O'Neal Compton

O'Neal Compton

O'Neal Compton in his studio in Venice California in 1996
Born Belton O'Neal Compton
(1951-02-05) February 5, 1951
Sumter, South Carolina, U.S.

O'Neal Compton (born February 5, 1951) is an American film and television actor.

He was born Belton O'Neal Compton, Jr. in Sumter, South Carolina, the son of educators.[1] O'Neal Compton is best known as a character actor in films and television (Life, Nixon, Nell, Primary Colors, Deep Impact, Seinfeld, Diabolique.) He is also an award-winning writer, producer, photographer and director of television commercials.

Compton was badly injured (and partially paralyzed)in a fall while working in Florianopolis, Brazil in May, 2003, and had to stop working as an actor in films for a while. He has spent much of the last 5 years writing screenplays and a book about his life. He also writes a popular political blog, "The Whole American Hog".[2]

O'Neal's art photography has been featured in exhibitions at the Michael Hoppen Gallery (London), Castle Haggenberg (Vienna) and in private galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, New Orleans and South Carolina. His photographs hang in the collections of many celebrities including Morgan Freeman, Johnny Depp, Billy Bob Thornton, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, Elizabeth Taylor, John Travolta, Emma Thompson and Oliver Stone. O'Neal was commissioned by Jerry Seinfeld to create a series of his "slow speed" natural light portraits of the cast and crew in the last year of that show.

O'Neal attended Clemson University, The University of South Carolina, Gupton-Jones College of Mortuary Science, and finally, Wofford College, where he discovered the Wofford Theatre Workshop and was thus, saved from a normal life. For the past 33 years, O'Neal has made his living as a film and television actor, screenwriter, photographer, and also as a commercial producer and director. His work has taken him to some of the most exciting cities in the Americas and Europe. He has lived in Charleston, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aries, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, London, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, Zurich and Mondello (Sicily.) For the past four years, O'Neal has made his home on the Ashley River in Charleston, South Carolina. He isn't quite retired, but he's close.

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ O'Neal Compton Biography (1951-)
  2. ↑ http://www.onealcompton.com
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