Ryan O’Neal, the Oscar-nominated star best known for Love Story, died in December 2023 at the age of 82 — more than two decades after first disclosing he had leukaemia. His death certificate confirmed that he died from congestive heart failure, having lived with cardiomyopathy, a long-term heart condition, for several years. Although he became a major figure in American cinema, many fans remember him most for his enduring, if turbulent, relationship with actress Farrah Fawcett. The pair first met in 1979 and spent decades together, separating and reconciling but ultimately remaining devoted to one another through serious illness.
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Both actors were diagnosed with different cancers: O’Neal with chronic myelogenous leukaemia in 2001, and Fawcett with anal cancer, which returned aggressively before her death in 2009. Reflecting on her final months, he spoke of falling “in love with her all over again” as she faced the disease with remarkable strength.
O’Neal’s own leukaemia later went into remission, though he received a second cancer diagnosis in 2012 — prostate cancer, caught at an early stage. He became cancer-free the following year and continued working for another decade, including a recurring role in the television drama Bones.
Despite surviving two major illnesses, O’Neal ultimately died from heart failure on 8 December 2023. His son Patrick announced the news in an emotional tribute, describing his father as his “hero” and “a Hollywood legend”. O’Neal leaves behind four children: Tatum and Griffin, from his first marriage to Joanna Moore; Patrick, from his second marriage to Leigh Taylor-Young; and Redmond, his son with Fawcett. Tatum, long estranged from her father, confirmed they had reconciled before his death.
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O’Neal died at Saint John’s Health Center in Los Angeles — the same hospital where Fawcett had died 14 years earlier. Friends later revealed that he had proposed to Fawcett there shortly before her death, and that the couple might have married had her health not declined so quickly.
Born on 20 April 1941, O’Neal was raised in Los Angeles in a showbusiness family. He found early fame in the 1960s series Peyton Place, followed by major film roles including What’s Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973), in which he starred opposite his daughter Tatum.
On 22 December 2023, O’Neal was laid to rest at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park & Mortuary in Los Angeles. Reports indicate that he was buried beside Fawcett, marking the final chapter of a love story that defined much of his life.
