‘Sports Illustrated’ Swimsuit Model Gail O’Neill Has Died

Gail O’Neill, the early ’90s model and cover girl, has died at 61. According to Essence, O’Neill reportedly passed at her home in Atlanta, with no cause of death reported yet. She is survived by her sister, Denise, her husband, Paul Viera, her mother Elaine, and her brother, Randy.

The New York native is the second child of Jamaican immigrants, but that wasn’t her main issue growing up. “By the time I was 11 or 12 years old, I was convinced that my tall, skinny frame was some sort of cosmic joke… with me as the punchline,” she said, not knowing the punchline in reality would be thinking that in the first place. 

She’d go on to use that frame to become the face of numerous brands and magazine covers, including Avon, Espirit, DietCoke, and others. She also got a boost from her appearance in the 1992 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

She got her start in modeling in 1985, discovered by photographer Chuck Barry, not the same as the rock pioneer Chuck Berry. Before her modeling career started, she had already established herself in the marketing world with a sales position at Xerox after obtaining her degree from Wesleyan University.

She landed her first cover only months after being signed by Frances Gill and Click Models, appearing on the British Vogue cover in March 1986. As Essence points out, her ascent in the modeling world was viewed as a slice of the renaissance for Black models at the time. She also appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Italian Vogue, Essence, and the original Vogue.

By 1999, she had moved on to journalism and appeared on CBS’ The Early Show as a correspondent. After CBS, she moved on to CNN and later HGTV. She was most recently the editor-at-large for ArtsAtl, a non-profit in Atlanta, and was the host and co-producer for Collective Knowledge, a talk series on TheA Network. And amongst her new ventures, O’Neill was still getting requests for her modeling skills, with requests coming as recent as this year. Her family is currently plotting a celebration of O’Neill’s life at a date to be determined.