Peter O'Toole

[CarMELita]

Beware, I'm even getting historical now ...

Peter O'Toole

Birth name: Peter Seamus O’Toole

Born: August 2, 1932

Birthplace unclear; two birth certificates exist, one for Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, and one for Leeds, West Yorkshire, England; O'Toole himself is uncertain. Most sources list Connemara.

Years active: 1956 - present

Unofficial website: http://www.realitymouse.com/otoole/main.html

Peter Seamus O'Toole (born August 2, 1932, uncertain but presumed correct date) is an eight-time Academy Award-nominated Irish actor. He has received three Golden Globes and an Emmy Award. He was also awarded an honorary Oscar for his body of work (2003).

Biography

Early life

O'Toole was born in 1932, with some sources giving his birthplace as Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, and others as Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England, where he also grew up. O'Toole himself is not certain of his birthplace or date, noting in his autobiography that while he accepts August 2 as his birthdate, he has conflicting birth certificates in both countries, with the Irish one giving a June, 1932 birthdate. O'Toole is the son of Constance Jane (née Ferguson), a Scottish-born nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish bookmaker. When O'Toole was one year old, the O’Tooles began a five-year tour of major racetrack towns in northern England. Peter O'Toole went to a Catholic School for seven or eight years, where he was "implored" to become right handed. “I used to be scared stiff of the nuns: their whole denial of womanhood—the black dresses and the shaving of the hair—was so horrible, so terrifying,” he later commented. “Of course, that's all been stopped. They're sipping gin and tonic in the Dublin pubs now, and a couple of them flashed their pretty ankles at me just the other day.” O'Toole later took pride in his Irish ancestry, even to the point of apparently always wearing at least one item of green clothing - usually his socks.

O'Toole was called up for National Service in Britain and served as a radioman in the Royal Navy. As reported in a radio interview in 2006 on NPR, he was asked by an officer whether he had something he'd always wanted to do. His reply was that he'd always wanted to try being either a poet or an actor. O'Toole attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) (1952–1954) on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's Drama School in Dublin by the then director Ernest Blythe, because he couldn't speak Irish. At RADA, he was in the same class as Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Alan Bates and Brian Bedford. O'Toole described this as "the most remarkable class the academy ever had, though we weren't reckoned for much at the time. We were all considered dotty".

Career

He began getting work in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company, before making his television debut in 1954 and a very minor film debut in 1959. O'Toole's major break came when he was chosen to play T.E. Lawrence in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after Albert Finney turned down the role. His performance was ranked number one in Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. The role introduced him to U.S. audiences and earned him the first of his eight nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor. For further information, see Academy Award nominations below.

O'Toole is also one of a handful of actors to be Oscar-nominated for playing the same role in two different films; he played King Henry II in both 1964's Becket and 1968's The Lion in Winter. O'Toole played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theatre in 1963. He has also appeared in Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, fulfilling a lifetime ambition when taking to the stage of the Irish capital's Abbey Theatre in 1970 to play in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, alongside the stage actor Donal McCann. His 1980 performance as Macbeth is often considered one of the greatest disasters in theatre history, but he has redeemed his theatrical reputation with his performances as John Tanner in Man and Superman and Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, and won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell (1989).

In 2005, he appeared on television as the older version of legendary 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in the BBC drama serial Casanova. O'Toole's role was mainly to frame the drama, telling the story of his life to serving maid Edith (Rose Byrne). The younger Casanova seen for most of the action was played by David Tennant, who had to wear contact lenses to match his brown eyes to O'Toole's blue. O'Toole won an Emmy Award for his role in the 1999 mini-series Joan of Arc.

In 2004, O'Toole played King Priam in the summer blockbuster Troy. He was once again nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Maurice in the 2006 film Venus, directed by Roger Michell, his eighth such nomination. Most recently, O'Toole co-stars in the Pixar animated film, Ratatouille, an animated film about a rat with dreams of becoming the greatest chef in Paris. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid praised O'Toole's performance in Ratatouille, "Peter O'Toole's performance as the critic Anton Ego is worthy of another Oscar nomination."

Personal life

In a BBC Radio interview in January 2007, O'Toole said that he had studied women for a very long time, had given it his best try, but knew "nothing". In 1960, he married Welsh actress, Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters, Kate O'Toole (an award-winning actress and resident of Clifden, Ireland) and Patricia; the couple divorced in 1979. Ms Phillips later revealed in two autobiographies that O'Toole had subjected her to mental cruelty - largely fuelled by drink - and was subject to bouts of extreme jealousy when she finally left him for a younger lover.

