Peter O'Toole

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Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole - 1968.jpg
O'Toole in the TV film Present Laughter (1968)
Born Peter Seamus O'Toole[1]
(1932-08-02)2 August 1932
Disputed: either Connemara, County Galway, Ireland or
Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
London, England
Alma mater Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation Actor, author, scholar
Years active 1954–2012
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Spouse(s) Siân Phillips (1959–1979; divorced)
Children 3

Peter Seamus O'Toole [1] (/oʊˈtuːl/; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British-Irish stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company, before making his film debut in 1959.

He achieved international recognition playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. He received seven further Oscar nominations – for Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982) and Venus (2006) – and holds the record for the most Academy Award acting nominations without a win. He won four Golden Globes, a BAFTA and an Emmy, and was the recipient of a Honorary Academy Award in 2002.[2]

Early life

O'Toole was born in 1932. Some sources give his birthplace as Connemara, County Galway, Ireland while others cite Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.[3][4] O'Toole claimed he was not certain of his birthplace or date, noting in his autobiography that, while he accepted 2 August as his birthdate, he had a birth certificate from each country, with the Irish one giving a June 1932 birth date, although it is impossible that his parents would not have known where and when their only child was born.[1] He grew up in the Hunslet, south Leeds,[5] son of Constance Jane Eliot (née Ferguson), a Scottish[6] nurse, and Patrick Joseph "Spats" O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker.[7][8][9][10] When O'Toole was one year old, his family began a five-year tour of major racecourse towns in Northern England. He was brought up as a Catholic.[11][12]

O'Toole was evacuated from Leeds early in World War II and went to a Catholic school for seven or eight years, St Joseph's Secondary School at Joseph Street, Hunslet, 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 ... 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", he said.[13]

Upon leaving school O'Toole obtained employment as a trainee journalist and photographer on the Yorkshire Evening Post, until he was called up for national service as a signaller 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 had always wanted to do. His reply was that he had always wanted to try being either a poet or an actor. O'Toole attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) from 1952 to 1954 on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin by the director Ernest Blythe, because he couldn't speak the Irish language. At RADA, he was in the same class as Albert Finney, 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."[14]

Career

O'Toole began working 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. He first appeared on film in 1959 in a minor role in The Day They Robbed the Bank of England.[15] O'Toole's major break came when he was chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in Sir David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after Marlon Brando proved unavailable and 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.[16] The role introduced him to US audiences and earned him the first of his eight nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor. T. E. Lawrence, portrayed by O'Toole, was selected in 2003 as the tenth-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute.[17]

Publicity photo for Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

O'Toole was one of several actors to be Oscar-nominated for playing the same role in two different films: he played King Henry II in both Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968). O'Toole played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theatre in 1963. He demonstrated his comedic abilities alongside Peter Sellers in the Woody Allen-scripted comedy What's New Pussycat? (1965). He appeared in Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at Dublin's Gaiety Theatre.[citation needed]

As King Henry II in The Lion in Winter (1968)

O'Toole fulfilled a lifetime ambition in 1970 when he performed on stage in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, alongside Donal McCann, at Dublin's Abbey Theatre. In 1972, he played both Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, the motion picture adaptation of the 1965 hit Broadway musical, opposite Sophia Loren. The film was a critical and commercial failure, criticised for using mostly non-singing actors. His singing was dubbed by tenor Simon Gilbert,[18] but the other actors did their own singing. O'Toole and co-star James Coco, who played both Cervantes's manservant and Sancho Panza, both received Golden Globe nominations for their performances. In 1980, O'Toole starred as Tiberius in the Penthouse-funded biopic, Caligula.

In 1980, he received critical acclaim for playing the director in the behind-the-scenes film The Stunt Man.[19][20] He received mixed reviews 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).[21] O'Toole was nominated for another Oscar for My Favorite Year (1982), a light romantic comedy about the behind-the-scenes at a 1950s TV variety-comedy show, in which O'Toole plays an aging swashbuckling film star reminiscent of Errol Flynn. He also appeared in 1987's The Last Emperor.

He won an Emmy Award for his role as Bishop Pierre Cauchon in the 1999 mini-series Joan of Arc. In 2004, he played King Priam in the summer blockbuster Troy. In 2005, he appeared on television as the older version of legendary 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in the BBC drama serial Casanova. 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 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.[citation needed]

O'Toole co-starred in the Pixar animated film Ratatouille (2007), an animated film about a rat with dreams of becoming the greatest chef in Paris, as Anton Ego, a food critic. He also appeared in the second season of Showtime's successful drama series The Tudors (2008), portraying Pope Paul III, who excommunicates King Henry VIII from the church; an act which leads to a showdown between the two men in seven of the ten episodes. Also in 2008, he starred alongside Jeremy Northam and Sam Neill in the New Zealand/British film Dean Spanley, based on an Alan Sharp adaptation of Irish author Lord Dunsany's short novel, My Talks with Dean Spanley.[22]

