Biography

Opel is one of the most famous examples of 15 minutes of fame in history. During The 46th Annual Academy Awards (1974), just as David Niven was about to introduce Elizabeth Taylor, a naked Opel bolted across the stage. He was captured by security but instead of being arrested he was taken before the press.

After the attention from the Oscar stunt faded, the press generally paid him no mind until April of 1979 when he was found shot to death in his art gallery/sex paraphenalia shop in San Francisco. At first thought to have been a random robbery but when the killers were put on trial it was discovered that the men were actually drug dealers to whom he owed a great deal of money and that they had set up the robbery to look like a random crime. Despite the money that he had in his office, the killers only took $5, a camera and a backpack. They were all given life sentences in December of 1982.

Due to David Niven's nonchalant response to Opel's streaking incident many suspected that whole thing was stage, managed by the producers in an effort to boost a dull program. Niven quipped: "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings".

In the years following the streaking incident, he became something of an iconic symbol. He was put on talk shows now and then and several times he was hired by Beverly Hills socialites to streak at their friend's birthday parties.