But despite an appealing screen presence and obvious natural talent - also displayed in the classic comedies "The Bad News Bears" (1976) and "Little Darlings" (1980) - O'Neal found it difficult to maintain a focused and steady acting career due to a tumultuous personal life. An unstable Hollywood childhood rife with drugs, alcohol and abuse, thanks to absentee parents with problems of their own, led to her own heroin addiction and an ill-fated marriage to hot-tempered tennis pro John McEnroe. Following the release of O'Neal's 2004 tell-all memoir
A Paper Life, she seemed finally ready to resume her neglected career and landed a recurring role on the Emmy-winning drama "Rescue Me" (FX, 2004-). She was slated to appear in a pair of features when she made headlines again in 2008 for a drug arrest after being sober for several years.
Tatum O'Neal was born on Nov. 5, 1963, a third generation actress with entertainment professionals on both sides her family. At the time of her birth, her father Ryan was an up-and-coming actor and son of stage actress, Patricia Callaghan, and screenwriter, Charles "Blackie" O'Neal. O'Neal's mother was actress Joanna Moore, a Southern Belle who was often seen portraying the same in westerns and dramas on the big and small screens. Ryan and Joanna had an acrimonious split when O'Neal was three, and she and her two-year-old brother Griffin endured several chaotic years of their mother's heavy drinking, drug use and revolving door of young boyfriends, until a stint in rehab and a drunk driving arrest prompted O'Neal to gain custody of his children in 1971. At the time, the handsome actor was one of America's top stars and was coming off hit films "Love Story" (1970) and "What's Up Doc?" (1971). His beachside Malibu home was certainly an improvement over their mother's tumbledown ranch in the San Fernando Valley, but O'Neal's tumultuous early years had already taken a toll on the eight-year-old, who was desperately lonely and constantly looking for attention from a busy father with an unpredictable temper. The actress would later admit that she almost became jealous of her father's numerous girlfriends, as she wanted his attention all to herself.
It was unlikely that film director Peter Bogdanovich knew the details of O'Neal's rocky foundation, but after meeting her at a beach party he was convinced that she could carry the co-lead opposite her father in "Paper Moon." The film followed a scrappy, nine-year-old orphan and one of her floozy ma's ex-boyfriends (and possible father) on an interstate road trip during which she reveals con artist skills that surpass those of even her reluctant guardian. Despite her lack of acting experience, O'Neal was a natural and created an effective rootless depression-era waif by tapping into her own bruised innocence, bravery, and wise-beyond-her years wariness. The accomplishment wowed critics and audiences, and in 1973 she became the youngest recipient of a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award at the age of 10. Sadly, O'Neal would later reveal that neither parent attended the Oscars to watch their daughter's landmark moment and that her father became somewhat jealous of her success. Now nearly as well-known as her father, she became his frequent companion on the Hollywood party scene where she was unfazed by drinking, sex, and drugs and began to dabble in all three before she was a teen. She was just happy to be with him.
Naturally, studios came knocking for the young new talent, who was offered a then-record breaking payday of $350,000 and nine percent of the net profits for "The Bad News Bears." In the classic comedy about a ragtag group of little league losers helmed by a drunken coach (Walter Matthau), O'Neal was again tapped for her sassy independence in her role as the team's sole female and top player. She teamed with her father and Bogdanovich again that year for the loose DeMille biopic "Nickelodeon" (1976), which found little success, but in hindsight, proved to be an underrated, delightful valentine to the early days of filmmaking. The following year, the 14-year-old purchased a condo for her mother, whose own career had skidded to a stop amid her rampant drug and alcohol use. Young Tatum returned to the screen to play an Olympic hopeful equestrian (and another orphan) in "International Velvet" (1978), a sequel to the 1944 Elizabeth Taylor vehicle "National Velvet" and a moderately popular family film.
