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Peter O Toole
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- Date of Birth: 1932-08-02 (Passed away at age 81)
- Nationality:
United Kingdom
- Place of birth: Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Peter Seamus O'Toole (August 2, 1932 – December 14, 2013) was a British-Irish 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.
Mini Bio
Peter Seamus O'Toole (August 2, 1932 – December 14, 2013) was a British-Irish 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. In 1959 he made his West End debut in The Long and the Short and the Tall, and played the title role in Hamlet in the National Theatre's first production in 1963. Excelling on the London stage, O'Toole was known for his "hellraiser" lifestyle off it.
Making his film debut in 1959, O'Toole achieved international recognition playing T. E. He was nominated for this award another seven times – for playing King Henry II in both Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. In 2002, he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements.
Other performances include What's New Pussycat? (1965), How to Steal a Million (1966), Supergirl (1984), and minor roles in The Last Emperor (1987) and Troy (2004). He also voiced Anton Ego, the restaurant critic in Pixar's Ratatouille (2007).
Backstage
- He was nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Actor, but never won. He had more nominations without winning than any other actor.
- According to his daughter Kate O'Toole, the actor wore green socks every day due to personal superstitions. But in a 1983 interview on David Letterman he explained that his father's superstition required that he not wear any green, which his father had "rather harshly" expressed to him. To disobey his father, he figured that his green socks would go unnoticed, which he took to wearing forever.
- 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.
- After his death his ashes were brought back to Ireland, where they are held in safe keeping by President Michael D Higgins in his official residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, until he can be laid to rest in the west of Ireland.
- He once said his actual date of birth went unrecorded, and that he may have been born in June 1932. However the Leeds City Council register of births, deaths and marriages proved that he was born on 2 August 1932 at St James University Hospital in Leeds.
- 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).
- He went to America with Omar Sharif for the film premiere of Lawrence of Arabia. The night before the opening Peter took Omar to see Lenny Bruce in a show after which they went back stage to see Lenny then all went out for drinks. After a while Lenny said he had to go home for a few minutes so they accompanied him. As Lenny was giving himself a drug injection the police broke in and arrested them all. At the police station Omar asked to make a phone call and rang producer Sam Spiegel who eventually got them released.
- Allegedly declined a knighthood for political reasons in 1987.
- (July 10, 2012) Announced his retirement from acting.
- IIn 1976 he underwent surgery to remove parts of his stomach and intestine, at the time attributed to his heavy drinking, but later disclosed to be stomach cancer. In the following year he almost died from a blood disorder. These two serious illnesses greatly affected his ability to work at that time.
Awards
Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), and Venus (2006) – and holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for acting without a win (tied with Glenn Close).
O'Toole was the recipient of four Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA Award for Best British Actor and one Primetime Emmy Award.
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