Terry O'Neill: Celebrity
Past display archive
6 September 2003 - 14 March 2004
Balcony Gallery
Free
Brigitte Bardot
by Terry O'Neill
1971
NPG x126144
From the start of the 1960s and continuing until the present day the name of Terry O'Neill has become inextricably connected with some of the most interesting takes on photographic portraits of celebrities. From the Beatles and Rolling Stones in the 1960s to the Royal Family and the Prime Minister's family in more recent times Terry O'Neill has proved adept at recording the significant subjects of the day in a visually stimulating and sometimes unexpected way and thus illuminated history of our age.
The display is timed to coincide with the publication Celebrity: The Photographs of Terry O'Neill, with an Introduction by A.A. Gill, published by Little Brown in September 2003. The book and display celebrate a retrospective look at O'Neill's career and celebrate a long collaboration with the photographer and the National Portrait Gallery. Shown here, over the four screens of the Balcony Gallery are forty-three photographs spanning the last forty years. O'Neill's work was first shown here in 1985 in the exhibition Stars of the British Screen and since then his works have made a significant contribution to a number of changing exhibitions and displays.
David Bowie; Dame Elizabeth Taylor
by Terry O'Neill
1975
NPG x88495
Thanks to Terry O'Neill's generosity the Gallery now has sixty-three of his works in the collection. These other images, not included in the present display, can be seen on the Woodward Portrait Explorer in the IT Gallery on the floor directly below this Gallery.
The National Portrait Gallery would like to thank Terry O'Neill for making available his historic negatives and transparencies and we should like to thank Robin Bell for his printing of all the black and white subjects and Metro Imaging for R type colour digital prints.
Terry O'Neill was born on 30 July 1938 in the East End of London. His career as a photographer evolved by chance out of his first ambition to become a jazz drummer. Leaving school at fourteen and then doing his National Service his ambition was to go to America to study with the great drummers there. Thinking that the best way to travel frequently and inexpensively to the USA would be to get a job as an air steward for BOAC. The airline at that time had no vacancies for stewards but suggested he took a vacancy in their technical photographic unit, which he combined with time at an art school and he then became interested in photojournalism.
Tina Turner
by Terry O'Neill
1993
NPG x126135
This lead to freelance work at London Airport where, working with his Agfa Silette, he looked out for interesting pictures of subjects in the passenger terminal. His first scoop was to photograph a distinguished looking sleeping figure that turned out to be R.A.B Butler, the then Home Secretary in Harold Macmillan's government. The picture was bought and appeared on the front page of the Sunday Dispatch leading to the editor offering him a job as a reportage photographer at Heathrow. This was followed by three years in Fleet Street, with O'Neill at 21, the youngest photographer in Fleet Street taking pop pictures for the up-tempo Daily Sketch.
One thing lead to another and O'Neill quickly became a significant image-maker and one of the group of talented young photographers who helped create the photographic icons of the 1960s and create part of the buzz that became Swinging London. The peer group that emerged in this decade included David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy from the East End and Patrick Lichfield and Lewis Morley from other backgrounds.
Jean Shrimpton; Terence Stamp
by Terry O'Neill
1964
NPG x125463
Terry O'Neill's film connections and fifteen-year relationship, including a three-year marriage (1983-6) to the Hollywood star, Faye Dunaway, helped contribute to his profile and success internationally, particularly in America, from the 1970s onwards. His important commissions from American based international magazines such as Life and later the film magazine Premiere have all added to his reputation, whilst in London, his work is most frequently seen in the glossy pages of the Sunday Times Magazine.