He and his ex-girlfriend, Karen Brown, have a son, Lorcan O'Toole, born when Peter was in his fifties. Lorcan was a pupil at Harrow School, boarding at West Acre from 1996.

Severe illness almost ended his life in the late 1970s. Due to his heavy drinking, he underwent surgery in 1976 to have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed, which resulted in insulin dependent diabetes. O'Toole eventually recovered and returned to work, although he found it harder to get parts in films, resulting in more work for television and occasional stage roles. However, he gave a star turn in 1987's much-garlanded The Last Emperor.

He has resided in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland since 1963 and at the height of his career maintained homes in Dublin, London and Paris (at the Ritz), but now only keeps his home in London.

He is perhaps the only one of his "London" acting contemporaries not to be knighted. While a glaring omission at first glance, it is one that, according to London's Daily Mail in 2006, is one of his own making. According to the paper's Richard Kay, he was offered an honorary knighthood in 1987, but turned it down for personal and political reasons.

In an NPR interview in December 2006, O'Toole revealed that he knows all 154 Shakespeare sonnets. A self-described romantic, O'Toole regards the sonnets as among the finest collection of English poems. He reads them daily. In the movie Venus, he recites Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day". O'Toole has written two books. Loitering With Intent: The Child chronicles his childhood in the years leading up to World War II and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1992. His second, Loitering With Intent: The Apprentice, is about his years spent training with a cadre of friends at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The books have been praised by critics such as Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote: "A cascade of language, a rumbling tumbling riot of words, a pub soliloquy to an invisible but imaginable audience, and the more captivating for it. O'Toole as raconteur is grand company." O'Toole is taking the rest of 2007 to finish his third installment. This book will have (as he described it) "the meat," meaning highlights from his stage and filmmaking career.

O'Toole is a noted fan of rugby and used to attend Five Nations matches with friends and fellow rugby fans Richard Harris and Richard Burton. He is also a lifelong player, coach and enthusiast of cricket. O'Toole is licensed to teach and coach cricket to children as young as ten. O'Toole is a fan of the football club Sunderland AFC. During an interview with DJ Chris Evans on his show TFI Friday, he was asked about his soccer allegiances and snarled 'Sunderland!' as if blighted by the experience.

O'Toole has been interviewed three times by Charlie Rose on The Charlie Rose Show. On the last interview January 17, 2007, O'Toole said that the actor who had influenced him the most was Eric Porter. He also said that the difference between actors of yesterday and today are that actors of his generation were trained for "theatre, theatre, theatre." He also believes that the challenge for the actor is "to use his imagination to link to his emotion" and that "good parts make good actors." However, in other venues (including the DVD commentary for Becket), O'Toole has also credited Donald Wolfit as being his most important mentor. In an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on January 11, 2007, O'Toole said that the actor he most enjoyed working with was his close friend, actress Katharine Hepburn. They made the movie The Lion in Winter. He played King Henry II to her Eleanor of Aquitaine.

In popular culture

The Italian comic book character Alan Ford is graphically inspired by O'Toole. O'Toole is sometimes confused with the Irish musician of the same name who played mandolin on a few tracks on The Indigo Girls' self-titled album. The other O'Toole is a member of the band Hothouse Flowers

O'Toole has been frequently mocked on the NBC show Saturday Night Live by Bill Hader.

Academy Award nominations

O'Toole has been nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the most-nominated actor never to win the award. His nominations were for:

* 1962 - Lawrence of Arabia

* 1964 - Becket

* 1968 - The Lion in Winter

* 1969 - Goodbye, Mr. Chips

* 1972 - The Ruling Class

* 1980 - The Stunt Man

* 1982 - My Favorite Year

* 2006 - Venus

In 2003, the Academy honoured him with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work and his lifelong contribution to film. O'Toole initially balked about accepting, and wrote the Academy a letter saying he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright." The Academy informed him that they would bestow the award whether he wanted it or not. Further, as he related on The Charlie Rose Show in January 2007, his children admonished him, saying that it was the highest honor one could receive in the filmmaking industry. And so, O'Toole agreed to appear at the ceremony and receive his Honorary Oscar. It was presented to him by Meryl Streep, who has the most Oscar nominations of any actor.

