Ryan O'Neal Movies
Though his early career seemed to hold the promise of major stardom for actor Ryan O'Neal, matters didn't pan out and he has become more famous for his long-term live-in relationship with 1970s poster girl-turned-movie star-of-the-week actress Farrah Fawcett than any of his '80s and '90s films. Still, O'Neal is an appealing actor and his clean-cut good looks and reddish- blond hair give him an exuberant boyishness that belies his age. His first major role was that of Rodney Harrington on the television soap opera Peyton Place (1964-1969).O'Neal is the son of screenwriter Charles O'Neal and actress Patricia Callaghan O'Neal. A California native, he spent much of his childhood living abroad. As a young man, O'Neal sometimes got into trouble and at one point served a 51-day jail sentence for assault and battery after getting into a fight at a New Year's party. Before becoming an actor, O'Neal was a lifeguard and an amateur boxer who was a one-time Golden Gloves contender. In film and television, O'Neal started out as a stunt man on Tales of the Vikings, a German television series. His parents were working on the same show. Upon his return to the States, O'Neal continued finding work in small parts on television shows, getting his first regular acting job on the Western Empire (1962). Following the demise of Peyton Place, O'Neal made his feature debut in The Big Bounce (1969), but did not get his big break until he was chosen from 300 auditioners to play Oliver Barrett opposite Ally McGraw in Arthur Hiller's maudlin adaptation of Erich Seagal's best-seller Love Story- (1970). The film was a smash hit and landed O'Neal an Oscar nomination. Two more starring roles followed this success but it was not until he played an uptight professor who finds himself beleaguered by a free-spirited, love-struck Barbra Streisand in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (1972) that he rivaled the success of Love Story. It has been in light, romantic fare such as this that O'Neal has excelled. His next popular role was that of an exasperated con man in Paper Moon, the charming comedy that netted his co-star and real-life daughter, Tatum O'Neal, an Oscar. O'Neal then played the title role in Stanley Kubrick's slow-paced epic Barry Lyndon (1975). By the late '70s, O'Neal's career had gone into decline and he had begun appearing in such dismal outings as Oliver's Story (the 1978 sequel to his first big hit) and The Main Event (1979) which reteamed him with Streisand. The '80s were even tougher for O'Neal, even though he appeared regularly onscreen. In 1989, O'Neal turned up in the wrenching made-for-TV-movie Small Sacrifices, which starred his lover Fawcett. Two years later, he and Fawcett starred in the short-lived television sitcom Good Sports. Before hooking up with her in the early '80s, O'Neal was married to actresses to Joanna Moore and Leigh Taylor-Young. His children from those marriages, Tatum and Griffin O'Neal, are both actors as is his brother Kevin O'Neal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Get ready for another dose of love and loss in this sequel to the four-handkerchief classic Love Story (1970). Oliver Barrett (Ryan O'Neal) is emotionally devastated after the death of his wife Jenny, and while he tries to lose himself in his work as a lawyer, the long hours don't ease his pain, especially when he finds that his leftist views conflict with those of the senior partners at the firm. Eventually, Oliver's inconsolable grief begins to alienate those around him, until he finds new love with Marcie Bonwit (Candice Bergen), the wealthy and beautiful heir to the Bonwit-Teller fortune. Despite his affection for Marcie, Oliver finds it difficult to leave the memory of Jenny behind, which causes major problems in his relationship with Marcie. Ray Milland reprises his role from the first film as Oliver's father; the supporting cast includes Charles M. Haid, Swoosie Kurtz, and Jose Torres. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Candice Bergen, (more)
