Why This Morning-After Portrait of Faye Dunaway Became an Iconic Hollywood Moment

In just 10 minutes, photographer Terry O’Neill snapped one of the most recognizable celebrity portraits of the 20th century — Faye Dunaway, poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel, on the morning after her 1977 Oscars win.

Dunaway had nabbed Best Actress for the film “Network,” after two earlier nominations left her empty-handed. In O’Neill’s image, taken around 6 a.m., the statuette sits on a table beside the actor, the morning papers scattered around her. Dunaway was running on little sleep; the festivities had given way to a new day in which her life had radically changed. (Dunaway and O’Neill eventually married in 1983, but they divorced a few years later.)

“I wanted to capture that moment — the morning after — the moment the actor wakes up and it dawns on them that, overnight, they’ve not only just become a star, but also a millionaire,” O’Neill is quoted as saying in “Stars,” a posthumous retrospective of his work at the photography museum Fotografiska in New York. “This is that moment of realization.”