Ryan O'Neal
Considering he was the fourth choice actor to play the role of Oliver, Ryan O'Neal managed to make the role his own almost immediately, and in fact it became his best known despite a long and storied career. A former boxer, O'Neal became known as a television actor in the 1960s on the popular series Peyton Place before transitioning to movies. After nominations in the Best Actor category at the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards respectively, O'Neal went on to star in Paper Moon, directed by his friend Peter Bogdanovich, in which he plays opposite his precocious daughter Tatum. He was nominated in the Best Actor category at the Golden Globe Awards for his performance but his daughter was the true star of the film, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in recognition of her performance in the role of Addie. Aged just ten years old at the time, Tatum O'Neal became the youngest ever winner of an Academy Award.
For much of the 1980s and 1990s, O'Neal was less famous for his on-screen performances and more famous for his off-screen behavior. He was the partner of Farrah Fawcett for almost twenty years, but his constant philandering and tendency to become violent ended their relationship. The pair later reunited and O'Neal was with Fawcett until her death.
Ali McGraw
McGraw began her career as a model; her movie debut was in the fillm Goodbye, Columbus, in 1969, for which she was awarded the Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe. The following year, in 1970, she made what would be the most heralded film of her career; Love Story catapulted McGraw into the cinematic stratosphere, and it was a performance for which she received her first Academy Award nomination, as well as her second Golden Globe. Critics of the film observed that whatever kind of terminal disease McGraw's character was said to be suffering from, one of its symptoms seemed to be that the sufferer became more and more beautiful as the end grew near.
By 1972, McGraw was widely believed to be the top female star in the world, and despite having a film career that spanned only four years at the time, she was honored by having her hand and foot prints immortalized in stone outside of the iconic Graumann's Chinese Theater. Unfortunately, her career never managed to reach the heights of its earliest days. In later years, McGraw starred in the historical television adaptation of Hermann Wouk's novel The Winds of War alongside Robert Mitchum and a very young Jane Seymour. She also became a temporary cast member of the soap opera Dynasty, playing Lady Ashley Mitchell.
Currently, McGraw is a dedicated yoga practitioner with a series of DVDs, books and podcasts to her name, and she is also a respected animal rights activist.
Ray Milland
Milland won an Academy Award in 1945 for his performance as an alcoholic writer in film noir The Lost Weekend, under the directorship of Billy Wilder. He is also well-known for the icy cold charm of his performance as a murderous husband in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M For Murder.
Milland was actually born in Wales, and served several tours with the Household Cavalry division of the British Army. He was a skilled marksman, horseman, and plane pilot, skills which enabled him to portray the most reckless and rugged of men on the screen. His movie debut came in The Flying Scotsman in 1929, which won him a nine month contracted with MGM studios, which was not renewed. His big break came in the 1936 movie The Jungle Princess opposite starlet Dorothy Lamour.
John Marley
Love Story remains Marley's most well-known film, although his recurring role in The Godfather franchise runs a pretty close second. He was first and foremost a character actor and consequently had an expansive resume, appearing in over one hundred and fifty films over forty-five years. He did not neglect the area of television drama either, appearing in over forty different television series, most notably The Incredible Hulk, in which he played David Banner's father.
Tommy Lee Jones
This was Tommy Lee Jones' very first film role; in a huge irony, the character of Oliver had actually been based on Jones, as he had been one of Erich Segal's room-mates when both young men attended Harvard. Despite appearing in one of the most successful films of all time, Jones initially preferred acting on the stage, and for over five years appeared on Broadway in various roles, but could not be tempted back to the big screen. However in 1976, he was cast in the cult Faye Dunaway success The Eyes of Laura Mars, which brought him to prominence and to the attention of casting directors looking for a relative newcomer to play the role of Loretta Lynn's husband in the biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination.
It was a television serialization that cemented Jones' position as a "leading man"; he received his second Emmy nomination for his work on Lonesome Dove, in 1989, which led to his being cast in the blockbuster hit The Fugitive, opposite Harrison Ford. This led to a succession of F.B.I. agent roles, both thriller and comedic, and an Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actor category.
