Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill

I remember Terry O’Neill as a natty dresser with a cockney accent, which was all the rage in the late 1950s, when Terry replaced me as a photographer at the London Daily Sketch and I moved to the London Daily Express.

That was one of his first jobs, and Terry, who died at 81 on Nov. 16, went on to create enduring images of icons from Frank Sinatra to Brigitte Bardot. His own life was glamorous too. Once Terry and his then wife Faye Dunaway brought their new baby Liam over to our apartment in a wicker basket to meet my wife Gigi and me, and our doorman was delighted to see a movie star.

I never saw Terry on a news story, but I would always see him at the opening of a new film or at a press call with an upcoming new actress. The actor Michael Caine once said to me, “Terry really loves show business.” To me, Terry was show business–and he has some great photographs to prove it.