit but today is considered a classic verging on masterpiece.

If he'd done nothing else (and the pickings were slim post-1975), that's already a very distinguished body of work.

R59, what accounts for O'Neal's fall from his 70s peak? Was he known to be hard to work with? Did he just age out of leading roles? Curious to know what happened as I always thought Ryan was a very underrated actor who should have had a more interesting latter-day career instead of being a tabloid fixture.

61 posts, the verdict is in, NOT BELOVED.

I think Ryan and Farrah stumbled into messy drug addiction for years.

He was an asshole. He abused Anjelica Huston, destroyed his daughter and Farrah. Fuck him.

[quote] No, the legacy he left behind is on the screen.

Right. The general public can name one movie he was in if that. He was long forgotten as an actor. He was cemented as an abusive white trash asshole with fucked up children.

R35 wants us to forget that Michael Jackson abused children. Sorry, but some people get known for one thing more or just as well-known for the negative other. This includes Robert Blake.

Ryan spent more time being known as trash than he was known for being an actor. He displayed it all over television in interview after interview. That’s his legacy. Anjelica Huston wrote about him violently head butting her in a car out of the blue. He was jealous of his own daughter.

His son.

Trainwreck.

He could barely bring himself to say that he loved his daughter.

Crazy

He did an entire fucked up reality show called The O’Neals years ago. He has no shame in making everyone remember what a pos he was.

Ryan was cut from the same cloth as Tony Curtis, except violent: Hollywood narcissist man-baby who blamed everyone else for his troubles.

Ryan fucked Diana Ross, not many men can say that.

Fucking a famous person isn't an accomplishment and doesn't indicate anything about his worth as a human being.

I find Patrick's statement that "everybody wanted to fuck Farrah, but she belonged to my dad, and now he's got her again!" really gross. (Those weren't his exact words but that's absolutely the gist of what he wrote.)

Patrick sure likes to run on. In case anyone doesn't know, neither Farrah nor Ryan were monogamous during their relationship.

Ryan and Tony Curtis had another thing in common, extraordinary good looks as young men that enabled them to get away with anything despite being miserable assholes. It's a wonder that some beautiful people, like Tyrone Power, are actually decent and kind people.

R64 If what you say is true, it’s too bad the general public doesn’t even remember What’s Up, Doc? Or Paper Moon. Or even Love Story, for that matter.

R71 Especially not many men on DL.

Isn’t Tatum still recovering from her stroke?

[quote]Right. The general public can name one movie he was in if that. He was long forgotten as an actor.

Exactly who is this "general public" you speak of?

R78, come back when you come up with something intelligible.

Tatum has not posted on Instagram.

Has Dorothy Malone commented?

See if you can get a comment from her on your Ouija board, R81.

People magazine got an exclu$ive $tatement from Tatum

I loved Barry Lyndon. Highly recommended to all people of taste.

Ryan O’Neal was gorgeous to me. A real movie star with charisma and just an overall appeal. He is now with his beloved Farrah.

So how much do I get?

[quote]A real movie star with charisma

It's hard to describe how hugely popular he was in the early 1970s. No matter what one may think of "Love Story", it was a sensation at the time.

[quote]Right. The general public can name one movie he was in if that. He was long forgotten as an actor.

Dumbest post ever.

Do you guys think Ryan will be included in the Academy Awards' "In Memoriam" segment? I remember when Farrah died there was a big commotion that the Academy didn't include her because she was "a TV star" however Ryan was a legit movie star in his day.

Ryan O'Neal...handsome, a good actor, but damn, he was not meant to be a father. Fucked up his kids' lives big time.

Ali MacGraw...where are you? We're waiting for a statement.

You too Susan Dey.

Ryan was a very jealous man. He was insanely jealous of his own daughter's popularity as a child actress.

[quote]It's hard to describe how hugely popular he was in the early 1970s

His GOOD FILMS were popular, but his popularity as an actor was nothing like Eastwood, Redford or Burt Reynolds in the 1970s. For every "Love Story," there were several bombs like "Wild Rovers" and "The Thief Who Came to Dinner."

Where Ryan was especially popular was in movie magazine, the "rags" that lived off actors' personal lives.

A good actor, but a lousy father.

He had a great ass but it couldn’t last forever.

[quote] He had a great ass but it couldn’t last forever.

Especially with his own head up there for most of his life.

He never raped me.

Mary! Do you shit People magazine R85?

You can't sit with me!

I gave up PEOPLE magazine thirty years ago when I realized that it was useless pablum to feed the frauen in Flyover City, Illinois.

size meat verificatia?

None, R101. Haven’t you anyone else to fantasize about?

[quote] size meat verificatia?

Approximately six feet under.

[quote]Ryan O'Neal...handsome, a good actor, but damn, he was not meant to be a father.

Aren't most people just doing the best they can with parenting? Part guess work, part luck to get them to 21 without robbing a 7/11 or dancing on a stripper pole. None of us came with instruction manuals.