In 1980, O'Neal and Kristy McNichol co-starred as a pair of summer campers vying to be the first to lose their virginity in "Little Darlings" (1980) - the first film which showed the cute "Paper Moon" kid was growing into a comely young lady. In a considerably less successful sex-themed film, she co-starred opposite Richard Burton in "Circle of Two" (1980) as the schoolgirl object of desire of a 60-year-old artist. By the time O'Neal played a streetwalker in the dreadful B-actioner "Certain Fury" (1985), many were left wondering what had happened to the actress who had showed such great promise at such an early age. Turns out, she had more important things on her mind in her never-ending quest for the love she was denied.
She had met world champion tennis player and renowned bad sport John McEnroe at a party and the celebrated couple married in 1986. During their rocky relationship, they had three kids and O'Neal's drug use - which had been going strong for several years - went into freefall when she became addicted to heroin. The couple separated in 1992, amidst ugly and violent accusations, and in a scenario that sadly echoed her own upbringing, O'Neal's drug problems meant her ex-husband eventually gained custody of her children.
When she resumed acting in 1992, O'Neal was widely panned for her stage debut in the off-Broadway play "A Terrible Beauty" and little-seen in the role of a playwright in the well-received indie "Little Noises" (1992). The following year, she acquitted herself as a police cadet who escapes prison after committing murder in the based-on-fact miniseries "Woman on the Run: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story" (NBC). O'Neal was seen in a small role as a drug-addicted artist in "Basquiat" (1996) and the following year, she reconciled with her own drug-addicted mother and was at her bedside Moore died from lung cancer. O'Neal re-emerged in 2003 in "The Scoundrel's Wife," where she played a widowed mother in a small village during World War II and earned some acting recognition on the festival circuit, though the film was not released in theaters.
In October 2004, O'Neal published her tell-all memoir A Paper Life (Harper Entertainment), revealing all the tawdry details of her life including her long struggle with drugs and alcohol, her estrangement from her father, and her rocky marriage to McEnroe. Ryan denied her allegations of neglect and abuse - including those involving shoving his two children off to the side in favor of longtime love, Farrah Fawcett. Despite the tragic story, O'Neal's newfound sobriety coupled with her book publicity and the fact that she was still a knockout effectively kick-started her acting career again and she began to make appearances on episodes of "Sex and the City" (HBO, 1998-2004) and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (NBC, 2001- ).
In 2005, O'Neal debuted as the troubled, long-lost sister of Tommy Gavin on the gritty series "Rescue Me" (FX, 2004- ), and over the next three seasons, her character continued to cause chaos with an impromptu marriage and bitter divorce with one of Gavin's firefighting co-workers. She made a less-than-glamorous reality TV appearance on "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, 2005- ), where she botched the Rhumba, but as a consolation prize, she landed her first starring series role in "Wicked Wicked Games," (MyNetwork TV, 2006-07). The nighttime drama was adapted from a popular Venezuelan novella and centered on O'Neal as a scorned woman carrying out elaborate plans to destroy her former lover.
O'Neal returned to the big screen in 2007 with a refreshing break from her usual troublemaking persona, playing the love interest of a developmentally disabled man in the sentimental indie drama "Brothers" (2007). In 2008, she was slated to co-star as a recovering mental patient in the feature "Saving Grace" (2008), but she found herself the subject of breaking news when she was arrested in June 2008 for buying cocaine on the streets of New York - in the middle of the day, no less. O'Neal claimed that the arrest prevented her from going through with a relapse and maintained that she was still drug free, thanking the cops for saving her life. Strangely enough - much like Robert Downey, Jr. during his drug struggles before her - public sympathy seemed to be firmly on her side, unlike others in similar predicaments; most likely due to her tragic and lonely upbringing. In early July, O'Neal pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with her June arrest in lower Manhattan. Criminal Court Judge Elisa Koenderman ordered the 44-year-old actress to spend two half-day sessions in a drug treatment program and pay a $95 surcharge.
