AFTER RYAN O’NEAL’S PASSING, ALI MACGRAW PAID TRIBUTE TO HIM, AS THEY WERE ONCE TOGETHER

Ryan O’Neil passed away on the 8th of December, at a Santa Monica hospital, in California. He was struggling with prostate cancer since 2012, when he was diagnosed with the disease. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a decade later he was diagnosed with leukemia.

O’Neil was born in 1941, in Los Angeles. He first went into Boxing, before he started acting in 1960. It was in 1964, when he became the Rodney Harringon in the Peyton Place. He had his breakthrough with the show, and his career rised.
With the “Love Story”, he received an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, and then he continued in his career with “What’s Up, Doc?” and “Paper Moon”.
His son, Patrick O’Neal stated from his social media account, “So this is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to say but here we go. My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving him as he would us…My father Ryan O’Neal has always been my hero. I looked up to him and he was always bigger than life,”
“He is a Hollywood legend…The growth spurt of the first name Ryan can be traced back to my dad…He was Rodney Harrington on Peyton Place 3 days a week and then of course the name Ryan peaked after Love Story (the film that saved Paramount Studios and earned my dad a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame).”

After his passing, many people from the industry had paid tribute to O’Neal, such as Ali MacGraw did too. They were co-stars in “Love Story.”
84-year-old MacGraw had talked about their movie, and how a great experience was working with O’Neal 53 years ago.
She described O’Neal as a skilled actor and a funny and charming man. She stated that she was devastated when heard that O’Neal was passed away.
MacGraw said, “My heart goes out to all four of his children and to the people who loved him most. Ryan and I worked together again several years ago with the road company for Love Letters. It was a wonderful experience, and I shall miss him and the fun we shared……and I pray that he will find Peace at last,”

At the 50th anniversary of their movie, in 2021, O’Neal and MacGraw talked about their relationship, as MacGraw said, “We had absolutely nothing in common. He was a California kid, had been a movie star, was athletic.”
“We just clicked.”
O’Neal said, “It was magic.” And MacGraw added, “I had no idea, up until the night we saw it and the whole audience was crying at the end.”
O’Neal remembered a thing, where they were driving by the Village Theater in Los Angeles, “There was one all the way around the block, and when we asked, ‘Is this for this show?’ They said, ‘No, it’s for the next one.'”
And MacGraw stated that the crew, O’Neal, and the director, Arthur Hiller deserved the success of the movie as she said, “They all knew what they were doing. And so, because I’ve worked so long behind the camera and loved it, I have huge respect for that part of what makes a movie great. And all the pieces went together.”

In 2015, O’Neal and MacGraw talked when they reunited at the Broadway play of “Love Letters”, by A.R. Gurney, at the Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts.
“We are more than friends. [Ali] is like my sister, only she had better lock her door at night so I can’t get in there. We have some unfinished business, and we are running out of time!” O’Neal said.

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