Ron O'Neal
Ron O'Neal ( born September 1, 1937 in Utica, New York, † 14 January 2004 in Los Angeles, California ) was an American actor.
Life
O'Neal attended after graduating from Glenville High School Ohio State University, where he graduated but broke off after the first semester. Instead, he turned to acting and joined the Theatre Karamu House in Cleveland, where he played 1957-1966. He then moved to New York City, where he first appeared off-Broadway. On December 30, 1969, he made his debut on Broadway. His performance in Charles Gordones awarded the Pulitzer Prize stage play No Place to Be Somebody brought him a Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World Award.
From 1970 he had first minor roles in feature films. Then, however, he played the lead role as a drug dealer in the low-budget Blaxploitationfilm Superfly, which surprisingly was a great commercial success. In 1972 a sequel, in which he carried out the direction, but fell to the flop. Since he was now determined more and more on roles as a drug dealer or pimp, he moved in 1975 to Broadway, where he appeared under the direction of Dustin Hoffman in Murray Schisgal All Over Town.
From the late 1970s he was playing supporting roles in films such as the Chuck Norris vehicle Bulldozer, The Final Countdown and Red Dawn. Between 1982 and 1983, he starred alongside Bruce Boxleitner in the television series Frank Buck - adventures in Malaysia, but this was discontinued after the first season. Between 1986 and 1987 he had a recurring guest role on The Equalizer, he also met four times on the sitcom A Different World. He had one of his last major film roles in 1996 blaxploitation Revival Original Gangsters next to Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Richard Roundtree and Pam Grier.
2000 with him a pancreatic tumor was diagnosed, where he died in January 2004.