Ryan O’Neal: From Peyton Place to Wild Rovers
Academy Award nominee Ryan O’Neal, star of classics like Love Story, Paper Moon, and Barry Lyndon, strides into A Word on Westerns with tales of his big-screen adventures and a lifelong passion for film history. Joining host Rob Word and producer/co-host RJ Word, O’Neal recalls his early days as a budding actor on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, how boxing with a young Clint Eastwood nearly materialized, and his unlikely kinship with character actor Henry Brandon—best known as Chief Scar in The Searchers—who became a family friend and a key influence on Ryan’s Hollywood dreams.
He also takes listeners behind the scenes of Blake Edwards’ Wild Rovers (1971), where he co-starred with screen legend William Holden. Along the way, O’Neal reveals never-before-heard anecdotes about Holden’s uproarious sense of humor, including the jaw-dropping fate of the actor’s Stalag 17 Oscar—supposedly tossed into the Bay of Naples. From his father’s work on the Randolph Scott Western Return of the Bad Men to O’Neal’s own reflections on stardom, this candid conversation roams from comedic tangles with Barbra Streisand to the rough-and-tumble sets of the Western heyday.