Publication
Celebrity: The Photographs of Terry O'Neill Introduced by AA Gill, is published by Little Brown on 15 September 2003. Price £30.00 For further information please contact Filomena Wood at Time Warner Books Tel 020 7911 8069 email [email protected]
Related portraits
- Sammy Davis Jr (NPG x126140)
- The Beatles (George Harrison; Ringo Starr; Paul McCartney; John Lennon) (NPG x126131)
- The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger; Keith Richards; Bill Wyman; Brian Jones; Charlie Watts) (NPG x126149)
- Jean Shrimpton; Terence Stamp (NPG x125463)
- Twiggy; Helen ('Nell') Hornby (née Reeman) (NPG x126148)
- David Hemmings (NPG x125462)
- William Wyler; Audrey Hepburn (NPG x126132)
- Peter O'Donnell; Monica Vitti; Joseph Janni (NPG x126141)
- Frank Sinatra with his stand-in and four escorts (NPG x126145)
- Janis Joplin (NPG x126143)
- Michael Winner (NPG x126150)
- Jackie Collins; Joan Collins (NPG x126136)
- Richard Burton; Dame Elizabeth Taylor (NPG x126133)
- Dean Martin (NPG x126139)
- Brigitte Bardot (NPG x126144)
- Paul Newman; Lee Marvin (NPG x126146)
- Rod Stewart (NPG x45097)
- David Bowie (NPG x126130)
- David Bowie; Dame Elizabeth Taylor (NPG x88495)
- Dudley Moore; Peter Cook (NPG x34136)
- Elton John (NPG x126151)
- Peter O'Toole (NPG x126138)
- Faye Dunaway (NPG x126147)
- Marianne Faithfull (NPG x126165)
- Derek Jarman (NPG x126156)
- The wedding of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach (NPG x126137)
- Isabella Rossellini (NPG x126142)
- Michael Caine; Bob Hoskins (NPG x126162)
- Bette Davis (NPG x126152)
- Fred Astaire (NPG x126153)
- George Harrison; Dhani Harrison (NPG x126134)
- Michael Douglas (NPG x126155)
- Woody Allen; Mia Farrow (NPG x126154)
- Mickey Rourke (NPG x126158)
- Michelle Pfeiffer (NPG x126159)
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Queen Elizabeth II (NPG x126160)
- Eric Clapton (NPG x126164)
- Tina Turner (NPG x126135)
- Catherine Zeta Jones (NPG x126157)
- Kathryn Blair; Euan Blair; Cherie Blair (née Booth); Tony Blair; Nicky Blair (NPG x126119)
- Tom Jones (NPG x126163)
Related sitters
- Woody Allen
- Fred Astaire
- Barbara Bach
- Brigitte Bardot
- Cherie Blair (née Booth)
- Euan Anthony Blair
- Kathryn Hazel Blair
- Nicholas John ('Nicky') Blair
- Anthony Charles Lynton ('Tony') Blair
- David Bowie
- Richard Burton
- Sir Michael Caine
- Eric Patrick Clapton
- Jacqueline Jill ('Jackie') Collins
- Dame Joan Henrietta Collins
- Peter Edward Cook
- Bette Davis
- Sammy Davis Jr
- Michael Douglas
- Faye Dunaway
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Marianne Faithfull
- Mia Farrow
- Gianni Gregorini
- Dhani Harrison
- George Harrison
- Olivia Harrison (née Arias)
- David Hemmings
- Audrey Hepburn
- Helen ('Nell') Hornby (née Reeman)
- Robert ('Bob') Hoskins
- Sir Michael Philip ('Mick') Jagger
- Joseph Janni
- (Michael) Derek Elworthy Jarman
- Sir Elton John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight)
- Brian Jones
- Sir Tom Jones (Thomas Jones Woodward)
- Janis Joplin
- Twiggy Lawson (née Lesley Hornby)
- John Lennon
- James Louis McCartney
- Linda McCartney
- Sir (James) Paul McCartney
- Dean Martin
- Lee Marvin
- Dudley Stuart Moore
- Paul Leonard Newman
- Peter O'Donnell
- Peter O'Toole
- Michelle Pfeiffer
- Keith Richards
- Isabella Rossellini
- Mickey Rourke
- Jean Shrimpton
- Frank Sinatra
- Terence Henry Stamp
- Sir Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey)
- Roderick David ('Rod') Stewart
- Dame Elizabeth Taylor
- Tina Turner
- Monica Vitti
- Charles Robert ('Charlie') Watts
- Michael Robert Winner
- William Wyler
- Bill Wyman
- Catherine Zeta Jones