It's late 1944, and the Allied armies are confident they'll win the World War II and be home in time for Christmas. What's needed, says British general Bernard Law Montgomery, is a knockout punch, a bold strike through Holland, where German troops are spread thin, that will put the Allies into Germany. Paratroops led by British major general Robert Urquhart (Sean Connery) and American brigadier general James Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) will seize a thin road and five bridges through Holland into Germany, with paratroops led by Lieutenant Col. John Frost (Sir Anthony Hopkins) holding the most critical bridge at a small town called Arnhem. Over this road shall pass combined forces led by British Lieutenant Gen. Brian Horrocks (Edward Fox) and British Lieutenant Col. Joe Vandeleur (Michael Caine). The plan requires precise timing, so much so that one planner tells Lieutenant Gen. Frederick Browning (Dirk Bogarde), "Sir, I think we may be going a bridge too far." The plan also has one critical flaw: Instead of a smattering of German soldiers, the area around Arnhem is loaded with crack SS troops. Disaster ensues. Based on a book by historian Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far is reminiscent of another movie based on a Ryan book, The Longest Day. Like that movie, it is loaded with more than 15 international stars, including Sir Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Hardy Krueger, Gene Hackman, Maximilian Schell, and Liv Ullman. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, (more)
- 1976
- PG
Peter Bogdanovich's early career as a film writer stood him in good stead for this comedy drama about the early days of the motion-picture industry, based in part on his interviews with pioneering directors Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan. Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) is a lawyer and Buck Greenway (Burt Reynolds) is a cowboy and gunman. Both are sent to California to shut down a renegade group of silent-movie makers -- financed by blustery H.H. Cobb (Brian Keith) -- who are in violation of the Motion Picture Patents Co. Trust. Harrigan and Greenway somehow find themselves working with the movie crew instead of shutting them down; they join forces with cameraman Franklin Frank (John Ritter), leading lady Kathleen Cooke (Jane Hitchcock), and precocious prop girl Alice Forsyte (Tatum O'Neal). Greenway becomes a star and Harrigan a respected director, but both battle over the affections of Cooke. Incidentally, Cobb's big speech near the end is taken almost verbatim from a quote given to Bogdanovich in an interview with actor James Stewart. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, (more)
With ornate imagery reminiscent of paintings from the story's 18th century period, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel depicts the rise and fall of a sensitive rogue in the British aristocracy. Young Irishman Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) leaves home to seek his fortune after apparently killing an English officer in a duel. Through a series of mishaps and accidents, Barry winds up fighting with the Prussian army in the Seven Years' War under the command of Capt. Potzdorf (Hardy Kruger); at war's end, Potzdorf enlists Barry to spy on a shady Chevalier (Patrick Magee). Instead, Barry joins up with the Irish Chevalier to flee Prussia and live as gamblers among Europe's elite. Wishing to climb even higher, Barry soon meets the beautiful Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson), marrying her for her fortune after her older titled husband dies. Her son Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), however, despises the upstart Barry, and, regardless of how his mother may feel, sees to it that the re-named Barry Lyndon will never be able to stake his claim to the entrenched aristocracy. Coming after Kubrick's esteemed hits 2001 (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon opened with high expectations and met with decidedly mixed responses to its restrained tone. Even with Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (and wins for Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Adapted Score), Barry Lyndon was a box office failure, as mid-'70s audiences increasingly turned away from such narrative challenges as its epic length and muffled emotions. Since then, Barry Lyndon has gained in stature, taking its place among the formidable artistic achievements of Kubrick's career. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, (more)
- 1973
- PG
Bud Yorkin directed this middling comedy, written by Walter Hill from a novel by Terrence Lore Smith. Ryan O'Neal plays a computer expert named Webster, who alleviates on-the-job doldrums by moonlighting as a successful jewel thief. Webster invites himself to upscale soirees, where he cases out the location and proceeds with his heists. During his adventures, he meets up with Laura (Jacqueline Bisset), a high society woman who teams up with Webster to assist on his heists. Gradually the two fall in love. However, it's not all easy going, since an insurance detective (Warren Oates) suspects that Webster is the jewel thief but he has no proof ... yet. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Jacqueline Bisset, (more)
