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| Birth Name(s) : Peter O'Toole |
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Full Peter O'Toole Biography
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).
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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 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 |
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