Ryan O'Neal's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Bones Max Keenan Miss Match Jerry Fox Peyton Place Rodney Harr… Bull Robert Robe… Everybody's Talking! Ryan O'Neal Good Sports Bobby Tannen

Main Movie Roles

BIOGRAPHY:

Ryan O'Neal (born April 20, 1941), in Los Angeles, California, the eldest son of actress Patricia and novelist/screenwriter Charles "Blackie" O'Neal. His brother Kevin is an actor and screenwriter. His maternal grandfather was Irish and his maternal grandmother was Russian. O'Neal attended University High School, and trained there to become a Golden Gloves boxer. During the late 1950s, Blackie O'Neal had a job writing on a television series called Citizen Soldier and moved the family to Munich, Germany, where O'Neal attended Munich American High School.

O'Neal's film career took off beginning with his role in Love Story (1970), earning a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1973, he was #2 in the Annual Top Ten Box Office Stars, behind Clint Eastwood. He starred in a series of films for director Peter Bogdanovich, beginning with the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (with Barbra Streisand, 1972); following were Paper Moon (with daughter Tatum O'Neal in an Oscar-winning role, 1973); and Nickelodeon (1976, again with Tatum). Other films of the 1970s included Barry Lyndon (directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1975); A Bridge Too Far (1977); Oliver's Story (1978, a sequel to Love Story); and the car-chase film The Driver (directed by Walter Hill, also 1978).


TRIVIA:

• He attended and graduated from Munich American High School in Munich, Germany, in 1959. His father was a Hollywood writer who was doing a stint working for the American government radio network "Radio Free Europe", which beamed programing and propaganda into Communist-controlled Eastern Europe.
• Is of Irish descent on his father's side and Russian descent on his mother's side.
• Former brother-in-law of 'Dey Young' (qv).
• One of his best friends is 'Charlie Mattera' (qv).
• 5/07: Prosecutors decided not to file charges against him following a brawl with his son and allegations of assault on 2/3/07.
• Brother of 'Kevin O'Neal (I)' (qv).
• His first acting job was on the German series _"Tales of the Vikings" (1959)_ (qv) in 1959.
• Was originally considered for the role of Rocky Balboa in _Rocky (1976)_ (qv). However, "Rocky" scriptwriter 'Sylvester Stallone' (qv) had sold the film rights on the condition that he got to play the title role, so he and not O'Neal wound up starring in the picture. part.