Jennifer O'Neill

Jennifer O'Neill (born February 20, 1948)<ref name=tcm>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a Brazilian-born American author, model, and former actress. Born in Brazil, and moving to the United States as an infant, she first came to prominence as a teenaged model, and for her spokesperson work for CoverGirl cosmetics, which began in 1963 and spanned three decades. She made her feature-film debut in the comedy film For Love of Ivy (1968), followed by a lead role in Howard Hawks's Western film Rio Lobo (1970).

O'Neill's breakthrough role came in Robert Mulligan's period drama Summer of '42 (1971), in which she portrayed the wife of an army serviceman during World War II, who becomes the subject of a teenaged boy's romantic attraction. The same year, she starred in Otto Preminger's Such Good Friends. In the mid-1970s, O'Neill appeared in several Italian films, including Luchino Visconti's final feature, The Innocent (1976), and Lucio Fulci's giallo horror film The Psychic (1977). She later starred in David Cronenberg's cult horror film Scanners (1981), and in the short-lived television series Cover Up (1984–1985).

In 1988, O'Neill became a born-again Christian, and inspired by her feelings of regret over having an abortion at age 22, became active in the anti-abortion movement. She has since authored several books, including a memoir, Surviving Myself (1999), in which she detailed her career, marriages, experiences with anxiety and postpartum depression, and her religious faith. O'Neill founded the Hope and Healing at Hillenglade Foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, an equine-assisted therapy foundation that specializes in treating war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Since the 1990s, O'Neill has occasionally appeared in film and television, including roles in the independent film Doonby (2013) and the Rachel Scott biopic I'm Not Ashamed (2016).

Early life

O'Neill was born on February 20, 1948, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Irene Freda (née Pope),Template:Sfn a native of London, and Oscar Delgado O'Neill, a Brazilian of Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish ancestry.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> O'Neill's father, born in Puerto Rico,Template:Sfn was a bomber pilot in World War II, and later owned a medical supply company.<ref name=love/><ref name=nytbio/> Her paternal great-grandfather, Oscar O'Neill Sr., was the president of the Bank of Rio de Janeiro.<ref name=nytbio>Template:Cite book</ref> O'Neill's mother, one of seven children, was raised in a "poor but close-knit family."Template:Sfn

When she was an infant, she relocated with her family to the United States,<ref name=closer>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> where she and her older brother Michael were raised in New Rochelle, New York, and Wilton, Connecticut.<ref name=love>Template:Cite news</ref> O'Neill began riding horses at age 9, and became an accomplished equestrienne,<ref name=horseshow/> winning upwards of 200 ribbons at horse show competitions in her teens.

At age 14, after her parents informed her the family was relocating to New York City, O'Neill attempted suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills,Template:Sfn and fell into a coma for about two weeks.<ref name=closer/> Reflecting on this, she said: "I didn’t want to die, I just wanted to be heard. It was just a rebellion against my parents’ decisions. What seems like a bump in the road as we get older, to a teenager can seem catastrophic...  [our moving meant] losing my ability to take care of a horse that I was able to ride. They wouldn't let me take our dog and took her to the pound."<ref name=closer/> In a later interview, O'Neill said she lacked adequate role models as a child, and described her parents as "completely involved with themselves."<ref name=closer/>

Career

1963–1971: Modeling and breakthrough

After her family's relocation to New York City, two of O'Neill's neighbors suggested that she model: "That appealed to me, because then I could buy my own horse and no one could take anything away from me again. So I strolled into Eileen Ford’s agency, and she signed me on the spot."<ref name=closer/> By age 15, while attending the prestigious Dalton School in Manhattan, she began appearing on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Seventeen, earning $80,000 ($Template:Inflation today) in 1962.Template:Sfn Commenting on O'Neill in 1965, Diana Vreeland said: "O'Neill is a dream. She has great distinction."<ref name=sheppard/>