Actor:

1. The Phoenix (2008) (pre-production)

2. Out of the Night (2008/I) (pre-production) (rumored) .... Don Giorgio

3. Love and Virtue (2008) (pre-production) .... Atlantes

4. Dean Spanley (2008) (filming)

... aka My Talks with Dean Spanley (UK)

5. "Iron Road" (2008) (mini) TV mini-series (completed) .... Relic

6. Thomas Kinkade's Home for Christmas (2007) (completed) .... Glen Wessler

7. "The Tudors" .... Pope Paul III (1 episode, 2008)

- Episode #2.1 (2008) TV episode .... Pope Paul III

8. Stardust (2007) .... King

9. Ratatouille (2007) (voice) .... Anton Ego

10. One Night with the King (2006) .... Samuel, the Prophet

11. Venus (2006/I) .... Maurice

12. Lassie (2005) .... The Duke

13. Casanova (2005) (TV) .... Older Casanova

14. Troy (2004) .... Priam

15. Imperium: Augustus (2003) (TV) .... Augustus Caesar

... aka Augustus (Australia: DVD box title) (USA: video title)

... aka Augustus - El primer emperador (Spain: DVD title)

... aka Augustus: The First Emperor (UK: DVD title)

... aka Imperium: Augusto (Italy)

... aka Mein Vater, der Kaiser (Germany)

... aka Mi padre, el emperador (Spain)

16. Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) (TV) .... President Paul von Hindenburg

... aka Hitler: La naissance du mal (Canada: French title)

17. Bright Young Things (2003) .... Colonel Blount

18. The Final Curtain (2002) .... J.J. Curtis

19. Global Heresy (2002) .... Lord Charles Foxley

... aka Au coeur du rock (Canada: French title)

... aka Rock My World (USA: video box title)

20. "The Education of Max Bickford" .... Sidney McKnight (1 episode, 2002)

- One More Time (2002) TV episode .... Sidney McKnight

21. Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1999) (TV) .... Jeffrey Bernard

22. Joan of Arc (1999) (TV) .... Bishop Cauchon

... aka Jeanne d'Arc (Canada: French title)

23. Molokai: The Story of Father Damien (1999) .... William Williamson

... aka Damiaan (Belgium: Flemish title)

... aka Father Damien

... aka Molokai: The Forbidden Island (UK: DVD title)

24. The Manor (1999) .... Mr. Ravenscroft

25. Coming Home (1998) (TV) .... Colonel Carey-Lewis

... aka Heimkehr (Germany)

... aka Rosamunde Pilcher - Heimkehr (Germany)

... aka Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home (Australia: DVD title)

26. Phantoms (1998) .... Dr. Timothy Flyte

... aka Dean Koontz's Phantoms (USA: complete title)

27. FairyTale: A True Story (1997) .... Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

28. Gulliver's Travels (1996) (TV) .... Emperor of Lilliput

29. Heavy Weather (1995) (TV) .... Clarence, Earl of Emsworth

... aka P.G. Wodehouse's Heavy Weather (UK: complete title)

30. "Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III" (1994) (mini) TV mini-series .... Sam Trump

... aka John Jakes' Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III

... aka North and South III

31. The Seventh Coin (1993) .... Emil Saber

... aka Worlds Apart

32. Isabelle Eberhardt (1992) .... Maj. Lyautey

33. Rebecca's Daughters (1992) .... Lord Sarn

... aka Rebecca's Töchter (Germany)

34. Civvies (1992) (TV) .... Barry Newman

35. King Ralph (1991) .... Sir Cedric Charles Willingham

36. The Nutcracker Prince (1990) (voice) .... Pantaloon

37. Crossing to Freedom (1990) (TV) .... John Sidney Howard

... aka The Pied Piper (UK)

... aka The Red Piper

38. Wings of Fame (1990) .... Cesar Valentin

39. The Rainbow Thief (1990) .... Prince Meleagre

40. In una notte di chiaro di luna (1989) .... Prof. Yan McShoul

... aka As Long as It's Love

... aka Clair (France)

... aka Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, as Long as It's Love

... aka On a Moonlit Night

41. High Spirits (1988) .... Peter Plunkett

42. The Dark Angel (1987) (TV) .... Uncle Silas

... aka Uncle Silas (USA)

43. The Last Emperor (1987) .... Reginald F. 'R. J.' Johnston

... aka Dernier empereur, Le (France)

