Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal, Sr. (January 6, 1904 – August 29, 1996) was an American film and television screenwriter and novelist.

Born in Raeford, North Carolina

Raeford, North Carolina

Raeford is a city in Hoke County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,386 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hoke County. The county was named after Confederate General Robert F. Hoke, as Tar Heel native....

, O'Neal attended the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

, then moved to San Diego, where he joined an acting troupe that included his future wife Patricia Callaghan. After publishing a short story in Esquire

Esquire (magazine)

Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...

, he decided to forgo performing and turned to screenwriting mostly B-movie

B-movie

A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....

s, among them The Seventh Victim, Cry of the Werewolf, The Missing Juror, I Love a Mystery, Montana, and Golden Girl. O'Neal's television credits include The 20th Century Fox Hour

The 20th Century Fox Hour

The 20th Century Fox Hour is an American drama anthology series televised in the United States on CBS from 1955 to 1957. Some of the shows in this series were restored, remastered and shown on the Fox Movie Channel in 2002 under the title Hour of Stars...

and The Untouchables

The Untouchables (1959 TV series)

The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...

. Together with Abe Burrows

Abe Burrows

Abe Burrows was a Tony and Pulitzer-winning American humorist, author, and director for radio and the stage.-Early years:...

, O'Neal adapted his 1949 novel Three Wishes for Jamie McRuin for the short-lived 1952 musical Three Wishes for Jamie

Three Wishes for Jamie

Three Wishes for Jamie is a musical with a book by Charles O'Neal and Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by Ralph Blane.Based on O'Neal's 1949 novel The Three Wishes of Jamie McRuin, the fantasy focuses on the title character, a young Irishman who, when offered three wishes by the Queen of the...

.

O'Neal was the father of actor Ryan O'Neal

Ryan O'Neal

Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal , better known as Ryan O'Neal, is an American actor best known for his appearances in the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place and for his roles in such films as Paper Moon , Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon , A Bridge Too Far , and Love Story , for which he received...

 and screenwriter/actor Kevin O'Neal and grandfather of Tatum

Tatum O'Neal

Tatum Beatrice O'Neal is an American actress best known for her film work as a child actress in the 1970s. She is the youngest to win a competitive Academy Award, at the age of 10, which she won for her performance as Addie Loggins in Paper Moon opposite her father Ryan O'Neal...

 and Griffin O'Neal

Griffin O'Neal

-Early life:O'Neal was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actor Ryan O'Neal and the late actress Joanna Cook Moore . He has one sister, Tatum, and two half brothers, Patrick and Redmond. His grandfather was novelist/screenwriter Charles "Blackie" O'Neal.-Films:Griffin O'Neal appeared in...

. He died in Los Angeles, California at the age of 92. O'Neal was given the nickname "Blackie" while attending the University of Iowa, and was known by this name to his friends through much of his life.

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