Photographer who captured the Swinging Sixties
As a young photographer, Terry O’Neill, who has died aged 81, was sent to take pictures of The Beatles, said The Times. The Fab Four were working on their first single, and they chatted about the “real jobs” they’d get, in two or three years. Ringo said he might open a chain of hair salons; John mused about tailoring. “We all thought it was going to come to an end,” said O’Neill. In fact, the good-looking, workingclass Londoner was only at the beginning of a career that would see him capture the Swinging Sixties on both sides of the Atlantic, and become one of the most celebrated portrait photographers of his generation.
His most memorable images include Brigitte Bardot smoking a cheroot; Frank Sinatra flanked by heavies in Miami; and Faye Dunaway slumped in a chair beside a pool in Beverly Hills, surrounded by newspapers, the morning after she won an Oscar in 1977. O’Neill was married to Dunaway for four years (and had affairs with countless female stars of the day). But he hated the celebrity circus, said The Daily Telegraph: he abhorred drugs; he was too busy working to stay up all night with rock stars; and he knew the importance of remaining an outsider. On his shoot with Sinatra, he resisted the temptation to join the singer for a drink. “I realised if I was sitting there drinking, somebody else would be taking the photographs.”
Born to Irish immigrant parents in 1938, Terence O’Neill was brought up in the westernmost fringes of London, near Heathrow. As a child, he briefly trained for the priesthood, then set his sights on moving to America to become a jazz drummer. In an effort to get free passage across the Atlantic, he applied for a job as an airline steward – and instead, was given a job in a photography unit. His life changed in 1959 when, on assignment at Heathrow, he took a photo of an old gent dozing on a bench, surrounded by African dignitaries. The man turned out to be Rab Butler, the home secretary, and on the back of that photo O’Neill was offered a job at the Daily Sketch. There, the more experienced hands weren’t interested in photographing up and coming pop stars – and so it was O’Neill who ended up trailing The Beatles and the Stones. In the 1970s, David Bowie and Elton John were among his favourite subjects. And in 1992, he photographed the Queen: he’d worried about meeting her for months, but she put him at ease, and he told her a joke about racing, to make her smile. Naturally charming, he had learnt how to win around even the most difficult stars. “Compliments. More compliments, that’s it,” he explained. “And well... you could add more compliments.”
The 1960s, said O’Neill, were an extraordinary time. “I wouldn’t know how to succeed in today’s world if I was starting again. I don’t know where I’d get the inspiration. Back then, film stars were film stars, they had personalities, the secret to their success was hard work, resilience. Now it’s 15 minutes of fame... I’ve got no interest in it whatsoever.” He enjoyed photographing Amy Winehouse in 2008, however; and said his biggest regret was passing up the chance to photograph Marilyn Monroe. He had, he said, fallen in love with Monroe’s PR assistant. She didn’t want him to meet the star, because she was afraid he’d end up sleeping with her – so he agreed not to. “What a mug.” He is survived by his third wife, Laraine Ashton; his two children with his first wife, the actress Vera Day; and his son with Dunaway.