O'Neal was born in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, California,[2] to actors Ryan O'Neal and Joanna Moore. Her brother, Griffin, was born in 1964. In 1967, her parents divorced[2] and her father quickly married actress Leigh Taylor-Young, together having Tatum's half-brother, Patrick. The two divorced in 1973. Tatum has another half-brother, Redmond, from Ryan O'Neal's relationship with actress Farrah Fawcett. O'Neal's mother died of lung cancer at age 63, after a career in which she appeared in such movies as Walk on the Wild Side and Follow That Dream. Her paternal ancestry is Irish, English, and Ashkenazi Jewish.[3][better source needed]
On April 2, 1974,[4] at age ten, Tatum O'Neal won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for her performance in Paper Moon, released in May 1973.[5] The youngest ever to win a competitive Academy Award,[2] she turned nine years old during filming in autumn 1972.[6][7] O'Neal played the role of Addie Loggins, a child con artist being tutored by a Depression-era grifter played by her father. In her 2010 appearance on RuPaul's Drag Race, O'Neal stated that her father had not attended the Academy Awards ceremony with her due to his busy schedule.
She was cast in Split Image but had to be let go during filming because she was too young (seventeen) for night schools and was replaced by Karen Allen.[8] She appeared as the title character in the Faerie Tale Theatre episode "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (1984).
Later career
O'Neal appeared in only five films during the next 15 years, one of them being Basquiat (1996) as Cynthia Kruger.
In January 2006, she participated in the second season of ABC's reality series Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Nick Kosovich. They were eliminated in the second round. She went on to do commentary for the series on Entertainment Tonight.
One of O'Neal's first reported relationships was with singer Michael Jackson in the late 1970s. In a 2002 interview with Martin Bashir, Jackson said that O'Neal tried to seduce him, but he was terrified by the idea of sex.[10] O'Neal adamantly denied all of Jackson's claims in her 2004 autobiography and stated that her relationship with Jackson was platonic.[11]
O'Neal's relationship with tennis player John McEnroe began in 1984 when she moved into his Central Park West apartment in New York City.[12] They married in 1986.[2][13] The couple have three children: Kevin, Sean and Emily.[2] They separated in 1992 and were divorced in 1994.[2] Following the divorce, O'Neal's drug problems reemerged and she developed an addiction to heroin. As a result, McEnroe obtained custody of the children in 1998.[14]
In 2011, Tatum and her father began to restore their relationship after 25 years. Their reunion and reconciliation process was captured in the short-lived Oprah Winfrey Network series Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals.[15][16][17] In 2015, she said she had begun dating women, while choosing not to identify herself as homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual, saying, "I'm not one or the other."[18]
Arrest
On June 1, 2008, O'Neal was arrested for buying crack cocaine near her Manhattan apartment building.[19] When police searched her, they allegedly found two bags of drugs—one of crack cocaine, one of powder cocaine—and an unused crack pipe.[19] She was charged with a misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance. Authorities released her without bail.[19] On July 2, 2008, O'Neal pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with the arrest and agreed to spend two half-day sessions in a drug treatment program.[20]
Stroke
In May 2020, O’Neal suffered a massive stroke caused by a prescription drug overdose. She was discovered unconscious by a friend, and the stroke left her in a coma for a month and a half. When she reawakened, she could not remember how to speak. She has since struggled to relearn everything.[21]
Autobiographies
In her 2004 autobiography, A Paper Life, O'Neal alleged that she was molested by her father's drug dealer when she was 12. She also alleges physical and emotional abuse by her father, much of which she attributed to drug use. She also detailed her heroin addiction and its effects on her relationship with her children. Her father denied the allegations.[22] In a prepared statement, Ryan O'Neal said: "It is a sad day when malicious lies are told in order to become a 'bestseller.'"[22]
In 2011, O'Neal wrote a new collection of memoirs, Found: A Daughter's Journey Home, which dealt with her tempestuous relationship with her father, volatile marriage to McEnroe, and recent drug arrest.[23]
^Profile, familysearch.org; accessed June 22, 2014.
^"The 46th Academy Awards: 1974". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. October 4, 2014. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
^ abcAlison Gendar; Bill Hutchinson (June 2, 2008). "Tatum O'Neal in crack bust". Daily News. New York City. Archived from the original on August 3, 2009. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
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