Who is Tatum Beatrice O'Neal?

Who is Tatum Beatrice O'Neal? The entertainment and acting world knows Tatum O'Neal asan American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. She is the youngest to win a competitive Academy Award, at the age of 10.

Family background

O'Neal was born November 5, 1963 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of actors Ryan O'Neal and Joanna Moore, who had appeared in various motion pictures and television shows. Her brother, Griffin, was born in 1964. In 1967, her parents divorced and her father quickly remarried. Her father's marriage to actress Leigh Taylor-Young produced Tatum's half-brother, Patrick, but the union ended in divorce in 1973. Tatum has another half-brother, Redmond, from Ryan O'Neal's relationship with actress Farrah Fawcett. O'Neal's mother died in 1997 of lung cancer at age 63, after a career in which she had appeared in such movies as Walk on the Wild Side and Follow That Dream.

Career

Child actress

In 1974, Tatum O'Neal became the youngest person ever to win a competitive Academy Award. She 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. O'Neal played the role of Addie Loggins, a child con artist being tutored by a Depression-era grifter played by her father, Ryan. She was 10 years old at the time she won the award.
During her childhood and teenage years, O'Neal starred in notable films such as The Bad News Bears (1976) with Walter Matthau, International Velvet (1978) with Christopher Plummer and Anthony Hopkins, and Little Darlings (1980) with Kristy McNichol. She also appeared in the less-successful film Nickelodeon (1976) with her father Ryan, and in Circle of Two (1980) with Richard Burton. She appeared as the title character in the Faerie Tale Theatre episode Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1984).

Adult career

O'Neal's acting career took a backseat to her 1986 marriage to John McEnroe, a professional tennis player, for many years. Their relationship began in 1984 during which time she moved into his Central Park West condo in New York City.^[1] She would appear in only five films during the next 15 years. One notable role of hers was in Basquiat (1996).
In the early 2000s, O'Neal began acting again and made guest appearances on Sex and the City, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent. In 2005, O'Neal began a recurring role as Maggie Gavin on the firehouse drama series Rescue Me, portraying the unbalanced and lively sister of Tommy Gavin, played by Denis Leary.
In January 2006, she participated in the second season of ABC's reality series Dancing with the Stars but was eliminated in the second round. She went on to do commentary for the series on Entertainment Tonight.
From 2006 to 2007, she portrayed the vindictive and psychotic Blythe Hunter in the My Network TV drama Wicked Wicked Games. She appears opposite Nashawn Kearse and Vanessa L. Williams in the film My Brother (2007).

Personal life

Family and relationships

Michael Jackson

John McEnroe

One of O'Neal's first public boyfriends was pop star Michael Jackson, whom she dated in the late 1970s to early '80s. In 1986, O'Neal married tennis player John McEnroe. She invited no one from her family to attended the ceremony. The couple have three children: Kevin (born 1986), Sean (born 1987) and Emily (born 1991). They separated in December 1992 and were divorced in 1994. Following the divorce, O'Neal's drug problems reemerged and she developed an addiction to heroin. As a result of her drug problems, McEnroe obtained custody of the children in 1998.^[2]
O'Neal was estranged from her father for 20 years^[3].

Arrest

On June 1, 2008, she was arrested for buying crack cocaine near her Manhattan apartment building.^[4] When police searched her, they found two bags of drugs — one of crack cocaine, one of regular cocaine — and an unused crack pipe.^[4] She was charged with a misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance. Authorities released her without bail.^[4] 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.^[5]

Autobiography claims

In her autobiography, A Paper Life, O'Neal alleged that she had been molested by a male friend of her father. She also alleges physical and emotional abuse from her father, much of which she attributed to drug use. She also detailed her own heroin addiction and its effects on her relationship with her children. Her father, Ryan, denied these allegations.^[6] In a prepared statement, Ryan O'Neal said: "It is a sad day when malicious lies are told in order to become a 'best-seller'."^[6]
O'Neal writes in her autobiography that when she was 13, her father took her and her friend Melanie Griffith (18 at the time^[7]) on a trip to Europe, where she caught him having sex with Griffith in their hotel room.^[7]

In 2011. O'Neal wrote a new collections of memoirs entitled "Found": A Daughter's Journey Home" which dealt with her tempestuous relationship with her father, tempestuous marriage to John McEnroe, and her recent drug arrest.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1973	Paper Moon	Addie Loggins	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year – Actress
1976	The Bad News Bears	Amanda Whurlizer
	Nickelodeon	Alice Forsyte
1978	International Velvet	Sarah Brown
1980	Circle of Two	Sarah Norton
	Little Darlings	Ferris
1981	Prisoners	Christie	(never released)
1985	Certain Fury	Scarlet
1992	Little Noises	Stella
1996	Basquiat	Cynthia Kruger
2002	The Scoundrel's Wife	Camille Picou	US video title: The Home Front
2003	The Technical Writer	Slim
2006	My Brother	Erica
2008	Saving Grace	Grace
	Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal	Lorene Tippit
2010	The Runaways	Marie Harmon
	Last Will	Hayden Emery
	Sweet Lorraine	Lorraine Bebee	completed
	Mr. Sophistication	Kim Waters	filming

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Faerie Tale Theatre	Goldilocks	"Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
1989	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Kim	"15 and Getting Straight"
1993	Woman on the Run: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story	Lawrencia Bembenek
2003	Sex and the City	Kyra	"A Woman's Right to Shoes"
2004	8 Simple Rules	Ms. McKenna	"Opposites Attract: Part 3: Night of the Locust"
	Law and Order: Criminal Intent	Kelly Garnett	"Semi-Detached"
2005	Ultimate Film Fanatic Featuring Silvia Lozano as Co-Star		judge
	Rescue Me	Maggie	cast member, 2005 to 2009
2006	Dancing with the Stars	Herself	5 episodes
	Wicked Wicked Games	Blythe Hunter	51 episodes

 

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