O'Neal Compton

Belton O'Neal Compton Jr. (February 5, 1951 – February 18, 2019) was an American actor and director.

O'Neal Compton
O'Neal Compton in his studio in Venice, California in 1996
Born
Belton O'Neal Compton Jr.

(1951-02-05)February 5, 1951
Sumter, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedFebruary 18, 2019(2019-02-18) (aged 68)
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Alma materClemson University
Wofford College
OccupationActor, Writer, Producer, Photographer, Director
Years active1977–2019

Early life

He was born in Sumter, South Carolina, the son of educators,[1] Belton O. Compton Sr. and Dorothy Brunson Compton.

O'Neal Compton was best known as a character actor in films and television (Life, Nixon, Nell, Primary Colors, Deep Impact, Seinfeld, Big Eden.) He was also an award-winning writer, producer, photographer and commercial director.

O'Neal's photography was 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, for a year. Then, after a 4 year hitch in the United States Navy, he enrolled and fell in love with campus life again" at Wofford College, where he studied with abandon, coached football under the watchful eye of Coach Buddy Sasser and Coach Ladson Cubbage. O'Neal's major field of study was Biology, which he read every week, forty years later. but his passion was the theatre. In 1977, O'Neal discovered the great Wofford Theatre Workshop under the direction of the stalwart, Dr. James Gross, and was thus, saved from a normal life.

O'Neal made his living as a film and television actor, screenwriter, photographer, and also as a commercial producer and director. His work had taken him to some of the most exciting places in the Americas and Europe. He had lived in New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Florianópolis, Brazil.

He spent months working and living in some of the world’s great cities: London, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, Zurich and Mondello, Sicily.

O’Neal moved into a new home in western Sumter County. It’s a beautiful Cypress house on nine acres with a saltwater pool and a private pond. He’s written screenplays and worked with his publisher and editor to complete a book about his life and travels.

Death

On February 18, 2019, he died at Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Cause of death and plans have yet to be determined.[2][3]

Filmography

References
  1. "O'Neal Compton Biography (1951-)". www.filmreference.com.
  2. "BELTON O'NEAL COMPTON JR. (Obituary)". www.theitem.com.
  3. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charleston/obituary.aspx?n=belton-oneal-compton&pid=191612935
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