O'Neill was best known as a chronicler of 1960s' music and events, but worked with a variety of cultural figures over the years from Audrey Hepburn to Amy Winehouse.
Over a 20-year period, O’Neill captured Bowie’s shapeshifting artistry better than just about anybody else, standing behind the camera as the Space Oddity singer transformed into theatrical glam avatar Ziggy Stardust, then morphed into the coke-addled Thin White Duke
Footballers Bobby Moore, Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, George Best, manager Brian Clough, boxer Muhammad Ali and Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan are among the sporting greats whom he has captured.
Frank Sinatra’s ex-wife Ava Gardner gave me a letter of introduction. And when Frank read it, he told everyone, “He’s with me.” And I was for the next 30 years. The first three weeks we barely spoke but he let me go everywhere with him. It taught me that a top photographer should “be there” but never get caught up in the lifestyle.
I turned down Marilyn Monroe. My girlfriend at the time was her publicist and she told me Marilyn took all her photographers to bed, so she wouldn’t let me work with her.
According to O’Neill, nobody in Fleet Street wanted to interact with the youth scene and its emerging bands, such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. This left him with an opportunity to capture the swinging 60s with real freedom. “I remember I was asked by an editor to go photograph this ‘little band’ called the Beatles at Abbey Road Studios, then that led to me working with the Stones,” says O’Neill. “All the old timers didn’t want to take these photographs on and almost looked down on them. It meant us youngsters could jump in and take up the opportunity. I could go out and create my own world. There was no other time like it; it was just so much fun!”