Tatum O'Neal

 Tatum O'Neal was 10 years old when she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Paper Moon" (1973), making her the youngest person ever to win an Oscar in a competitive category. She was four years younger than her rival nominee, Linda Blair, in "The Exorcist." At 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 58 seconds, O'Neal's performance in this movie is the longest to ever win an Academy Award in a supporting acting category.

Father Ryan O'Neal: "I wouldn't have done the picture without (Tatum). The whole concept was such an interesting connection for Tatum and me. No father and daughter can connect with the intensity of a movie, and in a way, the story is a parallel of our lives." Ryan also reassured readers in the interview from which this quote was taken that Tatum would not become addicted to cigarettes, despite having smoked them in numerous scenes. The cigarettes used contained no nicotine, as they were made out of lettuce. Reportedly, they made Tatum extremely nauseous.

Director Peter Bogdanovich has said that the long, one-take sequence where Addie and Moze fight in the car about running out of Bibles took two days and 39 takes to get right. It was shot on a one-mile stretch of road just before hitting a very modern portion of the town, so each time a line was flubbed, they would have to turn everything around and drive back.

Orson Welles, a close friend of Bogdanovich, did some uncredited consulting on the cinematography. It was Welles who suggested shooting black and white photography through a red filter, adding higher contrast to the images.

Bogdanovich didn't like the title of the film's source novel "Addie Pray," but wasn't sure whether "Paper Moon" was good enough; so he asked Welles what he thought about it. Welles replied, "That title is so good, you shouldn't even make the picture, just release the title!"

Happy Birthday, Tatum O'Neal!