Ryan O'Neal
American film actor; he and Mailer became friends in 1980 over a shared love of boxing, and O'Neal later starred as Tim Madden in the 1987 film of Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance.
Ryan O’Neal, the American film actor, became a friend of Mailer’s in 1980 — the two bonding over boxing, with the former champion Jose Torres as go-between (80.3a). “This is the first time I fell in love with a man,” Mailer said. O’Neal went on to star as Tim Madden in the film of Tough Guys Don’t Dance, which Mailer directed in Provincetown in the fall of 1986 (released 1987); he praised Mailer’s boxing — “He blackened my eyes” — and Mailer praised his commitment: “I don’t know if there’s another movie star who works that hard” (86.39a).
Stub created during the 1980 ingest.