On 10 July 2012, O'Toole released a statement announcing his retirement from acting.[23]

Personal life

While studying at RADA in the early 1950s, O'Toole was active in protesting against British involvement in the Korean War. Later, in the 1960s, he was an active opponent of the Vietnam War. He played a role in the creation of the current form of the well-known folksong "Carrickfergus" which he related to Dominic Behan, who put it in print and made a recording in the mid-1960s.[24]

In 1959, he married Welsh actress Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters: actress Kate and Patricia. They were divorced in 1979. Phillips later said in two autobiographies that O'Toole had subjected her to mental cruelty, largely fuelled by drinking, and was subject to bouts of extreme jealousy when she finally left him for a younger lover.[25]

Publicity photo for Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

O'Toole and his girlfriend, model Karen Brown,[26] had a son, Lorcan Patrick O'Toole (born 17 March 1983), when O'Toole was fifty years old. Lorcan, now an actor, was a pupil at Harrow School, boarding at West Acre from 1996.[27]

Severe illness almost ended O'Toole's life in the late 1970s. His stomach cancer was misdiagnosed as resulting from his alcoholic excess.[28] O'Toole underwent surgery in 1976 to have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed, which resulted in insulin-dependent diabetes. In 1978, he nearly died from a blood disorder. He eventually recovered, however, and returned to work. He resided on the Sky Road, just outside Clifden, Connemara, County Galway from 1963, and at the height of his career maintained homes in Dublin, London and Paris (at the Ritz, which was where his character supposedly lived in the film How to Steal a Million). In an interview with National Public Radio in December 2006, O'Toole revealed that he knew all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets. A self-described romantic, O'Toole regarded the sonnets as among the finest collection of English poems, reading them daily. In Venus, he recites Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"). O'Toole wrote two memoirs. 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.

O'Toole played rugby league as a child in Leeds[29] and was also a rugby union fan, attending Five Nations matches with friends and fellow rugby fans Richard Harris, Kenneth Griffith, Peter Finch and Richard Burton. He was also a lifelong player, coach and enthusiast of cricket[30] and a fan of Sunderland A.F.C.[31]

O'Toole was interviewed at least three times by Charlie Rose on his eponymous talk show. In a 17 January 2007 interview, O'Toole stated that British actor Eric Porter had most influenced him, adding that the difference between actors of yesterday and today is 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 credited Donald Wolfit as being his most important mentor. In an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (11 January 2007), O'Toole stated that the actor with whom he most enjoyed working was Katharine Hepburn.[citation needed]

Although he lost faith in organised religion as a teenager, O'Toole expressed positive sentiments regarding the life of Jesus Christ. In an interview for The New York Times,[32] he said "No one can take Jesus away from me... there's no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace." He called himself "a retired Christian" who prefers "an education and reading and facts" to faith.[32] In the last decade of his life, he played "Samuel" in One Night with the King (2006).[citation needed]

Death

O'Toole died on 14 December 2013 at Wellington Hospital, London, aged 81.[33] His funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium in London on 21 December 2013, where he was cremated in a wicker coffin.[34]

O'Toole's remains are planned to be taken to Connemara, Ireland. His daughter Kate said: "We're bringing him home. It's what he would have wanted." They are currently being kept at the residence of the President of Ireland, Áras an Uachtaráin, by the current President Michael D. Higgins who is an old friend of the actor. His family plan to return to Ireland to fulfill his wishes and bring them to the west of Ireland when they can.[35]

On 18 May 2014 a new prize was launched in memory of Peter O'Toole at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School; this includes an annual award given to two young actors from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, including a professional contract at Bristol Old Vic Theatre.[citation needed]

Academy Award nominations

O'Toole was 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.[citation needed]

Year Film Winner Also Nominated
1962 Lawrence of Arabia Gregory Peck – To Kill a Mockingbird Burt Lancaster – Birdman of Alcatraz
Jack Lemmon – Days of Wine and Roses
Marcello Mastroianni – Divorce Italian Style
1964 Becket Rex Harrison – My Fair Lady Richard Burton – Becket
Anthony Quinn – Zorba the Greek
Peter Sellers – Dr. Strangelove
1968 The Lion in Winter Cliff Robertson – Charly Alan Arkin – The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Alan Bates – The Fixer
Ron Moody – Oliver!
1969 Goodbye, Mr. Chips John Wayne – True Grit Richard Burton – Anne of the Thousand Days
Dustin Hoffman – Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight – Midnight Cowboy
1972 The Ruling Class Marlon Brando – The Godfather (declined) Michael Caine – Sleuth
Laurence Olivier – Sleuth
Paul Winfield – Sounder
1980 The Stunt Man Robert De Niro – Raging Bull Robert Duvall – The Great Santini
John Hurt – The Elephant Man
Jack Lemmon – Tribute
1982 My Favorite Year Ben Kingsley – Gandhi Dustin Hoffman – Tootsie
Jack Lemmon – Missing
Paul Newman – The Verdict
2006 Venus Forest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness

In 2002,[2] 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 that 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. He told Charlie Rose in January 2007 his children admonished him, saying that it was the highest honour one could receive in the filmmaking industry. 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 actress (19).

