Baby Tatum and dad RyanToday is the 75th birthday of early 70s cinema's golden boy Ryan O'Neal. Happy Birthday Father o' Tatum. The picture to the left is just the cutest thing ever, don't you think? If not you don't cherish and worship and love to revisit Paper Moon (1973) in which the real life father & daughter stars played a fictional father and daughter, and played it to perfection in one of the greatest movies of that enormously fine cinematic decade.
But today, perhaps, younger readers don't really know Ryan O'Neal. In today's celebrity parlance I would suggest that he's something like a cross between Ryan Phillipe (all-american golden boy, super young dad as celebrity parenting goes, who remains more famous for his personal life than his career) and Leonardo DiCaprio (I shall explain). After coming to fame on television's Peyton Place (1964-1969) O'Neal was Oscar nominated for the #1 box office behemoth Love Story (1970) which we presume was something like the Titanic of its day. A bold statement you say? Perhaps not so bold...
Love Story (1970)
His first headshot at 18 and an Andy Warhol portrait in 1971 age 30
What's Up Doc? (1972)
Paper Moon (1973)
Love Story was the #1 movie of its year and featured doomed lovers from different classes (only one of whom dies), famous Oscar-winning theme music, and it sealed its fresh screen couple together forever in the public consciousness. Tthere the similarities end. Ali and Ryan both eventually ended up with stars even more famous than they were, Steve McQueen and Farrah Fawcett, respectively. Kate & Leo are never going to find partners as famous as themselves unless they marry each other. The other major difference is of course that Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw's superstar careers were shortlived in comparison to DiCaprio & Winslet's who, it's wise to remember, were already acclaimed Oscar-nominated actors even before Titanic sank and made them big screen immortals. MacGraw vanished quickly from the limelight since hubby Steve McQueen didn't want her acting but Ryan maintained a major headlining career for a good dozen years after this initial smash.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
His post "Doc" rematch with Barbra Streisand, The Main Event (1979)
a People Magazine cover photo in 1984 with Farrah Fawcett
Irreconciliable Differences (1983) with Sharon Stone
Though critics never fully took to him he managed that Oscar nomination, and an Oscar worthy un-nominated performance in his best film Paper Moon (1973). He was also a fine romantic comedy foil for mega-Streisand in two romcom hits (What's Up Doc? and The Main Event) but, as we've discussed many-a-time, men who excel in that genre are rarely appreciated for it. (Ick! women's pictures... rrrright?)
Plus he even did an auteur picture! Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975). So all in all a sturdy career and he's still working, currently in a recurring role on TV's Bones.
And he sure was pretty in the 1970s and 1980s, wasn't he?