The year is 1936. Orphaned Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal, in her film debut) is left in the care of unethical travelling Bible salesman Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal, Tatum's dad), who may or may not be her father. En route to Addie's relatives, Moses learns that the 9-year-old is quite a handful: she smokes, cusses, and is almost as devious and manipulative as he is. They join forces as swindlers, working together so well that Addie is averse to breaking up the team -- which is one reason that she sabotages the romance between Moses and good-time gal Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn). Later, while attempting to square a $200 debt that Addie claims he owes her, Moses runs afoul of of a bootlegger (John Hillerman) and is nearly beaten to death by the criminal's twin-brother sheriff. Painfully pulling himself together, Moses gets Addie to her relatives, whereupon she adamantly refuses to leave his side. Photographed in black-and-white by Laszlo Kovacs, the film was made largely on location in Kansas and Missouri (an experience colorfully recalled by director Peter Bogdanovich in his 1972 book of essays Pieces of Time). 9-year-old Tatum O'Neal won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, beating out costar Kahn. Paper Moon later became a short-lived TV series, starring Ryan O'Neal lookalike Christopher Connelly and future Oscar winner Jodie Foster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, (more)
With Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) as his blueprint, Peter Bogdanovich resurrected and payed homage to 1930s screwball comedy in What's Up, Doc? (1972). When wacky co-ed Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, in the Katharine Hepburn part) spies nebbishy musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal in bespectacled Cary Grant mode) in a San Francisco hotel lobby, she decides that Howard and his precious igneous rocks are right up her alley. Too bad Howard already has a fiancée, the propriety-fixated Eunice (Madeline Kahn in her film debut). Using all her arcane knowledge from brief stays at numerous colleges, Judy tries to charm her way to a $20,000 grant for Howard, and Howard himself, at a banquet with grantor Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Things get even more complicated the next day when Judy's underwear-filled overnight bag gets mixed up with Howard's rock bag, which gets mixed up with Mrs. Van Hoskins' bag of jewels, which gets mixed up with Mr. Smith's bag of top secret government papers. All sides converge at Larrabee's mod townhouse and the chase begins. Retaining Hawks' machine-gun pace (as well as the sly pop culture referentiality of Billy Wilder), Bogdanovich and writers Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton updated the opposites-attract screwball convention for contemporary times. O'Neal gently parodied not only Grant but also his own Love Story (1970) preppy, while Kahn represents stiff-wigged 1950s manners as opposed to Streisand's long-haired, pants-wearing free spirit. The happy ending, in which Cole Porter-belting youth wins out over old manners, found favor with audiences, as What's Up, Doc? became one of the most popular films of 1972, and the second hit in a row for Bogdanovich after 1971's The Last Picture Show. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, (more)
- 1971
- PG
If you want to know what The Wild Bunch would have looked like with Blake Edwards rather than Sam Peckinpah in the director's chair, we submit for your approval Wild Rovers. William Holden and Ryan O'Neal play a couple of shiftless ranch hands who impulsively decide to rob a bank. They manage to make off with the money, but also incur the wrath of their former boss Karl Malden, who sends his two sons Tom Skerritt and Joe Don Baker out to bring back Holden and O'Neal, preferably dead. The film's climax is surprisingly melancholy for an Edwards film, but one can't deny that the ending grows logically from the events leading up to it. Severely edited by its distributor Warner Bros, Wild Rovers doesn't make a lot of sense in its release version; the director's cut, incorporated 30 minutes' worth of extra footage, is fortunately available on video. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Ryan O'Neal, (more)
- 1970
