Terry O’neill, photographer who captured Swinging Sixties, dies at 81
Photographer Terry O’neill, who rose to fame with work with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, has died at the age of 81 following a long illness.
Sir Elton John tweeted: “Terry O’neill took the most iconic photographs of me throughout the years, completely capturing my moods. He was brilliant, funny and I absolutely loved his company. A real character who has now passed on. RIP you wonderful man. Love, Elton xx”
One of O’neill’s last major public appearances was when he received his CBE for services to photography from the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace in October.
O’neill, who had been suffering from prostate cancer and was in a wheelchair, said the award “surpasses anything I’ve had happen to me in my life”.
Actress and singer Barbra
Streisand tweeted: “Terry O’neill, you took such wonderful pictures. May you RIP”
O’neill is one of the world’s most collected photographers, with his work hanging in national art galleries and private collections worldwide.
His images have graced album covers, film posters and magazines and by 1965 he was being asked to work with the biggest magazines and newspapers in the world.
The Royal Photographic Society said he had realised that the youth culture of the 1960s was a key moment in time globally and he began to record the new faces in film, fashion and music who would go on to become stars.
His work, which captures the heights of the Swinging Sixties, included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when they were still struggling young bands, along with David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry.
Film stars such as Sir
Michael Caine and Raquel Welch remained lifelong friends.
Sir Michael previously described O’neill as “a historian whose camera captured the resurgence and energy of this revolution”.
The Queen and Nelson Mandela have posed for portraits with O’neill and striking images of Sir Winston Churchill are also among his archive.
Footballers Bobby Moore, Franz Beckenbauer, Pele and George Best; manager Brian Clough, boxer Muhammad Ali and Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan were among the sporting greats whom he captured.
He was also known for his photographs of Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Terence Stamp, Jean Shrimpton and Tom Jones through to Bruce Springsteen, Amy Winehouse and U2 in recent decades.