Ryan O'Neal
Dec. 9th, 2023 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
setsuled
Ryan O'Neal passed away at the age of 82 yesterday. After rising to fame on Peyton Place, his big box office success was Love Story, but ironically now his most highly regarded film is Barry Lyndon, the film O'Neal blamed for destroying his career.
He was nominated as often for Golden Raspberries as anything laudatory but O'Neal's bland, unimaginative performance becomes a revelation in Barry Lyndon and an essential part of making his character so curiously authentic. The subtlety of Kubrick's satire would never hit so hard in the climax if it weren't for O'Neal giving the naturally, serenely guileless performance he gives throughout the film.
In other films, he could be a serviceable lead. Earlier this year I enjoyed him in The Big Bounce, his first feature film, though it is much more interesting for its femme fatale character played by Leigh Taylor-Young.
As a handsome lad looking slightly perplexed across from a sly young lady, Ryan O'Neal was second to none.
