Ryan O'Neal

In the early 1960s, O'Neal married actress Joanna Moore with whom he had two children—a daughter, Tatum in 1963 and a son, Griffin in 1964. The couple got divorced in 1967.

After their divorce in 1967, O'Neal married actress Lee Taylor-Young with whom he had a son, Patrick. The couple divorced soon after.

He had been in an on and off relationship with actress Farah Fawcett since the 1980s. He had a son, Redmond, with her in 1985.

Patrick Ryan O’Neal was born on April 20, 1941 in Los Angeles, California in a show business family. His father, Charles “Blackie” O’Neal was a novelist and screenwriter while his mother, Patricia O'Callaghan was an actress.

While attending University High School, O’Neal trained to become a Golden Gloves boxer.

During 1956-1957, he competed in two Golden Gloves championships in Los Angeles and created a notable amateur fighting record—18 wins to 4 losses, with 13 knockouts.

In 1950s, his family moved to Munich for his father’s job in Radio Free Europe. O’Neal enrolled at the Munich American High School from where he graduated in 1959.

Ryan O’Neal started his career as a stuntman on the German television series ‘Tales of the Vikings’.

In 1962, he appeared in a supporting role in the television show Empire. The show did not run long but he got noticed by casting directors.

O'Neal did cameo roles in shows like ‘The Virginian’, ‘Perry Mason’, and ‘Wagon Train’.

In 1964, he landed his first breakthrough role in the prime-time soap opera ‘Peyton Place’, based on the best-selling novel by Grace Metaliou.

He moved on to doing feature films and in 1969 starred as the protagonist in ‘The Big Bounce’, a screen adaptation of the novel by Elmore Leonard. The movie was a box office dud.

Ryan O’Neal’s most successful venture was ‘Love Story’ (1970), the American romantic drama film. O'Neal starred opposite Ali McGraw in this film about a young man who marries the love of his life but loses her to a terminal illness. The film fetched a profit of $106,397,186 and became the highest grossing film of 1970 in the U.S and Canada. It also grossed a surplus $30 million internationally.