Has Mia Farrow made a statement? What about Streisand?

Barry Lyndon...admittedly I was only 17 or 18 when I saw it but I thought O'Neal was terrible and the movie was long and dull.

[quote] Aren't most people just doing the best they can with parenting?

No, some people are not doing their best. This is what abused children sometimes tell themselves so that they can move on with their lives. (I'm not trying to say you were an abused child, just trying to make a point.)

Think about it. You go to work and you know damn well that there are slackers who are more than happy to sit on their asses and let others pick up their slack. That same attitude does not change when it comes to parenting.

[quote] Aren't most people just doing the best they can with parenting? Part guess work, part luck to get them to 21 without robbing a 7/11 or dancing on a stripper pole. None of us came with instruction manuals.

Sure fair enough but even first time parents shouldn't need to be instructed not to give their 11 year old son cocaine or take your young prepubescent daughter to an Hollywood orgy party. One could "guess" the harmful effects of putting your child in harmful environments I don't care if it was the 70s. When three out of four kids turn out drug addicts your best wasn't good enough.

Mia and Barbra posted tributes.

Patrick wasn’t really raised by him, right? He is the only relatively stable one. The three who lived with him as children are disasters.

Love Story is quite possibly the worst schlock ever made. I can't believe it was such a phenomenon. We had the movie music for piano and it was this book with pictures and pull quotes from the movie. All in sepia toned print. So fucking weird.

^^This one!

How were Ryan O'Neal and Lee Majors friends? Did they ever work together?

Further to the question I posted above, from a 2009 Vanity Fair profile of Ryan and Farrah:

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."

Others attribute some of O'Neal’s volatility to chronic substance abuse. "This man was under the influence the whole freaking time," says Griffin O'Neal, who tells lurid tales of the drug use that went on in his father's household.

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.

They probably worked the boulevard together, back in the day.

^^ re:

[quote]r112 How were Ryan O'Neal and Lee Majors friends? Did they ever work together?

He was a prettily wrapped ball of ID who left a trail if survivors in his wake. It's incredible he lived as long as he did

“He's had a strange career, but he was a monster star."

With a monster cock.

[quote]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.

Lousy scripts, Ryan.

If God was real, someone like Ryan O'Neal would have been born sterile.

[quote]Ryan fucked Diana Ross, not many men can say that.

ENTIRE BATTALIONS can say that.

Hopefully the TCM Remembers reel will use his butt baring shower sequence from ‘Oliver’s Story’(1978).

R121 . . .

He was gorgeous.

Is Griffin the one who got punched in the face by ex boxer Daddy Ryan when he was a teen?

The big sex symbols for women in the early 70s (at least as I remember it) were Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds. Ryan O'Neal was big, too, but he seemed lighter. He wasn't the macho type and he seemed sort of boyish. Personally, I recognized he was good-looking but I thought he was a bit goofy, and better at comedy. (Reynolds was also better at comedy.)

^I guess Clint Eastwood, as well. Charlton Heston was still hanging on, too, at that time.

I’ll guess you’re not a woman, R125.

“A notorious Lothario who spent decades effortlessly seducing beautiful women into throwing themselves at his size-13 feet”. Nicely put, Vanity Fair.

He gave Farrah butt cancer. Fuck him!

[quote]ENTIRE BATTALIONS can say that.

Now, now. There is no reason to be cruel.

R127 Last time I checked, I wasn't, but I was referring to who the most popular male sex symbols were at the time. Maybe I just had a mental block about Ryan O'Neal. I was only 11 when Love Story came out. The women I knew at the time like my mom seemed to like Redford and Newman. I don't even remember my mom or aunts ever mentioning Ryan O'Neal. And it was not like today when teens and tweens seems to rule pop culture.

*seem

Farrah Fawcett had such awful taste in men. She should've went for a real sexbomb like 1970s Burt Reynolds instead of losers like Lee Majors and Ryan O'Neal who treated her badly and aged poorly. They didn't even have a quarter of the sex appeal that Burt had.

[quote]She should've went

Oh, Neal!

R134 At least he didn't write, "should of."

Ryan was a huge TV star with "Peyton Place" and stayed with the show through its run in the '60s. Then came "Love Story" in '70 and he had a handful of big hits, all in the '70s. No hit movies or TV shows from the '80s on... Unlike say, Redford, who hit it big with "Butch Cassidy" about the same time...

R134 R135 Britannica Dictionary definition of SHOULD'VE. — used as a contraction of should have. "Is should ve grammatically correct?"

"Should have is often expressed as the contraction should've, especially in speech. Should've sounds perilously like should of, however should of is not correct and should never be used."

Should've is not the problem, r137.

R133 hasn’t read Sally Field’s book. Burt was a drug addicted train wreck.

Op is a cunt for stating his boundaries in thread title.

