Terry O'Neill (photographer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Terry O'Neill (born July 30, 1938 in London, United Kingdom) is a photographer, who achieved his greatest success documenting the fashion style, and celebrities of the 1960s. He attracted attention for photographing his subjects is unconventional or candid settings.

He began his photographic career working for a photographic unit for an airline at London's Heathrow Airport. By chance he photographed a sleeping figure in a waiting room; when the person was revealed to be the Home Secretary, O'Neill found further employment on Fleet Street with The Daily Sketch in 1959.

His reputation grew during the 1960s, and in addition to photographing the elite the decade's showbusiness icons, such as Judy Garland, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he also photographed members of the British Royal Family, and several prominent politicians, showing a more natural and human side to these subjects than had usually been portrayed before.

He had a longtime relationship with the American actress Faye Dunaway. His son with Dunaway, Liam Dunaway O'Neill, was born in 1980. O'Neill was married to Dunaway from 1983 until 1986. In 2003, he was quoted in the U.S. tabloid magazine, Star, as saying Liam was adopted and not their biological son, contrary to Dunaway's public assertions.^[1] O'Neill is currently married to the former model agency head Laraine Ashton.

Among his most famous images^[2] were the now-famous color and black and white shots of then-girlfriend Dunaway at dawn on March 29, 1977, lounging next to the swimming pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel the morning after winning the Best Actress Oscar, with several newspapers scattered around her and her Oscar statuette prominently shown on a table beside her breakfast tray.^[3]^[4] A black and white shot from the series hangs in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.^[2]

O'Neill was also credited (as Terrence O'Neill) as an executive producer of the 1981 film Mommie Dearest^[5]. His only other film credit was for still photography for the 1987 film, Aria^[6].

In a February 27, 2006 voice mail message which was widely circulated on the Internet by its recipient, Dunaway called O'Neill "a big, big liar" and "a man I will not even waste my time discussing" in a scheduled interview. She said O'Neill "stopped working when he married me and pretended to be my manager for a very long time." She added that he "put our child in jeopardy the way he had" without elaborating.^[7]

[edit] References

^ "Dunaway's Son Liam Adopted, Says Ex", ContactMusic news index, March 11, 2003. Accessed January 28, 2007.
^ ^a ^b "About the Art", background information published by the San Francisco Art Exchange. Accessed January 28, 2007.
^ O'Neill, Terry "Oscar Ennui" (1977) Rights owned by Getty Images.
^ O'Neill, Terry "Faye and Oscar" (1977) Image from print owned by Photographers Gallery, Los Angeles.
^ Mommie Dearest (1981), IMDb profile. Accessed January 28, 2007
^ Aria (1987), IMDb profile. Accessed January 28, 2007.
^ WorldofWonder.net item on and recording of Faye Dunaway voicemail. Retrieved on December 8, 2006.