... aka Modai huangi (China: Cantonese title)

... aka Ultimo imperatore, L' (Italy)

44. Club Paradise (1986) .... Governor Anthony Cloyden Hayes

45. "The Ray Bradbury Theater" .... John Hampton (1 episode, 1986)

... aka Monde fantastique de Ray Bradbury, Le (Canada: French title)

... aka Mystery Theatre (UK: rerun title)

... aka Ray Bradbury présente (France)

... aka The Bradbury Trilogy (UK: rerun title)

... aka The Ray Bradbury Theatre (UK)

- Banshee (1986) TV episode .... John Hampton

46. Creator (1985) .... Harry

... aka The Big Picture (USA)

47. Supergirl (1984) .... Zaltar

... aka Supergirl: The Movie

48. Kim (1984) (TV) .... Lama

49. Svengali (1983) (TV) .... Anton Bosnyak

50. Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet (1983) (voice) .... Sherlock Holmes

51. Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear (1983) (voice) .... Sherlock Holmes

52. Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse (1983) (TV) (voice) .... Sherlock Holmes

53. Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of Four (1983) (voice) .... Sherlock Holmes

54. Pygmalion (1983) (TV) .... Professor Henry Higgins

55. Man and Superman (1982) (TV) .... Jack Tanner

56. My Favorite Year (1982) .... Alan Swann

... aka My Favourite Year (UK)

57. "Masada" (1981) (mini) TV mini-series .... General Cornelius Flavius Silva

... aka The Antagonists (UK)

58. The Stunt Man (1980) .... Eli Cross

59. "Strumpet City" (1980) TV series .... Jim Larkin (unknown episodes)

60. Caligola (1979) .... Emperor Tiberius Caesar

... aka Caligula (USA)

... aka Caligula, My Son (UK)

... aka Io, Caligola (Italy: recut version)

61. Zulu Dawn (1979) .... Lord Chelmsford

62. Power Play (1978) .... Colonel Zeller

... aka Jeu de la puissance, Le (Canada: French title: dubbed version)

... aka Operation Overthrow

... aka State of Shock

63. Foxtrot (1976) .... Liviu

... aka The Far Side of Paradise (UK)

... aka The Other Side of Paradise (USA: reissue title)

64. Rogue Male (1976) (TV) .... Capt. Robert Thorndyke

65. Man Friday (1975) .... Robinson Crusoe

66. Rosebud (1975) .... Larry Martin

67. Man of La Mancha (1972) .... Don Quixote de La Mancha / Miguel de Cervantes / Alonso Quijana

... aka Uomo della Mancha, L' (Italy)

68. The Ruling Class (1972) .... Jack Gurney, 14th Earl of Gurney

69. Under Milk Wood (1972) .... Captain Tom Cat

70. Murphy's War (1971) .... Murphy

71. Country Dance (1970) .... Sir Charles Ferguson

... aka Brotherly Love (USA)

... aka The Same Skin (UK)

72. Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) .... Arthur Chipping

73. Great Catherine (1968) .... Capt. Charles Edstaston

74. The Lion in Winter (1968) .... Henry II

75. Present Laughter (1968) (TV)

76. Casino Royale (1967) (uncredited) .... Piper

... aka Charles K. Feldman's Casino Royale

77. The Night of the Generals (1967) .... General Tanz

... aka Nuit des généraux, La (France)

... aka Tank Force (Philippines: English title)

78. The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) .... The Three Angels

... aka Bibbia, La (Italy)

... aka The Bible (USA: short title)

79. How to Steal a Million (1966) .... Simon Dermott

... aka How to Steal a Million Dollars and Live Happily Ever After

... aka William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (USA: complete title)

80. The Sandpiper (1965) (voice) (uncredited)

81. What's New, Pussycat (1965) .... Michael James

... aka Quoi de neuf, Pussycat? (France)

82. Lord Jim (1965) .... Lord Jim

83. Becket (1964) .... King Henry II

84. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) .... T.E. Lawrence

85. "Rendezvous" .... John / ... (3 episodes, 1959-1961)

- Once a Horseplayer (1961) TV episode .... Patrick O'Toole

- End of a Good Man (1961) TV episode .... Larry Dunne

- London-New York (1959) TV episode .... John

86. The Savage Innocents (1960) .... First Trooper

... aka Dents du diable, Les (France)

... aka Ombre bianche (Italy)