R139 What was he addicted too? Was he abusive to women? All I remember is he and Loni Anderson had quite an acrimonious divorce back in the mid 90s

R136 Irreconcilable Differences, in the 80s (1984) was a minor hit. He was in too many flops, even in the mid-70s. He probably could have had a decent career in comedy, he was good - but he just seemed to do anything that came along whether he was suited to it or not. He blamed having to support his kids and pay alimony.

R141, the answer is YES. He even beat up first wife, the tiny Judy Carne. Among everything, the main issue was pills.

r143, please don't use the words JUDY and PILLS in the same sentence!

R142, I read that Ryan had made a fortune in real estate and didn’t need to work.

Ryan O'Neal was one of the first actors who got my young gay loins stirring. I remembering watching The Big Bounce on TV when I was a kid, and there's a scene where he's standing in front of a bed that Leigh Taylor Young is in. She tells him, "take your clothes off," and he strips down to his briefs. Then she says "everything," and he starts to take his underwear off just before the camera cuts away.

God, how I wanted that camera to linger!

R105, go back and watch it again. It's a very good movie.

[quote]The big sex symbols for women in the early 70s (at least as I remember it) were Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds. Ryan O'Neal was big, too, but he seemed lighter.

R125, women like romantic male stars. They like love over guns and car chases. It was The Way We Were that pushed Robert Redford into mega stardom, not Butch Cassidy. Ryan was a lover on Peyton Place and in Love Story. Many women like a hot star in a western or cop movie, but that audience was mostly men. Though Burt Reynolds was an action star, it was the Cosmo centerfold that made him a star. Paul Newman and Sean Connery were more 1960s stars than 70s stars. McQueen was tottering on the edge of that.

R131, your mom could have been cuckoo for Tab Hunter in the 1970s - he wasn't a star of the 70s.

R133, And then there was James Orr.

Redford, Newman, Eastwood were already move stars in the 1960s. Newman since the late 50s.

And the new crop of male movie stars were quirky looking guys like Eliot Gould and Dustin Hoffman. Ryan O'Neal was quite a contrast.

"Love Story" came about when the fashion was for the gritty aesthetic of movies like "Midnight Cowboy", "Easy Rider". It was the height of the hippy era. Woodstock and all that.

But along came "Love Story" with these two clean-cut gorgeous people in preppy fashions and audiences were so ready for it.

"Love Story" was a classic "woman's picture" made at a time when they were out of fashion.

The surprise success of Zefferelli's "Romeo & Juliet" in 1968 showed that there was still a market for a big romantic/tragic story....even their theme songs are similar.

R150, As I recall, Ryan O’Neal was a last minute casting decision for “Love Story”.

And your point is?

[quote] "Should have is often expressed as the contraction should've, especially in speech. Should've sounds perilously like should of, however should of is not correct and should never be used."

Yes, I think people know this.

[quote]Ryan fucked Diana Ross, not many men can say that.

Huh?

I hope he had a solid will, because as has already been mentioned he does have wealth in the form of a lot of real estate. And four troubled kids, by different mothers. I absolutely can see a major legal fight brewing if things aren't clear.

R154, Enrique Iglesias told Howard Stern that he nearly bumped into Diana Ross in his father Julio’s kitchen early one morning.

Did Diana touch Enrique in the morning?

R151 . . .

“He had played the town rich boy, Rodney Harrington, for five years on the prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place.” But in 1970 Hollywood was not that interested in television actors, and he had been far from the first choice to star in “Love Story.”

“Jon Voight turned the part down. Beau Bridges was supposed to do it,” he told a reporter in 1971. “When my name came up through Ali, they all said ‘No.’ Ali said, ‘Please meet him.’”

“So we met in one of those conference rooms where everybody sits half a mile away from everybody else,” he continued. “Weeks later, they asked me to test. Then I didn’t hear anything until they finally called and said, ‘Will you give us an extension of a week to make up our minds?’”

In the end, Ms. MacGraw persuaded Paramount to cast Mr. O’Neal. He was hired for $25,000 (about $200,000 in today’s currency), and his movie career was ignited.“

I went to see Marlene Dietrich (Denver '72) with my friend Mark. He noticed Peter Bogdanovich and Ryan O'Neal in the audience and went up to them. I followed and Ryan signed my program. Afterwards at the stage door, Marlene Dietrich exited and headed straight for the limo accompanied with Ryan and Peter. I remember wondering where they were headed off to...it was Denver after all.

Ruth Warrick had a crush on Ryan when they both appeared on “Peyton Place” and she was 25 years older than him.

R147 I'm sorry but I did, when it was on TCM. Still didn't love it. I'm not a big fan of Kubrick films, after a certain point. I like his 50s and 60s films, though even those can be pretentious.

Oliver Barrett III: "If you marry her now, I'll not give you the time of day."

Oliver Barrett IV : "Father, you don't know the time of day!"

I went to this movie with my dad and as we're watching the end credits, Dad says: Oh, my God, that was Ray Milland?!

