Terry O'Neill: 'I never liked photography, I wanted to be a drummer'

terry o'neill
Terry O'Neill photographed all the Sixties icons Credit: Rex

We asked the photographer, 79, what his younger self would make of him today...

I was brought up in an air raid shelter. At the end of our street was Heston Airport where they would fly in all the bigwigs, so the Nazis were always bombing it. Every night during the war I used to go down into the dark and was brought up with the morning light to look at buzz bombs. I loved it. 

I lost a couple of friends whose houses got blown up. You would think it would affect you, but it doesn’t.

My mother always got me through everything in life and gave me the confidence to do things. My father wasn’t around much, so I did everything for myself.  

I took up drumming when I was 10 and by 14 I’d left school and was a modern jazz drummer in the London nightclubs. I started on the trumpet but it was too noisy so I switched to drums. 

I wanted to go to America to drum, so I took a job at Heathrow Airport’s photographic unit, to have a better chance of getting a job with BOAC as a steward (at the time you got three days off in New York between flights). 

From there, though, in 1959 I was offered a job on the Daily Sketch as a photographer. I was 20 years old and didn’t really know what I was doing. The picture editor said: “You’re the youngest ever photographer on Fleet Street. We’ve got you here because we think pop music is going to be big and we need someone around the musicians’ age to photograph them.”

On my first day, he said: “Tomorrow I want you to go down to Abbey Road and photograph a group called the Beatles.” So I did, and the paper sold out. Then the manager for the Rolling Stones phoned up asking if I could do the same thing for them.

I thought people who took pictures were really clever. In fact, I hate cameras. I never loved them. I think it was my love of people that helped me. 

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Terry O'Neill, middle, as a young boy

After a couple of years, we all used to go to a club in Leicester Square every night; the Beatles, the Stones and all the models. I would sit with Ringo and George, making jokes, such as: “Can you imagine Mick still singing like that at 40?” We laughed our heads off. We’d talk about what job we were going to get when it was all over. 

After a few years I went to Hollywood and met movie stars. I photographed Ava Gardner. When I told her I had a chance to photograph her ex-husband, Frank Sinatra, the next week, she wrote me a letter for him. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I worked with him on and off for the next 30 years. 

I was very experienced by the time I took the famous photo of Faye Dunaway the morning after the Oscars in 1977. I’d seen winners the next day in a state of shock and I knew what I wanted to capture. It’s become one of the most famous Hollywood pictures of all time. 

I married the actress Vera Day when I was too young. She was a great wife, but I just travelled too much and it tore us apart. Then, after I swore I’d never marry another actress, I married Faye. Now I’m happily married to Laraine Ashton, the former model agent. 

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Terry O'Neill and Faye Dunaway in 1982 Credit: REX

I don’t really take photos now. There’s nobody near the likes of the people I’ve photographed in my life. Now they’re all comic characters, like Batman and Superman. There are no proper movie stars, nobody on a par with Paul Newman or Robert Mitchum. I did Amy Winehouse because she was really worthy. 

I’ve never been madly in love with photography, but I’ve enjoyed what it’s brought me. I travel the world, talking to people, which is gratifying. I didn’t realise the pictures that I took would bring people so much pleasure.

My mother died when I was 24 and I wish she could have seen what happened. She always believed in me. 

The only thing I would have liked was to have carried on drumming. But I had to choose. I’ve met so many wonderful people: Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Kennedy. My job has been a dream come true. My younger self wouldn’t believe how lucky I’ve been. 

I couldn’t tell you how the hell it all happened though.

My Generation Exhibition, 3 Carnaby Street, is open until 4th April. Free entry.

Terry O’Neill features in the film My Generation, in cinemas now

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