87. The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960) .... Captain Fitch

88. Kidnapped (1960) .... Robin MacGregor

... aka Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped (UK: complete title)

89. "The Scarlet Pimpernel" .... First Soldier (1 episode, 1956)

- A Tale of Two Pigtails (1956) TV episode .... First Soldier

Producer:

1. Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1999) (TV) (producer)

2. Lord Jim (1965) (associate producer) (uncredited)

Director:

1. Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

1. Man of La Mancha (1972) (performer: "Man of La Mancha" (I, Don Quixote), "Dulcinea", "Golden Helmet of Mambrino", "The Impossible Dream", "The Impossible Dream" (reprise), "Man of La Mancha" (reprise), "Man of La Mancha" (second reprise)) ("The Impossible Dream" (second reprise))

... aka Uomo della Mancha, L' (Italy)

Other works

(September 1996) Appeared on "TFI Friday" (1996) and performed various oddities, including the hilarious "Peter O'Toole reads lines that are quite clearly beneath him". He read lines from the Spice Girl's single "Wannabe" and when he finished, stating in a deadpan voice, that what he really really wanted was a "zig-a-zig ahhh" a staggered Ronald Fraser exclaimed "Do you really?!"

In October of 1963, he starred in the National Theatre of Great Britain's production of "Hamlet", under the direction of Laurence Olivier, who had both starred in and directed the 1948 film version of the play. It was the National Theatre's inaugural production, and, unfortunately, it was never filmed, recorded, or televised.

Appeared on Broadway as Professor Henry Higgins in the 1987 production of Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.

Trivia

Birth Name: Peter Seamus O'Toole

Height: 6' 2" (1.88 m)

Spouse: Siân Phillips (December 1959 - 1979) (divorced) - 2 children

He attended a Catholic school where the nuns beat him to correct his left-handedness.

O'Toole & Karen Brown's son's name is Lorcan.

From 1952 to 1954 he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as a scholarship student.

The title character in the comic strip "Alan Ford", widely popular in Italy, is styled after the physical features of Peter O'Toole

Coaching cricket professionally in London. [1997]

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#47). [1995]

His daughter Kate O'Toole is a well-respected actress in her own right.

Is a supporter of Sunderland football club of the English Premiership.

Father was Irish, mother was Scottish.

He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 (1999 season) for Outstanding Achievement Award for his theatrical career.

Was friends with fellow Irish actor Richard Harris. After Harris died, his family hoped that O'Toole would replace him as Professor Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

He is only one of four actors to be nominated for an Oscar twice for playing the same role in two separate films. He was nominated as Best Actor for Henry II in Becket (1964) and for Henry II in The Lion in Winter (1968). The others are Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986), Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), and Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974). Furthermore, O'Toole is the only one of these four who was nominated for playing the same character (at two different stages in his life) in two totally different films, neither of which was a sequel or prequel to the other.

Became an Associate Member of RADA.

Both he and his fellow Irish actor (and close friend), the late Richard Harris appeared in versions of 'Gulliver's Travels': Harris played the 1977 film version Gulliver's Travels (1977) and O'Toole played the Emperor of Lilliput in the 1996 TV-film version Gulliver's Travels (1996) (TV), where Ted Danson played Gulliver.

Has the played two kings (King Henry II in Becket (1964) and Sir/King Cedric Willingham in King Ralph (1991)), two emperors (Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Caligola (1979) and the Emperor of Lilliput in Gulliver's Travels (1996) (TV), a prince (Prince Meleagre in The Rainbow Thief (1990)), a president (President Paul von Hindenburg in Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) (TV)) and several lords.

In 1976 he underwent surgery to remove parts of his stomach and intestine due to his heavy drinking. In the following year he almost died from a blood disorder. These two serious illnesses greatly affected his ability to work at that time.

When he was named the recipient of a Special Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2003, he originally intended to turn it down feeling that the lifetime award signaled the end of his career. He wrote the Academy a letter stating that he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright." It was only after the Academy informed him that they were bestowing the award on him whether he came to collect it or not that he relented.

His performance as "T.E. Lawrence" in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is the #1 ranked performance of all time in Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

The 1976 film adaptation of the book "The Man Who Fell To Earth", directed by Nicolas Roeg, was originally meant to be a vehicle for O'Toole.

His performance as "Alan Swann" in My Favorite Year (1982) is ranked #56 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Nominated 8 times for best actor but has never won an Academy Award. He has more nominations without winning than any other actor.