R155, is Patrick O'Neal a train wreck like his 1/2 sister and two brothers? When reading about the family after Ryan's death, it sounded like Patrick is gainfully employed - sports broadcaster - has two children (Rebecca deMornay is the mom), and he's in a relationship with someone.

Just curious about what you know that I didn't read.

Ray Milland belongs with Rex Harrison (born a year after Milland) in the "Good Handsome Actors Who Aged Badly" category.

[quote]Love Story is quite possibly the worst schlock ever made. I can't believe it was such a phenomenon.

It was going to be big no matter who was cast or how bad it was. The book was HUGE. *Every* girl in my junior high was lugging around the paperback.

I'm watching an episode of Bones he get started on cozi TV and he just whacked somebody in the head and I bet that wasn't even in the scripts he just beat the other actor and they just wrote it in as if he was supposed to do that.

[quote] Do you guys think Ryan will be included in the Academy Awards' "In Memoriam" segment?

If they don't there will be RIOTS IN THE STREETS. Think of the uproar when they left out Paul Sorvino and Anne He He.

Yeah, r166...no.

R164 Ray Milland was a good actor and handsome. Rex Harrison was always odd-looking, in my opinion.

AND, R150, there was always a market for mush. Elder movie goers stopped going to movies because of Easy Rider-like films, they were banished (in a manner of speaking) from record stores because they didn't relate to rock. They wanted good love stories and Johnny Mathis over James Brown. LOVE STORY was a favorite of everyone's - both the older crown that loved sentimentality, and the younger crowd that had rarely if ever seen it. Note I couldn't stand the film but I understood its success.

R60 Look at post R5

Ray Milland age 63 YEARS OLD:

You cannot be serious!

R172 Well to be fair we're all used to seeing actors who have had much work done. But my own dad certainly never looked that old even when he was 72.

[quote]It was going to be big no matter who was cast or how bad it was. The book was HUGE. *Every* girl in my junior high was lugging around the paperback.

They promoted the shit out of that novel. Eric Segal was on every talk show at the time and became a celebrity in his own right.

Played gay Teddy Montgomery's father "Spence Montgomery" in 90210.

Trevor Donovan

Don't forget, r175, Segal originally wrote it as a screenplay and they wanted to release it in book form first.

The reaction of my parents to the movie, who both saw it eventually, was "Is that it?" Not impressed.

R177, The book could easily have been read in one sitting, it was that short.

“Love Story” became the ultimate date movie of late 1970.

It took me three attempts to see it after waiting in long lines only to be told it was sold out for that showing.

There was no Fandango then or any other method of purchasing tickets in advance.

I know, r179, I read it.

As a boy I was always sneaking off to Times Square and I remember the long lines outside Loew's State to see this movie in January of' 71. Remember how cold it could get back then you eldergays like me and the Hudson would freeze over? And all those people bundled up waiting patiently to get in. I thought they were nuts no matter how good the movie was.

I saw it when it came to the suburbs and thought it was godawful with all these women around me sniffling with tissues.

I just bought a Paramount triple feature blu ray of To Catch a Thief, Barefoot in the Park and Love Story. I bought it because people said this was the best release of Thief even better than the new deluxe bluray Paramount just put out. So I watched Love Story for the first time since '71. God it was so awful.

The *other* book everybody was carrying around...

R183 Oh my God! I think people were also still reading The Godfather in '70, '71. I know I was.

I read the book when I was 13. I think Segal was a teacher at Yale. I was totally shocked it was written by a Yale professor (probably assistant, actually). Even then it seemed so corny and simplistic to me.

The novel was so short, almost like a sketched-in first draft. It was obviously a rush job. You could read it in an hour.

He wrote popular fiction bestsellers and well-regarded scholarly tomes. Odd career.

[quote][R183] Oh my God! I think people were also still reading The Godfather in '70, '71. I know I was.

Yes, r184, but I had no interest in the book or movies. I was reading Myra Breckinridge.

Ragtime, Sophie's Choice, Chesapeake (Michener), Islands In The Stream (Hemingway), The Thorn Birds, The Day Of the Jackal, Looking For Mr. Goodbar, Fear Of Flying, QB VII, Burr, The World According to Garp, Breakfast of Champions, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Carrie, and Bloodline were all published in 1970.

Fact check!

I remember Carrie being a popular book.

I bet the first thing he said the fair acid when he got to well I guess hell for her was I got your ass now just like his son said.

In hell what does the devil say to Farrah fawcett when she has a black eye ?! Nothing that Ryan O'Neill hasn't told her at least once.

R188 = Rex Reed

[quote]Nothing that Ryan O'Neill hasn't told her at least once.

OH, DEAR

I always thought Oliver could have given his dad a break.

[quote]Farrah Fawcett had such awful taste in men. She should've went for a real sexbomb like 1970s Burt Reynolds instead of losers like Lee Majors and Ryan O'Neal who treated her badly and aged poorly. They didn't even have a quarter of the sex appeal that Burt had.

