Terry O’Neill, who as a novice photographer discovered himself taking pictures photos of an up-and-coming group known as the Beatles and by no means appeared again, spending a lifetime capturing memorable pictures of musicians, film stars and different celeb gods of the age, died on Saturday at his dwelling in London. He was 81.
Carrie Kania, inventive director of Iconic Photos, the London company that represents him, mentioned the trigger was prostate most cancers.
Mr. O’Neill was the photographer of alternative for a wide selection of the celebs of the 1960s and past. He photographed not solely the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but in addition Frank Sinatra; not solely traditional Hollywood actresses like Audrey Hepburn, but in addition newer big-screen favorites like Nicole Kidman. Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and different distinguished politicians turned up in his lens as properly.
Mr. O’Neill had a manner with placing well-known folks comfortable and have become associates with lots of these he photographed. For a time within the 1980s he was married to Faye Dunaway, having taken one in every of his best-known pictures of her in 1977 on the morning after she received an Oscar for her efficiency in “Community.”
That image — Ms. Dunaway lounging beside the pool on the Beverly Hills Lodge — and the story behind it present Mr. O’Neill’s desire for the informal shot over the stiff portrait, a signature of his work. Folks journal had assigned him to get {a photograph} of Ms. Dunaway, assuming she would win the Oscar.
“Whereas we have been doing the photographs, I mentioned to her: ‘I’ve been to the Oscars earlier than. When you win, they at all times take the identical photos of you receiving the statue within the press room,’” Mr. O’Neill informed New York journal’s web site The Cut in 2015. “I knew that wasn’t the actual story — the actual story is the following day, once they understand all of a sudden they’re getting all these presents to do movies, their worth goes from $100,000 to $10 million, they usually’re simply kind of shocked. I wished to seize that.”
One other well-known O’Neill picture was of Brigitte Bardot, captured in 1971 throughout an unguarded second whereas she was on location in Spain, cigarette in her mouth, windblown strands of hair throughout her face.
“That was the final body in a roll of 35 millimeter,” he informed The Irish Examiner in 2013. “The wind blew and I took the image.”
“I solely had one crack at it,” he added, “and it turned out to be a stunner.”
Amongst Mr. O’Neill’s favourite topics was Elton John; the picture on the quilt of his “Best Hits” (1974), of Mr. John in a white go well with and oversize glasses, is his. Sinatra and David Bowie, two decidedly totally different singers, have been additionally photographed repeatedly by Mr. O’Neill.
“I didn’t like his voice,” Mr. O’Neill confessed of Bowie in an interview last year with The Scotsman, “as a result of I’m a jazz fan, a blues fan, and probably not into that kind of music. However he was an interesting man to work with.”
Current-day stars and celebrities, he discovered, weren’t so fascinating, missing the magnetism and larger-than-life high quality of the topics of his photographic heyday.
“I don’t need to {photograph} anybody anymore,” he informed The Scotsman.
“I feel,” he added, “I used to be born at a time the place I had the perfect of the perfect to shoot.”
Terence Patrick O’Neill was born on July 30, 1938, in London. His father, Leonard, was a foreman at a Ford plant, and his mom, Josephine, was a homemaker.
He left college at 14, and several other years later, aiming to turn into a jazz drummer, he sought a job as a flight attendant with British Abroad Airways Company, the forerunner of British Airways. He hoped to strive jazz golf equipment in New York throughout layovers. As a substitute, the airline positioned him in a pictures unit primarily based at Heathrow Airport.
As he informed the story later, one {photograph} began him on his profession path. A part of his job was to take photos of individuals arriving and departing. He shot one in every of a well-dressed napping man in a bowler hat surrounded by African chieftains in conventional regalia. The person within the hat was the politician R.A. Butler, who was dwelling secretary on the time, and the image discovered its method to the newspapers, and editors on Fleet Road took discover.
“They mentioned, ‘You’ve acquired a watch’, however I had no concept,” he informed The Scotsman. “I mentioned, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’ however they mentioned, ‘Simply maintain doing it, we’ll prepare you,’ they usually did. They turned me right into a photographer.”
He labored for The Every day Sketch, a tabloid newspaper, for a time, then struck out on his personal. An early project was to {photograph} the Beatles in 1963 simply as they have been breaking huge in England. The Stones quickly known as asking for his providers.
He continued to {photograph} each teams and their particular person members as they rocketed to fame. He was nonetheless photographing Paul McCartney some 4 a long time later. Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Tom Jones, Boy George, Led Zeppelin, Joan Baez and numerous different musicians additionally flip up in his archive.
Mr. O’Neill married the actress Vera Day in 1963; they divorced in 1981. He and Ms. Dunaway have been married from 1982 to 1987. In 2001 he married Laraine Ashton, founding father of a modeling company, with whom he had had a protracted relationship. She survives him, as do two youngsters from his first marriage, Sarah and Keegan; a son from his second marriage, Liam; a stepson, Claude; and three grandchildren.
In 2018 Mr. O’Neill talked to The Scotsman about his assortment of tens of millions of negatives.
“I look again in any respect the photographs and I can’t consider the life I’ve had,” he mentioned. “They’re all recollections for me.”