Never seen pics of stars emerge from iconic snapper

Agencies

Honor Blackman

AGENCIES

He is funny‚ open and wickedly indiscreet. He reveals that he stumbled into his profession.

LONDON: I truly believe God must have looked down and said: ‘He’ll be the photographer.’

Terry O’Neill is the man who has met everyone. In a 50-year career he has hung out with Sinatra, Newman, Bardot and Taylor and

shot every famous face, from Winston Churchill to Audrey Hepburn, reported the Daily Mail on Saturday.

‘I’m staggered by the amount of work. It’s only when I stopped ten years ago and looked at my archive that I realised. Every Bond, every major star in the world – it’s incredible really.’

During a long afternoon reminiscing with Event, O’Neill picks his favourite photos – many rarely seen – and tells the stories behind the shoots.

He is funny, open and wickedly indiscreet. He reveals that he stumbled into his profession.

I was working with David Bowie on the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974. We were in LA and Liz Taylor said she'd love to meet him. Lunch was two o'clock, but it was six before Bowie showed up

‘I started as a jazz drummer but was really impressed by a photographer called W. Eugene Smith, a great photojournalist.

'I wanted to be like him, so I took a weekend job at London Airport with BOAC, photographing people saying goodbye, crying, that kind of thing.

‘There was this guy there, Brian Fogharty, who was meeting all the stars like Sophia Loren and Anita Ekberg and going to photograph them on set. He asked me to cover for him so I gave that a try. After Brian died in a plane crash, I got his job on a newspaper.

‘One of my first jobs was photographing The Beatles, who were making Please Please Me at Abbey Road.

'The paper sold out the day the picture ran. They thought they’d struck gold. I’ve never looked back.’