Other awards

Year Award Category Title Result
1963 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role Lawrence of Arabia Nominated
Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor Nominated
BAFTA Awards Best British Actor Won[36]
Laurel Awards Top Male Performance Nominated
Golden Globes Best Male Newcomer Won[37]
1964 David di Donatello Awards Best Foreign Actor Lawrence of Arabia Won[38]
1965 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role Becket Nominated
Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama Won[39]
BAFTA Award Best British Actor Nominated
Sant Jordi Awards Best Performance in Foreign Film Won[40]
Laurel Awards Best Male Performance Nominated
Top Male Star Nominated
1967 David di Donatello Awards Best Foreign Actor The Night of the Generals Won[41]
1968 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor The Lion in Winter Nominated
1969 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role The Lion in Winter Nominated
Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor Won[42]
1970 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role Goodbye, Mr. Chips Nominated
Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy Won[43]
David di Donatello Awards Best Foreign Actor Won[44]
National Board of Review Best Actor Won[45]
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor Nominated
Laurel Awards Top Male Star Nominated
1972 National Board of Review Best Actor The Ruling Class
Man of La Mancha		 Won[46]
1973 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role The Ruling Class Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor Nominated
Golden Globes Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy Man of La Mancha Nominated
1980 New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actor The Stunt Man Nominated
1981 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role The Stunt Man Nominated
Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor – Drama Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor Won[47]
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actor Masada Nominated
1982 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor Masada Nominated
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor My Favorite Year Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actor Nominated
1983 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role My Favorite Year Nominated
Golden Globe Best Actor in Motion Picture Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor Nominated
1984 Sant Jordi Awards Best Foreign Film Won[48]
1985 Razzie Awards Worst Actor Supergirl Nominated
1987 CableACE Award Best Actor The Ray Bradbury Theatre
(For episode "Banshee")		 Won[49]
Razzie Awards Worst Supporting Actor Club Paradise Nominated
1988 David di Donatello Awards Best Supporting Actor The Last Emperor Won[50]
1989 BAFTA Award Best Actor in Supporting Role The Last Emperor Nominated
1999 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Joan of Arc Won[51]
2000 Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor Nominated
2002 Academy Award Honorary Award Won
Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Supporting Actor Hitler: The Rise of Evil Nominated
DVD Exclusive Awards Best Actor Global Heresy Nominated
2004 Irish Film and Television Awards Best Supporting Actor Troy Won[52]
2005 International Antalya Film Festival Lifetime achievement award Won[53]
2006 British Independent Film Awards Best Actor Venus Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Best Actor Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Nominated
Satellite Awards Best Actor Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards Lifetime Achievement Award Won[54]
2007 Academy Award Best Actor in Lead Role Venus Nominated
Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor Nominated
BAFTA Award Best Actor Nominated
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actor Nominated
Online Film Critics Society Awards Best Actor Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards Best Actor Nominated
2009 Irish Film and Television Awards Best Supporting Actor The Tudors Nominated
Best Supporting Actor in Television Dean Spanley Won[55]
London Critics Circle Film Awards Best British Supporting Actor Nominated
New Zealand Film and TV Awards Best Supporting Actor Won[56]
Monte-Carlo TV Festival Outstanding Actor The Tudors Nominated

Filmography

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Main article: Peter O'Toole filmography

Stage appearances

1955–58 Bristol Old Vic

1959 Royal Court Theatre

1960 Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford

1963 National Theatre

1963–65

  • Baal (Phoenix Theatre, 1963)
  • Ride a Cock Horse (Piccadilly Theatre, 1965)

1966 Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

1969 Abbey Theatre, Dublin

1973–74 Bristol Old Vic

1978 Toronto, Washington and Chicago

1980–99

Books authored

  • Loitering with Intent: The Child (1992)
  • Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice (1997)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ O'Toole, Peter. Loitering with Intent: Child (Large print edition), Macmillan London Ltd., London, 1992. ISBN 1-85695-051-4; pg. 10, "My mother, Constance Jane, had led a troubled and a harsh life. Orphaned early, she had been reared in Scotland and shunted between relatives;..."
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Soundtracks for Man of La Mancha 1972), imdb.com; accessed 4 November 2015.
  19. ↑ http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-stunt-man-1980
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Booth, Robert (2013) "Peter O'Toole, star of Lawrence of Arabia, dies aged 81", theguardian.com, 15 December 2013; retrieved 15 December 2013.
  34. ↑ Peter O'Toole's ex-wife makes an appearance at his funeral The Daily and Sunday Express, 22 December 2013; retrieved 22 December 2013.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  54. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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