Inside Ryan O'Neal's star-studded romances from Farrah Fawcett relationship to dates with Joan Colli
RYAN O'Neal enjoyed star-studded romances with acting legend Farrah Fawcett - and even dated Joan Collins and Diana Ross.
Tributes have been paid today following the “peaceful” passing of the heartthrob actor who was one of the world's biggest movie stars.
Patrick O'Neal, a Los Angeles sportscaster, posted about his beloved dad's death today on Instagram.
"My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us," he said.
No cause of death was given for the star, who was aged 82.
O'Neal was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012, a decade after he was first diagnosed with chronic leukemia.
READ MORE ON RYAN O'NEAL
He enjoyed a steady television acting career into his 70s in the 2010s, appearing for stints on Bones and Desperate Housewives.
However, it was his longtime relationship with Farrah Fawcett and his tumultuous family life that ensured countless headlines.
The "Love Story" and "Peyton Place" star was twice divorced.
He was famously romantically involved with Fawcett for nearly 30 years, and they had a son, Redmond, who was born in 1985.
Most read in Entertainment
But the couple split in 1997.
They reunited a few years later, and he remained by Fawcett's side while she battled cancer, which killed her in 2009 at the age of 62.
Patrick said: "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."
"BREATHTAKING FAWCETT"
He was clearly smitten with the "Charlie's Angels" star whose feathered blond hair and dazzling smile made her one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1970s.
During an interview with Ryan Tubridy on "The Late Late Show", O'Neal spoke about the first time he met Fawcett during a racquetball game at Lee Majors' house - who Fawcett was married to at the time.
He said in 2015: "I knew who she was, she was a 'Charlie's Angels,' but I hadn't seen 'Charlie's Angels.'
"I didn't know the intensity of her popularity.
"So I went and I played and there she was in the driveway. My god, she was breathtaking."
"LOVE OF FARRAH'S LIFE"
O'Neal also told People magazine: "There was never a day I didn’t love her."
Oprah Daily reported that Fawcett's pal, Sylvia Dorsey, said: "Ryan was the love of her life.
"I don’t think she was happy without him.
"They fought and loved with passion. It was never boring. They were electric together.”
"BRAVE FARRAH"
Fawcett burst on the scene in 1976 as one-third of the crime-fighting trio in TV's "Charlie's Angels" alongside Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.
They disguised themselves in bathing suits and as hookers and strippers to solve crimes.
A poster of her in a clingy red swimsuit sold in the millions.
Fawcett - then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors because of her marriage to "The Six Million Dollar Man" star and "bionic man" Lee Majors - quickly became the most popular Angel of all.
O'Neal said in 2009 that he had asked Fawcett to marry him and she agreed.
He added: "I've loved her more these last years than ever… she doesn't want anyone to pity her or worry.
"She puts up a brave fight as if everything is fine, when it's not."
With his first wife, Joanna Moore, O'Neal fathered actors Griffin O'Neal and Tatum O'Neal, his co-star in the 1973 movie "Paper Moon," for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress.
He had son Patrick with his second wife, Leigh Taylor-Young.
O'Neal also dated Joan Collins, while she was Mrs Anthony Newley.
ROSS THE "DIVA"
And, before he fell in love with Fawcett, he dated music icon Diana Ross.
Cheatsheet wrote that in 1979, two years after her divorce from Bob Silberstein, O’Neal called the singer in a bid to recruit her for "The Bodyguard".
They were soon spotted kissing in public.
The couple had met years before as they had neighboring properties in Malibu.
But, according to "Diana Ross: A Biography" by J. Randy Taraborrelli, he dumped the star after becoming fed up with her behaving like a diva.
O'Neal worked across various genres with many of the era's most celebrated directors including '70s giant Peter Bogdanovich on "Paper Moon" and "What's Up, Doc?" as well as Stanley Kubrick on "Barry Lyndon".
He often used his boyish, blond good looks to play men who hid shadowy or sinister backgrounds behind their clean-cut images.
O'Neal got a best-actor Oscar nomination for the 1970 tear-jerker drama "Love Story", co-starring Ali MacGraw, about a young couple who fall in love, marry and discover she is dying of cancer.
The movie includes the memorable, but often satirized line: "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
After Love Story made him a major movie star, O'Neal was considered for seemingly every major leading role in Hollywood.
STREISAND
O'Neal starred as a bumbling professor opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1972 screwball comedy "What's Up, Doc?"
Streisand, who also starred with O'Neal in the 1979 boxing romcom "The Main Event", paid tribute to him on X, formerly Twitter.
She said: "So sad to hear the news of Ryan O’Neal’s passing. We made two films together, What’s Up, Doc? and The Main Event.
Read More on The US Sun
"He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered."
O'Neal is survived by his four children, including Tatum O'Neal, and five grandchildren.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEZqqupl6YvK57xKernqqklravucSnq2hxaGd%2BdX2YaKmymZ5ivK%2BxwKWqZqqfoq6vr8SsZJ%2BZoqeuqXnFmq6cnaSpequ7wKdknKecobavv4ydoJqmkWK%2FsL%2FSaA%3D%3D