WHAT’S THE STORY?

TRIBUTES have been paid to the legendary photographer Terry O’Neill, one of the men whose work captured the era-defining images of the Swinging Sixties and who portrayed the greatest stars of music, screen and stage and sport, for more than five decades.

O’Neill died at the age of 81, having battled prostate cancer for years. His agents, Iconic Images, announced: “It is with a heavy heart that Iconic Images announces the passing of Terence ‘Terry’ O’Neill, CBE. Terry was a class act, quick witted and filled with charm. Anyone who was lucky enough to know or work with him can attest to his generosity and modesty.

“As one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years, his legendary pictures will forever remain imprinted in our memories as well as in our hearts and minds.”

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WHO WAS HE?

BORN on July 30, 1938, in London, to parents who had immigrated from Ireland, O’Neill wanted to be a priest at first but then decided on a career as a jazz drummer. He took an apprenticeship as a photographer with the airline BOAC. He got a lucky break photographing an “old man” who turned out to be home secretary Rab Butler. The picture was snapped up by the national press and O’Neill duly moved to Fleet Street at the age of 21 in 1959. He was in exactly the right place to shoot the Swinging Sixties and the quality of his work was soon recognised.

He married the actress Vera Day and they were part of the London set until he moved to Los Angeles. In 1977 he took a famous picture of the Best Actress Oscar winner Faye Dunaway – it’s now in London’s National Portrait Gallery – and they began a relationship which saw them married for three years in the 1980s. They had a son, Liam Dunaway O’Neill, but the marriage broke up and he later married Laraine Ashton, a modelling industry executive.

WHAT WERE HIS BIGGEST TRIUMPHS?

THE Queen and the late South African president Nelson Mandela posed for him as did Sir Winston Churchill but it was his showbiz portraits that he will be remembered for.

The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie – they were particularly close – Twiggy, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Terence Stamp, Jean Shrimpton, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Amy Winehouse were all subjects.

In sport Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Bobby Moore, Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, George Best, Brian Clough and Imran Khan were among the greats he captured on film. Sir Michael Caine once said he could think of “no other photographer who has contributed so much to our heritage.”

O’Neill was awarded the CBE which he collected only last month.

WHAT HAVE PEOPLE BEEN SAYING ABOUT HIM?

COMEDIAN and author David Walliams tweeted that his death is the “end of an era. RIP the great photographer Terry O’Neill. A huge talent and an absolute gentleman”.

Elton John tweeted: “Terry O’Neill took the most iconic photographs of me throughout the years, completely capturing my moods. He was brilliant, funny and I absolutely loved his company.”

Barbara Streisand wrote online: “You took such wonderful pictures.”

The man himself once said: “The perfectionist in me always left me thinking I could have taken a better shot. But now when I look at photos of all the icons I’ve shot – like Mandela, Sir Winston Churchill and Sinatra – the memories come flooding back and I think: ‘Yeah, I did all right'.”