The cause of death for actor Ryan O'Neal has been released two weeks after his passing at the age of 82.
The Love Story actor died of congestive heart failure. According to his death certificate, he also suffered from cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that makes it hard for the heart to pump blood.
The actor was laid to rest in Los Angeles next to his longtime love Farrah Fawcett, with whom he had an on-and-off relationship. They initially dated from 1979 to 1997 and were later reunited until Fawcett's death from cancer in 2009.
O'Neal had a child with Fawcett, whom he never married, and three other children from two marriages that both ended in divorce.
In his 1970s heyday, O'Neal was one of the most in-demand leading men in Hollywood.
The handsome actor had an Oscar-nominated star turn in Love Story, appeared alongside his daughter Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon, and butt heads with legendary director Stanley Kubrick during the filming of his three-hour epic Barry Lyndon, in which O'Neal played the roguish title character.
His other notable roles of the decade include the war epic A Bridge Too Far, crime thriller The Driver, and the screwball comedy What's Up Doc?, in which he shared the screen with Barbara Streisand.
Before movies, he became known to TV audiences in the soap opera Peyton Place.
O'Neal was known for his active love life, and he had difficult relationships with his children.
He publicly reconciled with his daughter Tatum after she accused him of physical and emotional abuse.
“He meant the world to me," she told People following her father's death on December 8.
"I loved him very much and know he loved me too,” she added. “I’ll miss him forever. and I feel very lucky that we ended on such good terms.”
O'Neal was diagnosed with cancer twice in his life - first with chronic leukemia in 2001 and prostate cancer a decade later.
"I'm proud of them, I've survived them. I thought I was gone. And suddenly I come back. Not the same man I was, but I'm back," he told People in 2021.
Despite his health issues, O'Neal kept busy in his later years, appearing in the TV show Bones as a recurring character from 2006 until the show's last season in 2017.
