Ryan O'Neal Dead, ‘Love Story’ Star Passes At 82(1)

Transcript

00:00 Ryan O'Neal was the envy of every young actor. He was handsome, athletic and

00:04 charming. We first saw a 23 year old Ryan in 1964's Peyton Place. But landing the

00:10 coveted lead in 1970's Love Story about a husband dealing with his wife's

00:13 terminal illness took Ryan's career to a higher level. Peter Fonda, Michael

00:17 Douglas and John Voight were also considered for the role. I went to Ryan

00:21 O'Neal he did a much better job than I would have done I think. The film was a

00:25 smash hit earning Ryan an Oscar nomination and two years later Ryan

00:28 proved he was equally adept at comedy with the highly successful What's Up

00:33 Doc opposite Barbara Streisand. I'm sorry. Let me tell you something, love means

00:39 never having to say you're sorry. That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.

00:45 1973's Paper Moon paired O'Neal with real-life daughter Tatum. The performance

00:50 earned her the Oscar but Tatum later claimed that her early years were not

00:54 easy with her perfectionist father. You didn't want to run over his newspaper,

00:58 you didn't want to leave no eggs in the house, you didn't want it be too noisy,

01:02 didn't want to wake him before 11. While he would never match his success of the

01:06 1970's Ryan's clean-cut good looks and boyish charm kept him busy in such

01:11 projects as the epic Barry Lyndon, the main event and irreconcilable differences

01:16 with a then nine-year-old Drew Barrymore. O'Neal was divorced twice first from

01:20 actress Joanna Moore, mother of Tatum and Griffin, then from actress Lee Taylor

01:24 Young, mother of Patrick. But the most well-known of Ryan's relationships was

01:28 with a woman he never married, Farrah Fawcett. Where's my Ryan? My daddy. The lack of nuptials was a subject of much speculation

01:35 especially when Farrah became pregnant with their son Redmond in 1984. In 2001

01:41 Ryan, always the picture of health, revealed that he had cancer. Chronic

01:45 myeloid leukemia. But with the illness soon in remission, Ryan continued working

01:50 including a brief stint on ABC's Desperate Housewives. And two decades

01:55 after their love affair began, Ryan and Farrah appeared to be more on than off

01:59 on Farrah's reality show, Chasing Farrah. We've never not been together or been

02:05 connected. We have a son, you know, so we've all been together.

02:13 I don't think you could have gone through what we went through and been

02:16 together that long and then just totally not been together. Ryan, do you feel like

02:20 Farrah's waiting for you when it is your time? I hope she is. I do. Makes it easier.

02:30 you

02:32 you

02:34 you

02:36 you

02:38 (upbeat music)