O'Neill largely used her modeling income to fund her equestrian endeavors,<ref name=sheppard/> which afforded her to purchase her own horse, named Alezon. When O'Neill was 15 years old, though, the horse balked before a wall at a horse show, throwing her, causing her to fracture her neck and lower spine in three places.Template:Sfn The injury resulted in her suffering lifelong back pain.<ref name=horseshow/> O'Neill eventually dropped out of the Dalton School at age 17 to wed her first husband, IBM executive Deed Rossiter.<ref name="Levitt" />

In 1963, O'Neill signed a contract with CoverGirl cosmetics, marking the beginning of a 30-year career as a spokesperson for the company.<ref name=smithsonian/> O'Neill is listed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History's Center for Advertising History for her long-standing contract with CoverGirl cosmetics as its model and spokesperson in ads and television commercials.<ref name=smithsonian>Cover Girl Advertising Oral History & Documentation Project, 1959–1990, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.</ref>

In 1968, O'Neill landed a small role in the comedy film For Love of Ivy. In 1970, she played her first lead role in the Howard Hawks film Rio Lobo co-starring John Wayne.<ref name=horseshow>Template:Cite news</ref> She had a supporting role in Otto Preminger's Such Good Friends (1971) starring Dyan Cannon and Ken Howard.

In the 1971 film Summer of '42, O'Neill played Dorothy Walker, the early-20s wife of an airman who has gone off to fight in World War II.<ref name=fox/> She stated in a 2002 interview that her agent had to fight to even get a reading for the part,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> since the role had been cast for an "older woman" to a "coming of age" 15-year-old boy, and the director was only considering actresses over the age of 30. The film was a box-office success and went on to attract a cult following.<ref name=fox/>

1972–1979: Italian films

File:Jennifer O'Neill 1973.JPG

O'Neill in Lady Ice (1973)

In 1972, she co-starred with Tom Jones in David Winters's television special The Special London Bridge Special.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The same year, she starred in the crime thriller The Carey Treatment (1972), and the drama Glass Houses,<ref name=glass>Template:Cite news</ref> the latter of which was filmed in 1970. This was followed by a lead role in Lady Ice (1973) opposite Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall.<ref name=ladyicenyt>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

O'Neill next had a leading role in the psychological horror film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), co-starring with Michael Sarrazin and Margot Kidder, and directed by J. Lee Thompson.<ref name=barrett>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The same year, she appeared opposite Elliott Gould in the Ted Post-directed comedy Whiffs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:Genterispetto mason+oneill.jpg

O'Neill and James Mason in The Flower in His Mouth (1975)

By the mid-1970s, O'Neill had forged a career in Italy, first starring in Luigi Zampa's drama The Flower in His Mouth (1975) opposite James Mason, which was shot on location in Sicily.Template:Sfn The following year, she starred in Luchino Visconti's final directorial feature, The Innocent,<ref name=stevenson/> and subsequently starred in Lucio Fulci's The Psychic (1977), portraying a clairvoyant whose visions lead to the discovery of a murder.<ref name=felperin>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

She was originally cast in the Disney film The Black Hole (1979), but was told she needed to cut her hair because it would be easier to film the zero-G scenes. She gave in, drinking wine during the haircut and leaving noticeably impaired. She lost the part after a serious car crash on the way home.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> O'Neill was instead cast in the action martial arts film A Force of One (1979), co-starring with Chuck Norris.<ref name=force>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

1980–1990: Subsequent film and television

O'Neill starred opposite David Carradine in the aviation-themed drama Cloud Dancer (1980), followed by a lead role in David Cronenberg's science-fiction horror film Scanners (1981), portraying a woman who leads an oppositional group against a malevolent private military company creating biokinetic and psychokinetic humans.Template:Sfn

When her movie career slowed, O'Neill took roles in series television.<ref name="bare">Template:Cite news</ref> She starred in NBC's short-lived 1982 primetime soap opera Bare Essence and played the lead female role on the 1984 television series Cover Up. On October 12, 1984, Jon-Erik Hexum, O'Neill's co-star in the Cover Up television series, mortally wounded himself on the show's set, unaware that a gun loaded with a blank cartridge could still cause extreme damage from the effect of expanding powder gases. He died six days later.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

O'Neill continued to appear in film and television throughout the late 1980s, including in the drama film I Love N.Y. (1987)<ref name=iloveny>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> and in the Perry Mason television film Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star (1986).