To each his own, toots. Burt never did a thing for me.

R171, I'm familiar with the scene which is indeed hilariously bad but be honest-- could [italic]anyone[/italic] make that work? As the director and screenwriter Norman Mailer deserves some of the blame, surely. An internet meme derived from one of the worst movies O'Neal ever made is not representative of the rest of his career.

YOU would, R196, but a twenty year old might not have felt that way. That is, you have to believe o’Neal is a 20-22 year old kid.

[quote]r113 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.

[quote]R118 Lousy scripts, Ryan. — Philip Marlowe

No, LISTEN to me, Marlowe. I have been begging you, BEGGING you, for a good script. Now, you’ve always given me my share of bad movies, because you knew I’D make them work. Well, I can't keep doing it, Marlowe!

Okay, here’s a good script for you, Ryan!

[quote]His GOOD FILMS were popular, but his popularity as an actor was nothing like Eastwood, Redford or Burt Reynolds in the 1970s.

I said: the early 1970s. You obviously weren't around then.

In 1971 people saw the massively popular "Love Story". In 1972 they saw "What's Up Doc", third highest grossing film of that year. In 1973 the highly praised "Paper Moon" with Academy Awards and the press LOVED the fact that it was a father/daughter team.

Yes O'Neal made two bombs during that period, but they were far over shadowed by those three big successes. During those three or four years, O'Neal was HUGE. An A++ star.

I think a lot of people thought Barry Lyndon was going to be exciting and fun. Everyone now knew Marisa Berenson...they looked like a promising duo. The trailer was wonderful. Lots of raves from the critics.

But the film is too long and a big bore and it did not do well. O'Neal's career never got back on track.

After a while, Ryan was only in the scandal sheets with photos of him menacing his kids.

[quote]I think a lot of people thought Barry Lyndon was going to be exciting and fun.

None of those people had ever seen a Kubrick film.

I love Barry Lyndon but it's not a crowd-pleaser. The pace is glacial, and in common with much of Kubrick it's hard to care about any of the characters. The photography and costumes are unbelievably gorgeous. A dreamlike landscape, a vanished world, viewed from a dispassionate almost clinical perspective.

[quote]r202 I think a lot of people thought Barry Lyndon was going to be exciting and fun. Everyone now knew Marisa Berenson...they looked like a promising duo.

Bless you.

Barry Lyndon was Berenson's first American film after Cabaret. So imagine, both of them coming off of huge successes and a pairing up for this film. Hopes were high.

R182 I remember watching with my parents on VHS in the 90s thinking it was one of the worst, most boring movies I'd ever seen. I think it increased the generation gap for me because I couldn't understand the hype.

It was torturous.

Ryan made 6 movies that made over the 100 million mark in today's dollars, according to Ultimate Movie Rankings, a reliable source. Five were big hits, one was modest. All but two were made in the first half of the '70s.

Ryan was an Irish ginger. I wonder if it was annoying to him to dye his hair all those decades. And did they dye his chest hair, as well? He did look good as a dirty blond!

And then he died.

He was pretty, but dumb. I don't think he could've played the role of a scientist or anything like that. He was perfect in roles that involved women being attracted to his physical self.

Would've been interesting to see him play a mean, bad guy. He obviously had that side to him, in real life.

Has this bodacious pic been posted?

R209 he was also a bit Jewish which I think worked to enhance his looks.

Wow I had no idea he was a ginger - most (male) natural redheads are funny looking.

When I was a boy I knew he was a ginger because he looked and acted like a number my Irish American cousins. Yes they were handsome cocky boys.

I don't know where the jewish comes in. His mother was nee O'Callaghan.

[quote]He was pretty, but dumb.

The ideal man!!!

Barry Lyndon is an absolute masterpiece, which is widely acknowledged now. Every single role was perfectly cast, from the mother to the reverend. It’s much darker and feel less satirical than the book. And it’s a brutal film in pretty costumes and landscapes.

It's always sad when they go from one extreme to the other.

It’s called aging, R218. I am sure it won’t happen to you.

Contrary to popular belief getting old does not automatically come with getting fat. And just so you know, I'm 70 years old, so I know all about aging.

R215 Ryan’s maternal grandmother was an Ashkenazi Jew.

When Ryan was very young he looked like a golden retriever with his triangular-shaped eyes. I mean that as a compliment.

R220 and did you go from one extreme to the other or were you always ugly?

R220, but you forget that Ryan was a straight man.

[quote]It's always sad when they go from one extreme to the other.

I know, right?

Metabolisms change in older people. Sometimes it just gets harder to shed the weight.

Ryan O'Neal was the Ryan Gosling of today.

It gets harder because some people think they can continue to eat high caloric diets after they reach an age when they can't get the exercise they were able to get when they were young.

