--- title: Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill description: Terry O'Neill, the photographer who died at 81 on Nov. 16, created enduring images of icons from Frank Sinatra to Brigitte Bardot. canonical: https://time.com/5735484/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson/ author: Harry Benson article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-21T12:14:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T07:47:45.315Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill og:description: Terry O'Neill died at 81 on Nov. 16 og:url: https://time.com/5735484/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ec1232c64edb3e/698a0665db29874db526489a/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill twitter:description: Terry O'Neill died at 81 on Nov. 16 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ec1232c64edb3e/698a0665db29874db526489a/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill by [Harry Benson](https://time.com/author/harry-benson/) ## Harry Benson Nov 21, 2019 12:14 PM UTC  O’Neill, who was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) just months before his death, with actor Charlotte Rampling in 1988 O’Neill, who was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) just months before his death, with actor Charlotte Rampling in 1988Michael Ward—Hulton Archive/Getty Images by [Harry Benson](https://time.com/author/harry-benson/) ## Harry Benson Nov 21, 2019 12:14 PM UTC I remember [Terry O’Neill](http://style.time.com/2013/06/03/master-photographer-qa-with-terry-oneill/) as a natty dresser with a cockney accent, which was all the rage in the late 1950s, when Terry replaced me as a [photographer](http://style.time.com/2013/06/03/diamond-dogs-cataloguing-terry-oneills-stunning-pictures/) 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](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2110513%5F2110627%5F2110747,00.html). 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](https://time.com/tag/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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5735484/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5735484/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson/"},"headline":"Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill","datePublished":"2019-11-21T12:14:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T07:47:45.315Z","description":"Lens on the stars","url":"https://time.com/5735484/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson/","keywords":["remembrance"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ec1232c64edb3e/698a0665db29874db526489a/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry Benson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/harry-benson/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ec1232c64edb3e/698a0665db29874db526489a/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson","caption":"O’Neill, who was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) just months before his death, with actor Charlotte Rampling in 1988","creditText":"Michael Ward—Hulton Archive/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5735484/photographer-terry-oneill-obituary-harry-benson/","name":"Harry Benson Remembers the Star Power of Terry O’Neill"}}]}] ```