1991–present: Later work

In 1991, O'Neill starred in the thriller film Committed, portraying a nurse who discovers the fellow staff at the psychiatric hospital where she has been hired are in fact inmates.<ref name=committedtcm>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She later starred opposite James Brolin in The Visual Bible: Acts (1994), which depicts the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.

Personal life

O'Neill has been married nine times to eight men (remarrying her sixth husband),<ref name="Levitt"> Template:Cite news</ref> and had three children, one each with three of her husbands.Template:Sfn After the birth of her first child, Aimee, O'Neill experienced undiagnosed postpartum depression and committed herself to a psychiatric hospital for treatment, which included electroshock therapy.<ref name=closer/>

She was briefly married to Emmy award-winning television producer and choreographer Nick De Noia from 1975 to 1976. De Noia, who also served as O'Neill's manager at the time of their marriage, was a closeted homosexual.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1987, de Noia was murdered by one of his former associates.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> O'Neill told journalists that she was "very upset" by the news of his death.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

O'Neill's fifth husband, John Lederer, sexually abused her first daughter, Aimee.<ref name=love/><ref name=closer/> O'Neill initially disbelieved the accusation after Lederer passed several lie detector tests, and the abuse allegation strained her relationship with her daughter.<ref name=closer/> Reflecting on the abuse in 2019, O'Neill said: "My daughter and I are very close today, but we were in court for a year and I didn't know whom to believe. He passed lie detector tests, so it tore my relationship with her apart. He remarried and did the same thing to his next teenaged stepchild. He was just a masterful liar. When I understood how much she needed me to recognize that she was telling the truth, and she recognized that I didn't have a clue. She was integral in helping bring him to justice. She was so brave, she put a wire on and got him to admit what he'd done."<ref name=closer/>

On October 23, 1982, O'Neill suffered a gunshot wound in her home on McClain Street in Bedford, New York. Police officers who interviewed O'Neill determined that she had accidentally shot herself in the abdomen with a .38 caliber revolver at her 30-acre, 25-room French-style estate<ref name=stevenson>Template:Cite news</ref> while trying to determine if the weapon was loaded.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Her husband at the time, John Lederer, was not in the house when the handgun was discharged, but two other people were in the house. Detective Sgt. Thomas Rothwell was quoted as having said that O'Neill "didn't know much about guns."<ref>"Actress claims shooting was accident", Minden Press-Herald, October 26, 1982, p. 1</ref> Reflecting on the incident, O'Neill said:

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In 1988, O'Neill became a born-again Christian.<ref name=love/> Commenting on her faith, she said: "I don't want to preach to anybody; I only want to say what happened to me.'<ref name=love/> In her 1999 autobiography Surviving Myself, O'Neill describes many of her life experiences, including her marriages, career, and her move to her Tennessee farm in the late 1990s. She has said that she wrote the autobiography (her first book) "... at the prompting of her children."

O'Neill has dual citizenship, being a Brazilian and U.S. citizen.

Activism

In 2004, O'Neill wrote and published From Fallen to Forgiven,<ref name="Fallen"> Template:Cite book</ref> a book of biographical notes and thoughts about life and existence. O'Neill recounted how she underwent an abortion at age 22 in 1970 while dating a Wall Street socialite after the divorce from her first husband. Her regrets over the experience contributed to her becoming a Pro-Life activist and a born-again Christian in 1986 at age 38.<ref name=fox/> She also began counseling abstinence to teens. Concerning her abortion, she writes:

I was told a lie from the pit of hell: that my baby was just a blob of tissue. The aftermath of abortion can be equally deadly for both mother and unborn child. A woman who has an abortion is sentenced to bear that for the rest of her life.<ref>

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O'Neill continues to be active as a writer, working on her second autobiography, CoverStory, an inspirational speaker, and fundraiser for the benefit of crisis pregnancy centers across the United States.<ref name="Daily Star">Template:Cite news</ref> She has also served as the spokesperson for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign,<ref name="Daily Star" /> an organization for people who regret that they or their partners had abortions.