I think Lyndon somehow is a great film when I saw it when it first opened but O'Neal is horribly miscast. What is this young American 20th Century man doing in England in the 18th Century? Like one of those photoshopped time travel photos. Like somebody wrote there were a number of British actors who would have been perfect. But perversely Kubrick was getting starstruck and wanted money making insurance and it worked against the film.

The firm heavy hand on the wrong note.

Lean did it in Zhivago with a bunch of hot young mod British actors but he made it work beautifully.

R229 I agree that the movie overall is great. Absolutely visually stunning. But O'Neal seemed completely wrong for the part.

Maybe he was blacklisted in Hollywood due to his poor treatment of Anjelica Huston. Do the timelines line up? It would be understandable if directors and producers didn’t want to work with him because of his abusive behaviors.

RIP, Ryan. I hope your children live the rest of their days in peace.

Who treated Anjelica worse, Ryan or Jack?

At R225, young Marlon Brando is beefing up his left bicep with his right hand.

O’Neal’s weight gain may have been due in part to medications. He had a history of prostate cancer and leukemia.

I read an interview with Tatum who is living at a facility in California where she is recovering from her recent stroke. She opens the interview by apologizing for putting on weight, as people clearly are not allowed to just be and recover from serious illness without worrying about being fat.

[quote]Lean did it in Zhivago with a bunch of hot young mod British actors but he made it work beautifully.

His Irish accent is intermittent but the Irish-American O’Neal is more convincing as an Irishman than Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago is as a Russian. Does Sharif convince you that he’s Russian? It’s a matter of opinion, I suppose, but talk to some actual Russians sometime about it and listen to what they have to say. The other actors in that film, irrespective of origin, are unbelievable as Russians with the exception of Rod Steiger. None of this would matter very much if the rest of the movie were good, but it’s not.

R231, Hollywood doesn’t give a shit what you do in your personal life as long as you stay out of jail. Especially THEN.

[quote]It gets harder because some people think they can continue to eat high caloric diets after they reach an age when they can't get the exercise they were able to get when they were young.

Well, aren't you the smug one.

Former son in law/tennis player comments in that posted interview how much Ryan liked to smoke pot and eat. That and the fact he didn't work much after the '80s may have led to the loss of his boxer's body...

[quote]R229 I think Lyndon somehow is a great film when I saw it when it first opened but O'Neal is horribly miscast.

I guess it’s a glimpse at a different time, but I don’t remember the main character as having much of a personality. Like, what’s the point of Barry Lyndon’s whole story?

Shariff is very old Hollywood despite making his debut in 62 and despite the fact that he is not a character of action I find him mesmerizing. Maybe because he is just so goddamn good looking. And those eyes! The people who I was talking about were the young english actors who were very much a part of contemporary black and white low budget English films like Christie, Courteney and Tushingham. And here they are in a big budget Lean historical epic and they are not at all out of place. To me. And I like the film more than most but it is nowhere near the greatness of Lyndon despite Ryan.

I wonder why Omar Sharif is mostly forgotten today? He starred in 3 of the most iconic movies in film history--Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl--and yet no one ever talks about him.

R240, why do you keep saying "Shariff"? The name is spelled SHARIF, he made up the name.

[quote]I wonder why Omar Sharif is mostly forgotten today?

Maybe because he's dead. His movies are remembered, however.

[quote]I wonder why Omar Sharif is mostly forgotten today?

Forgotten? What does that even mean?

^ that means people under 30 have never heard of him.

He did the best drugs, drank the best alcohol, got the best pussy and died with a shit load of money and living on the beach in Malibu at 82. Sometimes life isn’t fair.

At the end of the 60s Sharif did Funny Girl(he manages to steal People from Babs by just looking at her while she's singing, in my opinion anyway) and Mackenna's Gold I believe a flop. Then he did The Tamarind Seed in '74. His major movie career ended decades before he died. Oh yeah he has a bit in Funny Lady where he's very unpleasant. The real Nick had died in'65 so they could depict him anyway they wanted to by that point.

I remember watching Funny Girl on TV as a kid and my mother gasping when the camera came in for a close-up.

0:16

Ah Omar. The (Lebanese-Syrian) Marlon Brando of Egyptian Cinema.

[quote] He did the best drugs, drank the best alcohol, got the best pussy and died with a shit load of money and living on the beach in Malibu at 82. Sometimes life isn’t fair.

He left some broken children (adults, now) in his wake. If he felt good about himself, then I guess life isn't fair.

R250 Even the best parents manage to leave fucked up offspring....

R247 we’ll just have to agree to disagree about Omar Sharif “stealing” People just by looking at Streisand. It’s one of the most renowned musical theater songs of the 20th Century - and cannot be sung by anyone else - and never is.

R251 - 3 of them, though?

