O'Neill was born in Liverpool, England, the son of a police officer. From an early age he had always been fascinated by stories of people with great physical strength – the "super-heroes", which quickly led to an interest in martial arts. He first started to train at Judo, but later applied to join the Liverpool Karate Club, and like many of his contemporaries, he had to be less than truthful about his age to gain admission. His first teacher was Andy Sherry, with occasional visits by Murakami Sensei, Veron Bell, Terry Wingrove and later, Kanazawa Sensei. His introduction to Kumite was in the 1967 KUGBNational Championships. O'Neill later won the KUGB National Championships Individual Kumite Kata title in 1972, 73, 74, 75, 77, and 1978. He was three times the KUGB Grand Champion and from 1967 to 1981, he was a member of the Red Triangle Team who were KUGB National Team Champions on no less than 13 occasions. A member of the KUGB International Squad from 1968 till 1982, he was also Captain of the British All-Styles Squad who defeated Japan to win the 1975World Championships held in Los Angeles, USA. O'Neill's competitive fighting career came to an abrupt end in 1982, when he seriously damaged the ligaments of his knee in an International match against Italy. In 1972, he founded the UK Martial Arts magazine "Fighting Arts International", which he ran until 1997. A senior member of the KUGB, he is also an International Referee and a KUGB Grading Examiner. he has been a member of the KUGB since its inception, and he says, "that it is one of the great organizations", and he hopes that it will continue to develop along the same lines as it has grown and developed over the last 30 years. In 2006 the premier US martial arts magazine "Black Belt" published an unordered list of the "deadliest fighters on the planet" – the criteria was no deceased fighters and no mixed-martial artists, and attempted to subjectively rate the men according to how skilled they were in their prime, with Terry O'Neill listed No.1.
Acting career
Another aspect of Terry O'Neill's life is his work as an actor. He has appeared with such well-known names as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Caine and Sean Connery. He has also appeared on British Television in "Civvies", "Comics", and "The Governor", and more recently "The Commander: Windows of the Soul", "Giri" and "Above Suspicion". He has also acted as martial arts consultant on many other films.
