Superfly- Ron O'Neal dies at 66

[NYYFan]

*snip*

Ron O'Neal, a stage and film actor who rode the wave of blaxploitation movies in the early 1970s starring as the sartorially resplendent Harlem drug dealer in the 1972 hit "Superfly," has died. He was 66.

O'Neal, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000, died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his wife, Audrey Pool O'Neal.

More . . .
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oneal16jan16,1,233351.story?coll=la-home-local

[Township75]

1. For a second I thought you were referring to Superfly the DU member...

never even heard of the guy you are talking about...guess it's my age

[BigMcLargehuge]

2. gonna have to watch that movie again

with luck IFC will take notice and run it next month.

[NYYFan]

3. Ironically, it was released on DVD Tuesday

and he died Wednesday.

[Insider]

8. rest in peace, handsome

he was a handsome, cool man.

and hi nyyfan :hi:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

4. historic note

he was also in the movie Red Dawn, the movie that the raid to capture Saddam Hussein was named after.

[YNGW]

5. Curtis Mayfield

Superfly
Never got high

------------------------------

Didn't Curtis die a few years ago?

[no name no slogan]

7. Sadly he did

right around Christmas time in 1999. I remember it clearly. I was in Chicago at the time, visiting a client for some consulting work, and Curtis Mayfield was all they talked about on the NPR station (I believe CM was from Chicago). They even played his music, and some covers of his music by other artists. It was very moving and so sad that we lost such a brilliant artist.

"People get ready,..."

[frylock]

6. i pour one on the curb for our fallen homie, priest..

Rest in peace, Youngblood.

[mitchum]

9. RIP, Priest

[Kat45]

10. Hard to understand, but a hell of a man....

I loved the music from that movie. I remember listening to it a lot back in 1973, when I was in high school. "Superfly" "Freddie's Dead" "I'm Your Pusher".....if I had the album, I'd play it now.

[NightTrain]

11. I thought only Freddie was dead.

That's what I said!

[moof]

12. Bio for Ron O'Neal

Great movie, & even Greater music



Bio for Ron O'Neal from IMBd
Born September 1, 1937, Utica, New York

Forever tagged as the super baaaaaaad
"Super Fly," actor Ron O'Neal has spent his
entire post 70s career trying to break the
chains of a bad ass stereotype that made
him his fortune. Of tough, humble beginnings,
Ron was the son of a wannabe jazz musician
who became a factory worker in order to
support the family, growing up in Cleveland's
black ghetto. He managed to attend Ohio
State University for a single semester
before developing an interest in theater and
joining Cleveland's Karamu House, an
interracial acting troupe, training there for
nine years (1957-1966). He arrived in New
York in 1967 and taught acting in Harlem to
support himself, jointly appearing in summer
stock and off-Broadway shows at the same
time. He received critical notice in 1970 in
Joseph Papp's Public Theatre production of
"No Place to Be Somebody," in which he won
the Obie, Drama Desk, Clarence Derwent and
Theatre World awards for his dynamite
performance. The timing couldn't have been
more 'right on' for this dude with the tough,
streetwise style and attitude to spare --
perfect for Hollywood what with the arrival
of the "blaxploitation" films that were taking
over at the time. Ron became an overnight
star as the hip, funky anti-hero in the
action-driven flick Super Fly (1972), playing
one cool drug dealer who wants out of the
business, taking out the entire syndicate one
by one (or two by two as need be). He made
his debut as a director the following year
with the equally violent sequel, Super Fly
T.N.T. (1973), which again starred himself.
But the genre soon turned to uncool parody
and within a couple of years, O'Neal was
struggling badly, playing support roles and
even less by the end of the decade. Although
he managed to co-star in the TV series
"Bring 'Em Back Alive" and "The Equalizer" in
the 80s, it's been an uphill battle all the way
for him to obliterate this stubborn image of
the supercool Priest with his fu-manchu like
beard and dazzling white suit. He has
appeared as both hero and villain in a number
of action lowbudgets since, including
Mercenary Fighters (1987), Trained to Kill
(1988) and Up Against the Wall (1991), which
he also directed. In 1996, he joined other
former 70s black action stars, including Jim
Brown, Fred Williamson, Richard Roundtree
and Pam Grier, in a revival of the violent
genre entitled Original Gangstas (1996).