Tatum and Griffin’s mother was an addict who was so out of it that her kids turned feral. In Tatum’s memoir she describes a grim early childhood of utter neglect, not having anything to wear or eat, not having medical care, and her mom’s house being full of predatory drug users and dealers. Ryan being awarded custody was, as horrible as it turned out for them, the lesser of two evils. Unusual for a man to be awarded primary custody of his kids in the 1960s, so you can imagine how bad it must have been.

R248 GASP!

- Laila Mourad, the Kitty Carlisle of Egypt

I guess I'm the only one but when Sharif is looking at Streisand singing People I'm looking at him watching her. Despite her great performance some of the great Broadway experts said it did not belong in the show and should be cut. What's this song doing in the show it makes no sense. But then Hal Prince said the song Hello, Dolly made no sense in Hello, Dolly.

My mother who rarely spoke about how handsome a man was in a movie remarked how good looking O'Neal was in What's Up Doc.

And I don't think he really cared how he ruined his children's lives he was a such a narcissist even at the end of his life. They don't care. My father didn't and he was a doozy. My mother said the only person he ever loved was himself.

[quote] Well, aren't you the smug one.

That's not smugness, that's just common sense, which you are clearly lacking.

R256, no one knew what was going on with O’Neal’s children in 1972.

[quote]some of the great Broadway experts said it did not belong in the show

A longstanding but probably apocryphal rumor has it that Styne and Merrill originally wrote "People" for "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol," but it had to be cut for reasons of running time, so they just slotted it into the next show they wrote.

[quote] I think Lyndon somehow is a great film when I saw it when it first opened but O'Neal is horribly miscast. What is this young American 20th Century man doing in England in the 18th Century? Like one of those photoshopped time travel photos.

R229 Since you were never in England in the 18th century, how do you know what people spoke or acted like? You’re basing your opinion on stereotypical theatrical conventions.

There are a lot of things in movies that require the audience to just go with it, and the correctness or otherwise of accents in period films is one of them. Cinematic convention seems to dictate that ancient Romans should speak in impeccable Received Pronunciation, unless they are plebeian. Nazis tend to speak English even when amongst themselves, and women in historical films produced in the 1960s are all going to be wearing eyeliner, period accuracy be damned.

The makeup artist Lisa Eldridge recently interviewed Barbara Daly, who designed the makeup for Barry Lyndon. (Daly also did Princess Diana’s makeup on her wedding day.) There was some discussion during preproduction regarding whether they should adhere as much as possible to historically accurate makeup, but Daly and Kubrick decided to go for something more attractive by contemporary standards.

Ryan seemed to be having too much fun off-screen and not paying enough attention to his career, much less his children.

The Hollywood maxim that in order to be a star both women and men have to like you may help explain why O’Neal’s stardom dimmed relatively quickly. I always got the impression that women liked him a lot more than men (straight men, anyway).

R262, Here’s sweat soaked Ryan with Justin Trudeau’s mother Margaret.

[quote][R229] Since you were never in England in the 18th century, how do you know what people spoke or acted like?

You don't know how old that poster is. Stop assuming!

There's something a little bit feminine about Ryan, from his voice (see video) to his romantic over action roles. That's why straight women liked him and straight men didn't.

R263, good point. Redford, McQueen, and Burt Reynolds were liked by both male and female audiences--Ryan was gorgeous and a showboater off-camera.

'You’re basing your opinion on stereotypical theatrical conventions.'

Well then you could say that about the rest of the movie couldn't you? Kubrick sure wasn't there.

[quote]That's not smugness, that's just common sense, which you are clearly lacking.

Because you are clearly the best person to be the judge of your obvious smugness.

[quote]Styne and Merrill originally wrote "People" for "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol"

Ed Sullivan: Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a warm welcome to Jim Backus singing his hit song "People".

They probably gave it to another character. Unless Magoo was supposed to sing it at the end.

Has there been a funeral yet?

Has the Farrah/Warhol painting been removed from the wall above Ryan’s bed yet?

R148 You forgot Clint Eastwood and Al Pacino.

Neither Eastwood nor Pacino is mentioned in R125's post to which R148 was replying, R274.

Alive!

I think “People” is a kind of stupid song.

What does it mean? The number of people who don’t “need people” is rather small. We’re social animals.

I think Tony Curtis is closeted and misogynist .

R277 = Dr Phil

You guys always have the latest! When did this happen?

[quote]The number of people who don’t “need people” is rather small.

So, r277? That doesn't negate the lyric.

But it’s not “lucky” to need people. It’s normal. A baseline.

Fine, r282, you win. Go defecate on Bob Merrill's grave.

Have they buried him yet?

R283 Rolling Stone already did that.

I don’t recall that guys didn’t like Ryan O’Neal. My dad liked him (and Mia Farrow) because Dad liked Peyton Place. He liked him in Love Story. As a young teen I liked him in What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon. He didn’t make too many memorable films.

Personally I always thought he had odd-looking lips. He looked like he was pursing his lips (though he wasn’t).

[quote]In his later years, his interviews and reality shows with Farrah and Tatum made me despise him.

