TATUM O'NEAL Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

Biography » actors and actresses » tatum o'neal

TATUM O'NEAL

Name: Tatum Beatrice O'Neal                                                       
Born: 5 November 1963 Los Angeles, California, United States                       
                                                                                   
Tatum Beatrice O'Neal (born November 5, 1963 in Los Angeles, California) is an     
Academy Award-winning American actress best known for her film work as a child     
actress in the 1970s. She remains the youngest actor, at the age of 10 years,     
148 days, to win an Oscar.                                                         
                                                                                   
O'Neal was born into the motion picture family of actor Ryan O'Neal and actress   
Joanna Cook Moore. Her brother, Griffin, was born in 1964. In 1967, her parents   
divorced. Her father married actress Leigh Taylor-Young, a marriage which         
produced her half-brother, Patrick. She also 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 Touch of Evil.                                                   
                                                                                   
In her autobiography, A Paper Life, Tatum O'Neal alleged that she had been         
molested by a male friend of her father. Tatum also alleges physical and           
emotional abuse from her father, much of which she attributes to drug use. In     
the book, Tatum also details her own heroin addiction and its effects on her       
relationship with her children.                                                   
                                                                                   
In 1974, Tatum O'Neal became the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award, a   
record that continues. 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.                                                 
                                                                                   
Other movies in which O'Neal appeared include The Bad News Bears, Nickelodeon,     
International Velvet, and Little Darlings. She appeared as the title character     
in the Faerie Tale Theatre episode Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Her acting     
career took a backseat to her marriage to John McEnroe, the professional tennis   
player, for many years, but in 2005 she 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. O'Neal's character is married to a   
firefighter in her brother's firehouse.                                           
                                                                                   
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 early 2007, Tatum starred as the vindictive and psychotic Blythe     
Hunter in the My Network TV prime-time drama Wicked Wicked Games. She appears     
opposite Nashawn Kearse and Vanessa L. Williams in the Liberty Artists feature     
film My Brother (2007).