Actor Ryan O'Neal Arrested for Assaulting Son

Assault on Son Lands Ryan O'Neal Arrest

Ryan O'Neal, 65, was arrested and accused of assault his son Griffin O'Neal with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm. He has since been released on a $50,000 bond. The Oscar-nominated actor is accused of assaulting his adult son at the actor's Malibu home over the weekend by the authorities.

Malibu deputies and paramedics were called to O'Neal's home at 12:30 a.m. Saturday "regarding a battery that had occurred," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. John Benedict said Sunday. Benedict said, "Deputies determined ...Griffin O'Neal, his son, had been assaulted by his father."

The paramedics were call to the home of the actor, but no treatment was administered, as there were no official injuries to the actor or his son.

Actor Griffin O'Neal is one of four of Ryan O'Neal's children. The twice-divorce actor is also father to actress Tatum O'Neal, his co-star in the 1973 movie "Paper Moon," for which she won an Oscar for best supporting actress. Both children are the offspring of his marriage to his first wife, Joanna Moore.

O'Neal is father of actor Patrick O'Neal from his second marriage to Leigh Taylor-Young. He also has a son from a relationship with lived in with Farrah Fawcett named Redmond O'Neal.

The O'Neal family has had its fair share of run-ins with the law before Ryan O'Neal's arrest. In 1986, Griffin O'Neal was given an 18-day jail sentence for not performing 400 hours of community service ordered by the judge who found him guilty of reckless boating in the accident. The accident was serious enough that it resulted in the death of Gian-Carlo Coppola, the son of director Francis Ford Coppola who was killed.

Griffin O'Neal found himself in trouble again with the law in 1989 for drunken driving charges. He pleaded no contest to the drunken driving charge and was sentenced to probation. In 1992, he again pleaded no contest to charges he shot at his estranged girlfriend's unoccupied car. This resulted in his agreeing to spend a year in a live-in drug rehabilitation program. In addition to rehabilitation, he served a five years probation sentence.