Seldom has a TV-movie title been more appropriate than Love Hate Love. Ryan O'Neal, Lesley Ann Warren and Peter Haskell comprise the three points of an unfortunate love triangle. Ms. Warren is a fashion model engaged to engineer O'Neal; she falls in love on a whim with charismatic playboy Haskell. Unfortunately, Haskell is off in the coop, given to sudden, unexplained spurts of hatred and violence. When Warren tumbles to this and leaves for California with O'Neal, Haskell utilizes his seemingly unlimited transportation resource to stalk the couple. He's careful to stay within the law, but any moment...he'll...SNAP! Eric Ambler wrote the original story upon which the satisfactorily suspenseful Love Hate Love is based. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Not to be confused with the 1966 Diabolique rip-off Games, 1970's The Games is set during the Rome Olympics. The film zeroes in on four contestants in the 26-mile marathon race: Briton Michael Crawford, American Ryan O'Neal, Czech Charles Aznavour and Australian Athol Compton. Scenes of the grueling training sessions are placed in context with the personal dramas of the four men. Crawford is being driven to the breaking point by trainer Stanley Baker, O'Neal is suffering from a dangerous heart condition, Aznavour is past forty but obliged to compete by his government, and Compton is an Aborigine fighting a lifelong battle against prejudice. Eric Segal, himself an avid runner adapted the screenplay of The Games from the novel by Hugh Atkinson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Crawford, Ryan O'Neal, (more)
In director Arthur Hiller's hit tearjerker -- based on Erich Segal's novella -- Ryan O'Neal plays Oliver Barrett IV, a comfortably off Harvard pre-law student who falls in love with Radcliffe music student Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), a freewheeling, delightfully profane product of a blue-collar Italian-American family. Oliver's father (Ray Milland) heartily disapproves of the subsequent marriage and cuts off his son's allowance. Despite financial travails (the pampered Oliver actually has to go to work!), the couple is blissfully happy....until Jenny is diagnosed as having an unnamed disease that consigns her to an early death. The movie's tagline "Love means never having to say you're sorry" became an iconic American catchphrase, the film's theme a number one hit. One of the early products of Paramount guru Robert Evans, Love Story grossed more money than any Paramount production before it. This enormously successful film inspired a 1978 sequel, Oliver's Story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, (more)
Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a cucumber picker who is fired after a fight with a Mexican-American (Victor Paul) co-worker. He finds work on a ranch owned by Ray Ritchie (James Daly). Soon his private secretary Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is after Jack. She spends her free time in pursuit of hedonism and reckless pleasure by fornicating on tombstones and breaking hearts as well as windows. Sam Mirakian (Van Heflin) is the motel owner whose lonely resident (Lee Grant) makes a play for Jack. She ends up killing herself and Nancy ends up killing someone else for sheer pleasure. This forgettable and pointless movie -- one critic described it as "a rancid piece of trash" -- is O'Neal's big-screen debut. Some nudity required an "R" rating. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Leigh Taylor-Young, (more)
- 1964
Stephanie Carew (Sandra Warner) hires Perry (Raymond Burr) to sue first-time novelist Deborah Dearborn (Zeme North) for libel, claiming that her own life was the basis for Deborah's lurid best-seller. Not long afterward, Stephanie is found drowned in her fresh-water swimming pool--and lest the police write her death off as accidental, the coroner points out that the victim has salt water in her lungs. Putting two and two together, the authorities arrest Deborah for the murder, whereupon Perry switches sides to defend the girl. Yes, that's a young, pre-Love Story Ryan O'Neal as John Carew, Deborah's boyfriend and the victim's stepson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In the first episode of Leave It to Beaver's fifth season, Beaver and Wally's dad Ward (Hugh Beaumont) is taken aback while listening to his braggart friend Bill Boothby (Pat McCaffrie) in the golf club locker room. It seems that Bill's daughter Evelyn (Mary Mitchel) is going steady with Ward's son Wally (Tony Dow), and Bill is certain that wedding bells will soon ring. Since this is the first time Ward has heard about Wally and Evelyn, he is naturally upset. But he needn't worry -- even if Wally had been entertaining thoughts of marriage, he has been disillusioned by the example of Evelyn's married sister Judy (Gloria Gilbert) and her husband Tom (played by no less than Ryan O'Neal). In this episode, Barbara Billingsley (June Cleaver) introduces the Jackie Kennedy hairstyle which she will sport for the remainder of the series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Gilbert, Ryan O'Neal, (more)