Ryan was okay as long as he was talking about movies. Allowing his personal life to become fodder for tabloids was a mistake, one that he himself seemed to perpetuate by discussing family drama during interviews. He just should have set a boundary and told the press that his children were off-limits. I never saw any of the programs with Farrah, but the series Ryan did with Tatum for Oprah's network was a new nadir in reality TV. After watching I thought that he and Tatum were so dysfunctional that no therapist could help them, and Ryan admitted that their relationship was actually worse after the series than before.

He tried to revive his career in 1991 with this "Good Sports" TV show. Farrah didn't want to do it, but capitulated, I guess.

I actually liked that show Good Sports from what I recall. But probably would have watched anything Farrah was on. Ryan was also Alicia Silverstone's dad in Miss Match - a cute show.

I would live to know O'Neal's psychopathology. There was definitely more than one thing going on there. His brain should be in a jar next to Dahmer's.

My favorite role of his was as a young married on Leave It To Beaver.

He was dreamy as Rodney Harrington.

The reason men didn't like O'Neal is because they see him and want to punch him out. Beneath his façade of good looks and charm, he's a sniveling little rat. Men like McQueen, Reynolds, etc. do not have this quality. They are assholes and mean drunks too but they don't snivel.

Ryan always talked about his family because otherwise he wouldn’t get booked! That was scandal! Tv lives a scandal. I is cares about an old druggy actor who hasn’t had any hits since the early 70’s. He HAD to exploit his family! Then, he’d blame the kids for it!

Will this ruin Christmas for the family or will they be too coked out to notice?

R288, that wasn't a bad show, and Ryan was very good with the comedy. Farrah, on the other hand... let's just say she showed her limitations as an actress.

R296 they seemed to have good onscreen chemistry though. It has been so long I will have to see if I can watch Good Sports over the holidays. There's only like 11 episodes or something. Same with Miss Match!

Adios!

I beg to differ, R297. Farrah wasn't "there" to have chemistry with Ryan or anyone. Perhaps she was high.

It’s tiring that people want to believe so hard that Farrah wasn’t high. It’s obvious that she was also she was living with a lifelong drug addict. Their fucking kid was even a batshit crazy drug addict. Even Farrah’s step kids were. Hard addicts. Jesus, Mary.

R300 Never forget.

I have more sympathy for the kids as they were all raised by druggies/drunks, except for Leigh Taylor-Young.

[quote]I would live to know O'Neal's psychopathology. There was definitely more than one thing going on there.

The word 'narcissist' gets tossed around with reckless abandon, but in this case it may be warranted. I have seen comments online in the days since O'Neal's death from people who knew him and worked with him that are positive. If he did have narcissistic personality disorder this should come as no surprise because narcissists are often very charming and can present as warm and lovable. People who have to live with them tell a different story-- which Tatum did very effectively in 2004 with the publication of her autobiography.

R303, How could any man that good looking not be a narcissist?

R304, Ryan may have grown up hearing how gorgeous he was and being treated as a golden child who can do no wrong, which has a corrosive effect on children's psychological development. I don't know much about his parents or childhood but there was something amiss from an early age-- O'Neal served a stint in jail for assault when he was still a teenager.

[quote]r254 Tatum and Griffin’s mother was an addict who was so out of it that her kids turned feral. In Tatum’s memoir she describes a grim early childhood of utter neglect, not having anything to wear or eat, not having medical care, and her mom’s house being full of predatory drug users and dealers.

That’s a reminder that just because you’re good looking, it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed happiness.

Most of us think, “Gosh, if only I were really, REALLY beautiful!” but there’s so many other factors that determine satisfaction in life.

[quote]R300 Never forget.

I remember watching that interview when it originally aired. At the end, Dave said to Farrah, "Thanks for almost being here."

Joanna Moore was mentally ill. Guess it’s more socially acceptable to only mention the addict part.

Farrah was obviously high as a kite, from the moment the camera showed her struggling to get out from behind the curtain. Reed thin. Jittery. At times talking baby talk.

When?????

R301 I love it when Letterman takes a look at her and realizes she's wacked out of her mind.

Farrah talking baby talk was disturbing. She did it endlessly on her “chasing Farrah” reality show. That was SUCH a shitty show!

Yeah, the baby talk was sickening. All these women worshipping Marilyn Monroe, I guess.

I read Joanna Moore was missing a couple of fingers from the car accident that killed her family. I’m always trying to get a gander at her hands to check this out. She wore gloves a lot back in the day, maybe with prosthetics in them.

What family did she kill, R314? Both children are alive.

R314, She lost a couple of fingers in an accident, but there were no fatalities.

Joanna Moore played Andy Griffith’s girlfriend on the early episodes of his show, pre-Helen Crump.

[quote]r314 I read Joanna Moore was missing a couple of fingers from the car accident that killed her family. I’m always trying to get a gander at her hands to check this out.

The left one looks okay (?)