Ryan O’Neill, a leading star in 1970s Hollywood known for such iconic films as “Love Story” and “Paper Moon,” has died. This was announced by his son in a series of emotional posts.

Ryan O’Neill

On December 8, Patrick O’Neill shared on Instagram that his father died “with his loving team by his side who supported him and loved him as he would have loved us”. He went on to “share some sentiments to give you an idea of ​​how great a man he is.” Patrick described his father as “my hero,” the Guardian reported.

“I looked up to him and he was always larger than life. When I was born in 1967, my father was already a TV star on Peyton Place. There he met my mother, Lee Taylor-Young, and around 9 months later I was born,” he wrote.

Young O’Neal then began talking about some of the TV shows and movies that made his father a global superstar.

“My father became an international movie star with ‘Love Story’ in the early 1970s – a decade he completely crushed by starring in films like ‘What’s Up Doctor?’, ‘Paper Moon,’ ” Barry Lyndon’, ‘A Bridge Too Far’, ‘The Main Event’ and ‘The Driver’.

The news of O’Neill’s death comes after two cancer diagnoses. In 2001, the actor was diagnosed with chronic leukemia, and in 2012 – with prostate cancer.

O’Neill made his way as an actor by appearing in various American television shows during the 1960s. He has guest starred on shows such as The Untouchables, General Electric Theatre, Leave it to the Beaver and others.

He went on to appear as a regular on NBC’s Empire and later on the primetime serial drama Peyton Place. In 1970, he rose to world fame after starring as Ally McGraw in Love Story, a film that earned him Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.

After “Love Story,” O’Neal starred with Barbra Streisand in “What’s Up, Doctor?” and “The Main Event”. In between these films, he appeared alongside his then 9-year-old daughter Tatum O’Neal in the 1973 film Paper Moon, for which he again received a Golden Globe nomination.

In 1975, he played the title role in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and appeared in many other films throughout the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 1980s.

In his personal life, O’Neill has been married and divorced to fellow actresses Joanna Moore and Peyton Place co-star Leigh Taylor-Young. He later had a three-decade-long relationship with Charlie’s Angels’ Farrah Fawcett. The couple was together until her death in 2009.

O’Neill is a father of four: Tatum O’Neal and Griffin O’Neal, who he had with his first wife, Moore; Patrick O’Neill with his second wife Taylor-Young and Redmond James Fawcett O’Neill with his longtime partner Fawcett.

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