Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal (April 20, 1941 – December 8, 2023) was an American actor and former boxer. He trained as an amateur boxer before beginning his career in acting in 1960. In 1964, he landed the role of Rodney Harrington on the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place. The series was an instant hit and boosted O’Neal’s career. He made his film debut in The Big Bounce (1969), with Van Heflin and Leigh Taylor-Young. He would find more success in films, most notably Arthur Hiller’s Love Story (1970), with Ali MacGraw, John Marley, Ray Milland, and Tommy Lee Jones; for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor;
This was followed by rules in Peter Bogdanovich‘s What’s Up, Doc? (1972), with Barbra Streisand, Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Sorrell Booke, Michael Murphy, and Madeline Kahn; and Paper Moon (1973), with Kahn, John Hillerman, and his daughter Tatum O’Neal; Stanley Kubrick‘s Barry Lyndon (1975), with Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Diana Koerner, and Gay Hamilton; Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far (1977), with Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Krüger, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell and Liv Ullmann; and Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978), with Bruce Dern, Isabelle Adjani, and Ronee Blakley.
Other films in the 1970s include Blake Edwards’s Wild Rovers (1971), with William Holden and Karl Malden; Bud Yorkin’s The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973), with Jacqueline Bisset, Charles Cioffi, Warren Oates, and Jill Clayburgh; Bogdanovich’s Nickelodeon (1976), with Burt Reynolds, Tatum, Brian Keith, Stella Stevens, and John Ritter; Oliver’s Story (1978), with Candice Bergen; and Howard Zieff’s The Main Event (1979), with Streisand.
Films in the 1980s include Andrew Bergman’s So Fine (1981), with Jack Warden, Mariangela Melato, Richard Kiel, and Fred Gwynne; Green Ice (1981), with Omar Sharif and Anne Archer; Partners (1982), with John Hurt; Charles Shyer’s Irreconcilable Differences (1984), with Shelley Long, Drew Barrymore, Sam Wanamaker, Allen Garfield, and Sharon Stone; Richard Brooks‘s Fever Pitch (1985), with Giancarlo Giannini, Chad Everett, and Catherine Hicks; Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987), with Isabella Rossellini, Debra Sandlund, Wings Hauser, and Lawrence Tierney; and Chances Are (1989), with Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr., and Mary Stuart Masterson.
Later films include Paul Mazursky’s Faithful (1996), with Cher and Chazz Palminteri; Hacks (1997), with Stephen Rea, Illeana Douglas, John Ritter, Dave Foley, Richard Kind, Dusty Kay, Robert Patrick, and Tom Arnold; An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997), with Eric Idle; Jake Kasdan’s Zero Effect (1998), with Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Kim Dickens, and Angela Featherstone; Coming Soon (1999), with Bonnie Root, Gaby Hoffmann, Tricia Vessey, Ryan Reynolds, Yasmine Bleeth, and Mia Farrow; People I Know (2002), with Al Pacino, Kim Basinger, and Téa Leoni; and Terrence Malick‘s Knight of Cups (2016), with Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, and Antonio Banderas.
TV movies and miniseries include Love Hate Love (1971), with Lesley Ann Warren and Peter Haskell; Small Sacrifices (1989), with Farrah Fawcett, Gordon Clapp, John Shea and Emily Perkins; The Man Upstairs (1992), with Katharine Hepburn; and Epoch (2001), with David Keith, Stephanie Niznik, Brian Thompson, and Shannon Lee. From 2005 to 2017, he had a recurring role in the Fox TV series Bones as Max Keenan, the father of the show’s protagonist, played by Emily Deschanel.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- European Eye (1968) – directed by Lamont Johnson – TV movie
- The Big Bounce (1969) – directed by Alex March
- Under the Yum Yum Tree (1969) – directed by E.W. Swackhamer – TV movie
- The Games (1970) – directed by Michael Winner
- Love Story (1970) – directed by Arthur Hiller
- Love Hate Love (1971) – directed by George McCowan – TV movie
- Wild Rovers (1971) – directed by Blake Edwards
- What’s Up, Doc? (1972) – directed by Peter Bogdanovich
- The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973) – directed by Bud Yorkin
- Paper Moon (1973) – directed by Peter Bogdanovich
- Barry Lyndon (1975) – directed by Stanley Kubrick
- Nickelodeon (1976) – directed by Peter Bogdanovich
- A Bridge Too Far (1977) – directed by Richard Attenborough
- The Driver (1978) – directed by Walter Hill
- Oliver’s Story (1978) – directed by John Korty
- The Main Event (1979) – directed by Howard Zieff
- Obsession (1980) – directed by Jules Dassin – uncredited
- Green Ice (1981) – directed by Ernest Day
- So Fine (1981) – directed by Andrew Bergman
- Partners (1982) – directed by James Burrows
- Irreconcilable Differences (1984) – directed by Charles Shyer
- Fever Pitch (1985) – directed by Richard Brooks
- Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987) – directed by Norman Mailer
- Sam Found Out: A Triple Play (1988) – directed by Piers Haggard – TV movie
- Chances Are (1989) – directed by Emile Ardolino
- Small Sacrifices (1989) – directed by David Greene – miniseries
- The Man Upstairs (1992) – directed by George Schaefer – TV movie
- Man of the House (1995)* – directed by James Orr – uncredited
- Faithful (1996) – directed by Paul Mazursky
- Hacks (1997) – directed by Gary Rosen
- An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) – directed by Arthur Hiller (credited as Alan Smithee)
- Zero Effect (1998) – directed by Jake Kasdan
- Coming Soon (1999) – directed by Colette Burson
- The List (2000) – directed by Sylvain Guy
- Epoch (2001) – directed by Matt Codd – TV movie
- People I Know (2002) – directed by Daniel Algrant
- Gentleman B. (2003) – directed by Jordan Alan
- Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003) – directed by John Whitesell
- Waste Land (2007) – directed by Rebecca Chaney – short
- Slumber Party Slaughter (2012) – directed by Rebecca Chaney
- Unity (2015) – directed by Shaun Monson – narrator – documentary
- Night of Cups (2016) – directed by Terrence Malick
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