Actor Ryan O’Neal accused of assaulting adult son
Oscar-winning actor Ryan O’Neal, 65, has been accused by the police of assaulting his adult son at the actor’s home this weekend. Deputies and paramedics were called to O’Neal’s home Saturday “regarding a battery that had occurred,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. John Benedict said Sunday. “Deputies determined…Griffin O’Neal, his son, had been assaulted by his father,” Benedict said.
Ryan was arrested and accused of an assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm, which Ryan says he shot in self-defense after Griffin swung a fireplace poker at him, grazing him four or five times, and hit his own pregnant girlfriend, JoAnne Berry, in the head with it accidentally. JoAnne was injured by the poker and called 911. Later, Ryan was released on $50,000 bail.
Different accounts of the accident are appearing in the press – A close friend of Ryan’s says,
Griffin attacked his brother, Redmond, smashing an ashtray over his head. Ryan walked into this and told Griffin to get out of the house. He couldn’t do anything but protect himself and Redmond.
Meanwhile, sister Tatum, who was not present during the argument, said,
My heart goes out to Redmond, Griffin and JoJo. Redmond has been going through a hard time and we have all been trying to help him. No matter what my dad is saying in the press, Griffin was not trying to start a fight with him; he was attempting to protect Redmond. I’m sure when the police sort out the facts, the truth will be revealed.
This is not the actor’s first tussle with his son – in 1983, he knocked two of Griffin’s teeth out during a physical altercation. Griffin has also had many other contacts with the authorities. He received a 18-day jail sentence for not performing 400 hours of community service, his punishment for a boating accident in 1986 that killed Gian-Carlo Coppola, son of Francis Ford Coppola. In 1989 Griffin was charged with drunk driving, and was sentenced to probation; three years later he pleaded not guilty for shooting his estranged girlfriend’s unoccupied car. He had to spend a year in live-in drug rehabilitation program and serve five years of probation.
Griffin O’Neal, 42, is his son Joanna Moore, with whom he also has daughter Tatum, 43; Ryan also has son Patrick, 39, with Leigh Taylor-Young, and son Redmond, 22, with Farrah Fawcett.
Thanks to CBB reader Michelle.
- Posted on Feb 6, 07 at 12:46PM
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- 11 Comments
February 6th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Don’t forget Tatum’s accusataions that Ryan physically and mentaly abused her, slugged her after she won the Oscar at age 6, had sex with her friends when she was a teen, introduced her to drugs, she was sexually abused by friends of both of her parents, and that after one attempt to kill herself by slashing her wrists, her father berated her efforts, telling her she had made her razor blade cuts in the wrong direction.
She also says Griffin received the most frequent and severe physical beatings at the hands of their father. What a horrible human being.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
FYI: The boating accident that killed Gian-Carlo Coppola was with Griffin, NOT Ryan.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Another sad story for a majorly dysfunctional family; its really too bad. And you really don’t know what or who to believe. I don’t really think any of them are all that credible with the various criminal charges, drug addictions etc. So I think I’ll choose to believe that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all their stories.
February 6th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I don’t think Ryan should have any more children! The only one I haven’t heard any trouble/drug use about is Patrick.
February 6th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I don’t think I have ever heard anything nice about Ryan, aside from him being a good actor. He’s definitely not a wonderful father and his children have paid the price – even Redmond.
Hopefully the truth will come out soon… Personally, at the moment, I’m thinking Ryan is going to be getting some more bad press when it does.
February 6th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Does anyone know what Tatum meant about Redmond having a hard time lately? Maybe b/c of his mothers cancer?
I also wonder if the pregnant woman is Redmond or Griffin’s girlfriend?
February 6th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
You know I’ve read Tatum O’Neal’s book a couple times and I have no doubt in my mind that Ryan has a lot of anger problems. The book also describes the horrible drug and alcohol problems that most of his children have…gee I wonder why??? Tatum is one of my favorite actresses (Paper Moon, Bad News Bears…so cute), I just feel bad that she had such a terrible childhood, at least she had acting as an escape.
February 6th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Griffin’s girlfriend is the pregnant one that Griffin accidentally hit with the poker, and she’s the one that called 911.
February 6th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Redmond has been struggling with drug addiction (I believe heroin) and I heard a while back that he relapsed because he was so distraught/stressed over his mom.
According to a story I heard today, Griffin and his girlfriend, Jojo, found Redmond passed out at the house and tied him up so he couldn’t go out for more drugs. Apparently, when Ryan got home he flipped out and started beating on Griffin.
February 7th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Thanks for the info. This all sounds so sad. I hope things work out for everyone.
February 8th, 2007 at 12:18 am
According to the press conference today, Redmond has checked in to an out-of-state rehab center. I thought it was funny though that they said on ET that it was “at the request of his father” then they also mentioned in news articles that Ryan financially supports Griffin. Ryan seems to be trying to win points with the public….
Maybe they should also mention that Ryan introduced Redmond to drugs when he was only 13 years old – a fact Farrah revealed a couple years ago.