Patrick O'Neal (actor)

Patrick Wisdom O'Neal (September 26, 1927 – September 9, 1994) was an American actor and restaurateur.

O'Neal was born in Ocala, Florida, to Martha and Coke Wisdom O'Neal.

He attended the Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, and Ocala High School.

Upon graduation, he enrolled at the University of Florida in Gainesville where he majored in drama.

During college, O'Neal joined the Florida Players, a theatre troupe.

He was also a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and was the editor of the university yearbook.

After earning a bachelor's degree, O'Neal enlisted in the United States Air Force and served during the Korean War.

During the war, he directed short training films.

After 15 months' service, he moved to New York and studied at the Actors Studio and Neighborhood Playhouse.

O'Neal was seen mostly as a guest star on television throughout four decades, beginning in the 1950s.

O'Neal married actress Cynthia Baxter in 1956.

They had two sons, Maximilian and Fitzjohn, and remained married until O'Neal's death.

In the early 1960s, he received critical praise for his leading role on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana, but the starring role for the 1964 film version went to Richard Burton.

With his wife and his brother Michael, O'Neal co-owned a number of successful restaurants beginning in 1963, including "The Ginger Man" on West 64th St. (later renamed O'Neal's); "O'Neal's" on West 57th St., briefly the flagship of an O'Neal's chain; "The Landmark Tavern" on 11th Avenue; and “O’Neal’s Saloon” at West 63rd St. and Columbus Ave., soon retitled "O'Neal's Baloon" (because the word “Saloon” had been outlawed during Prohibition but the neon sign for Saloon had already been created).

All were located on the West Side of Manhattan.

In 1969, he had a leading role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter and a supporting role in the western El Condor.

In 1972, he portrayed a murderous architect in the Columbo episode "Blueprint for Murder" and in 1978, on the same show, he played a television network executive in the episode "Make Me a Perfect Murder".

He appeared in the 1973 hit The Way We Were.

In 1990, he played the corrupt Police Commissioner Kevin Quinn in Sidney Lumet's Q&A.

O'Neal died on September 9, 1994, of respiratory failure at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in Manhattan, 17 days short of his 67th birthday.

At the time of his death, he was also suffering from lung cancer and tuberculosis.