Cites Rose Byrne and Jodie Whittaker as the best young actresses he has ever worked with.

Was a close friend of late actress Katharine Hepburn. His daughter, Kate O'Toole is named after her.

Was originally approached by director 'Billy Wilder' to play Sherlock Holmes in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), opposite 'Peter Sellers' as Dr. Watson. Wilder later decided to go with lesser known stars instead.

While at RADA in the early 1950s he was active in protesting British involvement in the Korean War. Later in the 1960s he was an active opponent of the Vietnam War.

Father of actor Lorcan O'Toole.

A close friend of April Ashley.

Personal Quotes

"I can't stand light. I hate weather. My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another."

Noel Coward (to O'Toole): "If you'd been any prettier, it would have been Florence of Arabia".

"For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding."

"Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!" (on receiving a lifetime achievment at the 75th Academy awards March 23, 2003.)

"The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise."

"The nicest buttocks in the world are in Ireland. Irish women are always carrying water on their heads, and always carrying their husbands home from pubs. Such things are the greatest posture-builders in the world."

"For a young actor it was intimidating. But! You look into the eyes and you see actors know actors. It's like playing jazz. You really have to go there with your trumpet and compete."

"Books have been written about that so-called renaissance at the Royal Court Theatre. Bollocks. I watched this appalling bunch of strange young men creeping around, talking pompously."

"I enjoyed it. The only thing that wasn't enjoyable was in the green room. I said, 'Can I have a drink?' 'We have lemon juice, apple juice, still or sparkling.' I said, 'No, I want a drink. No drink?' I said, 'All right, I'm f**king off. I'll be back.' A man with earphones said, 'No! No!' Eventually this vodka was smuggled in." - On The 75th Annual Academy Awards (2003) (TV)

[on Ursula Andress] I've had luck with my leading ladies. The real shocker was Ursula Andress, with whom I made "What's New Pussycat?". She's a bloody sex symbol and all that, and yet she's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. A real mother hen, looking after everybody.

[on Katharine Hepburn] I worship that bloody woman. I've never enjoyed working with anyone so much in my whole life, not even Richard Burton. There were no problems, not a one.

[on Sophia Loren] Sophia is gorgeous, a marvelously put together machine. But she's a grievous card sharp; in Naples, they're born with a pack of cards. Give her a nudge and she's the funniest woman in the world. A helluva woman!

Bio from wikipedia.org

Filmo & Trivia from imdb.com

pics: LJ, vintage meat & Dr. Macro

[reBelle]

wonderful actor! so great at what he does... just amazing!

[CarMELita]

"How to Steal a Million" (1966) with Audrey Hepburn

[66Lucy]

Peter O'Toole in the press room at the 75th Annual Academy Awards - March 23, 2003 - Los Angeles

[66Lucy]

The Last Emperor - 1987

[sweetspice]

[sweetspice]

photoshoot for Vanity Fair

[CarMELita]

Thanks again, sweet spice!!

[CarMELita]

Scans from a German programme, when the film "Lord Jim" was shown at the cinemas in 1965

source: funpic, retroadv

[Mickiala]

I loved him in Troy!!!

May 10 2004 NYC Premiere Troy

[sweetspice]

Troy

[COP11]

[COP11]

[COP11]

[COP11]

[COP11]

[antoinetteda]

Vote for Peter in the I am the Biggest fan revival (1st male edition) HERE

[COP11]

 

(CNN) -- Actor Peter O'Toole died Saturday, peacefully in a hospital, his agent Steve Kenis said Sunday. O'Toole was 81 years old.

"Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre," Irish President Michael D. Higgins said in a statement.

O'Toole's first major film success came in the title role of T.E. Lawrence in "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1962. It earned him the first of eight Academy Award nominations, but O'Toole never won an Oscar for his film work.

His acting career began on stage in England as a teenager, moving later to television roles in the 1950s and then the big screen.

"His family are very appreciative and completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us, during this unhappy time," Kenis said in an e-mail confirming O'Toole's death. "Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts."

Share your memories of O'Toole

O'Toole had "been ill for some time," Kenis said.

"In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished," Kenis wrote. "We will be happy to speak to you all then but in the meantime if you could give Peter O'Toole the respect he deserves and allow us to grieve privately we'd appreciate it."

[Michael*]

RIP Peter. Always a class act.