She also founded Hope and Healing at Hillenglade, an equine-assisted therapy foundation in Nashville, Tennessee, that serves war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.<ref name=closer/><ref name=fox>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1968	For Love of Ivy	Sandy		<ref name=horseshow/>
1969	Some Kind of a Nut	The Beauty	Uncredited
1970	Rio Lobo	Shasta Delaney		Template:Sfn
1971	Summer of '42	Dorothy Walker		<ref name=fox/>
1971	Such Good Friends	Miranda		Template:Sfn
1972	Template:Sortname	Georgia Hightower		Template:Sfn
1972	Template:Sortname	Jean		<ref name=glass/>
1973	Lady Ice	Paula Booth		<ref name=ladyicenyt/>
1975	Template:Sortname	Ann Curtis		<ref name=barrett/>
1975	Whiffs	Lt. Scottie Hallam		Template:Sfn
1975	Template:Sortname	Elena Bardi	Italian: Gente di rispetto	Template:Sfn
1976	Template:Sortname	Teresa Raffo	Italian: L'innocente	<ref name=stevenson/>
1977	Template:Sortname	Virginia Ducci	Italian: Sette note in nero	<ref name=felperin/>
1978	Caravans	Ellen Jasper		Template:Sfn
1979	Template:Sortname	Mandy Rust		<ref name=force/>
1979	Steel	Cass Cassidy		Template:Sfn
1980	Cloud Dancer	Helen St. Clair		Template:Sfn
1981	Scanners	Kim Obrist		Template:Sfn
1987	I Love N.Y.	Irene		<ref name=iloveny/>
1991	Committed	Susan Manning		<ref name=committedtcm/>
1992	Invasion of Privacy	Hillary Wayne	Direct-to-video
1994	Discretion Assured	Paige
1994	Template:Sortname	Lydia of Thyatira	Direct-to-video
1997	Template:Sortname	Irene Grace
1997	Template:Sortname	Ellen Stillwell
1999	Template:Sortname	Queen Albertina
2002	Time Changer	Michelle Bain
2012	Last Ounce of Courage	Dottie Revere
2013	Doonby	Barbara Ann
2016	I'm Not Ashamed	Linda
2024	Reagan	Older Nelle Reagan

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	Love's Savage Fury	Laurel Taggart	TV movie
1981	Template:Sortname	Nancy Langford	TV movie
1983	Bare Essence	Lady Bobbi Rowan	Main role (11 episodes)
1984-1985	Cover Up	Danielle Reynolds	Main role (22 episodes)
1985	A.D.	Messalina	TV miniseries
1985	Chase	Sandy Albright	TV movie
1986	Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star	Alison Carr	TV movie
1988	Template:Sortname	Stephanie Hartford	TV movie
1988	Glory Days	Scotty Moran	TV movie
1989	Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal	Debralee Taft	TV movie
1990	Personals	Heather Moore	TV movie
1992	Perfect Family	Maggie	TV movie
1993	Template:Sortname	Kate	TV movie
1994	Jonathan Stone: Threat of Innocence	Nan Stone	TV movie
1995	Silver Strand	Louellen Peterson	TV movie
1996	Voyeur II	Elizabeth (voice)	Video game
1996	Poltergeist: The Legacy	Lorraine Compton	Episode: "Revelations"
1997	Nash Bridges	Jenny	Episode: "Shake, Rattle & Roll"
2000	On Music Row	Linda Rodgers	TV movie
2000	Heroes and Sheroes	Self	Reality TV

Bibliography

• Surviving Myself, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1999.
• From Fallen to Forgiven, Thomas Nelson, 2002.
• You're Not Alone: Healing Through God's Grace After Abortion. Faith Communications, 2005.
• Remarkable Women, Insight Publishing Group, 2005.
• A Fall Together, B&H Publishing Group, 2006.
• A Winter of Wonders, B&H Publishing Group, 2007.
• A Late Spring Frost, B&H Publishing Group, 2007
• Faith Lessons, Insight Publishing Group, 2008.

Sources

• Template:Cite book
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External links

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