Jennifer O'Neill
| Jennifer O'Neill | |
|---|---|
Jennifer O'Neill in Lady Ice (1973)
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| Born |
February 20, 1948 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Occupation | Actress, model, writer, speaker, horse trainer. |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Spouse(s) | Married nine times to eight men, last to Mervin Sidney Louque (1996–present) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | www |
Jennifer O'Neill (born February 20, 1948) is an American actress, model, author and speaker, known for her role in the 1971 film Summer of '42 and modelling for CoverGirl cosmetics starting in the 1970s.
O'Neill was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but she and her older brother Michael were raised in New Rochelle, New York, and Wilton, Connecticut. When she was 14, the family moved to New York City. On Easter Sunday, 1962, O'Neill attempted suicide because the move would separate her from her dog Mandy and horse Monty — "her whole world". That same year, she was discovered by the Ford modeling agency. By age 15, while attending the prestigious Dalton School in Manhattan, she was appearing on the covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Seventeen, earning $80,000 a year in 1962.
An accomplished equestrienne, O'Neill won upwards of 200 ribbons at horse show competitions in her teens. With her modelling fees, she had purchased a horse, named Alezon. However, it once balked before a wall at a horse show, throwing her, breaking O'Neill's neck and back in three places. She attended New York City's Professional Children's School and the Dalton School in Manhattan, but dropped out to wed her first husband, IBM executive Dean Rossiter, at age 17.
In 1968 O'Neill landed a small role in For Love of Ivy. In 1970 she played one of the lead female roles in Rio Lobo starring opposite John Wayne.
She is most remembered for her role in the 1971 film Summer of '42, where she played Dorothy Walker, the young wife of an airman who has gone off to fight in World War II. She stated in a published 2002 interview that her agent had to fight to even get a reading for the part, since the role had been cast for an "older woman" to a "coming of age" 15-year-old boy, and the director was only considering actresses over the age of thirty, Barbra Streisand being at the top of the list.
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